Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Next on Light on the Hill, we'll discover nothing matters except one thing.

Today on Light on the Hill, we turn our attention to a conversation between one of the teachers of the law and Jesus. He asks the Lord of all the commandments, which is the most important? It seems like a good question on the surface. You're about to hear Jesus's answer and here's a hint: it has to do with love for God and your neighbor. Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: Okay, we're going to start in verse 28 of Mark chapter 12. I want to just do a little bit of review from what we did last week. If you missed the study last week, I would highly recommend that you go back and watch that study or take a listen to it because we covered some very important ground, especially as it relates to how we interact with the government and how things should be looking politically speaking. When a Christian says, "I'm not interested in politics," in essence, what they're saying is I'm not interested in morality. If you say you're not interested in morality, well then you've got bigger problems because the message of the Gospel ties all of it together.

If you are willing to say that you believe in the power and the message of the Gospel, then you must be willing to engage in the political realm. Without doing so, you are basically telling God that you believe in the philosophical aspect of the very thing that you're learning, yet you're not willing to apply it to your worldview and allow that worldview to be changed in every aspect of your life. I think that this is really important because we talk about this a lot. When we see the political environment changing, it is oftentimes the reflection of something in the pulpit actually changing.

The things that you see out there in the world today that appear to be completely crazy is a reflection of how the church continues to train the body of Christ in taking seriously the very things that the Bible continues to teach us. Lots of people say you cannot legislate morality. I would beg to differ. You absolutely can legislate morality. What you can't legislate is the condition of a man's heart. That's a very important aspect to also consider. This is why we look at all of this together and Jesus made it clear.

He said, "Listen, give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give unto God what is God's." In other words, if the man is asking you for taxes, it's his money. It's got his face on the coin. Go ahead and give it to him. But keep in mind, develop the perspective and the understanding that I created that man. Understand that I made everything else. So the idea here is that you must render unto me what is due me and that's everything. You want to give this guy whatever he demands of you? That's fine, but just remember, whatever little piece you give him belongs to him, give it to him, but I own it all. I own everything.

Contextualizing it, being able to understand it is very consequential and what Jesus said when He said what He said was completely brilliant. It was an absolutely smart way to handle the question that was being asked because in essence, at the core, the very deepest portion of this question was targeting the political element—not just the politics within the secular environment that belonged to Caesar, but what would have been the politics within the religious leadership here that was seeking to exploit religion for the purpose of obtaining and developing and maintaining their own power.

All of these things are things that we should be coming to expect to understand and this is why understanding and knowing God's word and God's heart and how to carry it over into every aspect of our lives changes literally everything. When we look at the different things that are happening in the political world right now, it is super easy to blame the political leaders. It is super easy to say look at how sick they are, look at how crazy they are, and I say that all the time. But the real issue here is bigger than everybody thinks. It centers around a thought that Francis Schaeffer actually shared and I agree with him when he says it.

He says that at the door of every single abortion clinic within the United States of America should hang a sign that says "Open with the permission of the church." Why? Because when the church refuses to speak up concerning these areas of morality, then immorality is allowed to run rampant. That's the issue. So the question that we have should not be a matter of whether or not it's incumbent upon the politicians to bring forth what we understand and believe to be moral in society.

The incumbency is upon those who claim to love God, to walk with God, and we have to ask ourselves this question: how much are we willing to show up? How much are we willing to get involved? How much are we willing to do these things and to speak about these things? I always thought it was absolutely hilarious and I used to fight pastors tooth and nail who would do this all the time. It just drove me crazy. I got into an argument probably about a year ago with a pastor who's prominently known, a pretty well-known person, who basically says that he wasn't voting for Trump because Trump did not fight enough against abortion.

Now, I wasn't making an argument for or against Trump in bringing this illustration to you, but my statement to that pastor was, "You're a big fat hypocrite. You'll continue to be a big fat hypocrite because you're saying you're not voting for the president over an issue that you weren't even willing to open your mouth over. You say you're not going to vote for him because he didn't stand up enough against abortion, yet you won't even talk about it from your pulpit." You understand the hypocrisy there? You understand the problem?

The problem is when these things are happening around the world, when things are happening in a country like the United States of America, they're happening because the church has allowed it to happen. We have sat in the pews, we have remained quiet, we have not spoken up, we have not spoken against, and we have not done the job that God has asked us to do. This is very, very important because as Jesus gives deep insight into this issue, as He brings this to the table by saying render unto Caesar's that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's, the one thing that happens here is remarkable. You see there's a man who's watching all of this while all of this is happening.

He perceives the answer to be given by Jesus to be what it actually is: brilliant. In that, he chooses to pursue the Lord with another question. Now, in my mind, based on what I'm reading here, I don't think this man is trying to entrap Jesus here, not the way that we think he might be doing so. Let me explain. Let's look at this verse 28. It says, "And one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceived that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all?"

This is so interesting because what this is not telling us is what we would typically read in passages like this. It's not telling us that the scribe chose to jump in with another question seeking to entrap Jesus. What it's actually telling us is the scribe was paying attention to the interaction that had taken place with his colleagues and Jesus and he was impressed with the answer that Jesus had given. The moment that he was able to perceive that the answer that Jesus had given was one that was remarkable, was one that was insightful, was one that was actually brilliant, he said, "I'm going to jump on an opportunity that I perceive to have in this moment to get an answer to a question that I'm legitimately desiring to know."

That's what's happening here. There is one area here that I think we should just stop to talk about because this is critical for the moment that we're in right now and that's this: we have to learn as believers to recognize where to go to find the right answers. When we have the greatest difficulty, when we are seeking to find answers or solutions to the problem that we face, we know by far that we're supposed to go to the Lord to find those answers. But when we find those answers, it should become the inspiration to continue to bring everything to God that we might be able to develop deeper insight and greater wisdom and understanding concerning the things that we are facing from day to day.

If God is good enough to give you the answer for salvation, that's what you trust him for for eternity, for forever, for literally forever, there is no expiration to eternity. How much more should you trust him for answers that exist in the realm that we would call the temporal? How much more should we be going to him to find insight and discernment and understanding and direction concerning all of the issues that pertain to life? I think oftentimes what we end up doing is we end up completely ignoring those things. We walk away from those things, we don't discern those things because in our mind, the perception that we carry is that we should be compartmentalizing God.

We only put him in one area and when we feel like we've sufficed whatever concerns arise in that area, then we've done what we're supposed to do, we've met our obligations, and we don't take God anywhere else because we don't see the value of taking God anywhere else. I think that's the reason why we mess up so badly in the political arena. I think that's the reason why we mess up so badly in the business world. I've talked about this many, many times. For years as a matter of almost as long as I have been an adult, I have been a business owner.

I've invested in various things. I have owned lots of different assets that I've ran and operated and I've been able to always earn an extra income outside of that which people call my primary. I oftentimes will interact with other business leaders and business owners and I'm always shocked by two things. I'm always shocked by how Christian business owners oftentimes find themselves in the most desperate situations and when they are, I'm even more shocked by the fact that they are in those desperate situations because they compartmentalized their business from the word of God.

They did not go to the word of God to find insight as to how to navigate through their business and as a result, they've destroyed their business. I think this happens in every aspect of life. When you don't take God into that arena, that arena begins to fail because people compartmentalize. God says no, I don't want you to do that. He does that, He says that to us very clearly when He reminds us that He owns everything and you are supposed to render correctly to God all that's His.

So this person sees the wisdom in the answer that Jesus provides. This person is astounded by the answer and now sees an opportunity to go to the Lord and to find out an answer to a question that he appears to have had for quite some time. It has been disconcerting to him for whatever reason and he asks, "Which of the commandments is the greatest commandment?" Now, here's the thing that I want everybody to understand. You have a moment here in going through this to recognize that Jesus is about to give you one of the most remarkable pieces of insight that you will be able to take home into eternity if you will understand what's actually being said.

Because Jesus is about to consolidate it all for you. He is about to take what would appear to be something that is remarkably complex and bring it down to something that is so simple that if you will hold fast to this one thing, everything else is covered. We live in a world filled with complexity. I remembered early on in law school, I think it was in my contracts class, one of my professors talked about how for those that were in law school that were seeking to litigate. I had never had litigation on my mind. I just went to law school because I felt like God told me to do it. It had nothing to do with going out and becoming an attorney anywhere or anything like that, but I went through the whole process.

One of the professors said, "Hey, this is the time right now where you all should be considering what area of the law you want to specialize in." Now, I had a very specific interest in ecclesiastical law. I also had a very specific interest in anything that relates to intellectual property. So those were the areas that I took special interest in. I took other interests in other areas as things began to evolve or devolve, whatever you want to call it. But then he started talking about some of the areas that tend to be the most complicated areas to get involved within law and he went out of his way to make a point that said none of you will ever master any aspect of whatever area of law you choose to specialize in.

And we all looked at that and thought I don't get that. Is that a lazy statement that he's making? So I asked. I said, "Give me an example. Like what does that mean? What are you talking about?" He said, "Okay, I want someone in this room to maybe just expound upon an area of law that you want to become a specialty in." One guy raises his hand like no doubt, "This is what I'm going to do. I want to be a specialist in tax law." And the professor just laughed at him. He said, "Okay, let me explain something to you."

He says if you take all of the tax code and the case law relevant to the tax code statutorily speaking and you were to take all of that case law and put it in 12-point font, single spaced, double-sided, and you were to move all of that into a stack in a home, he says you would fill up a home that was 2,700 square feet. Literally you would fill it completely up with the tax code and the case law relevant to issues related to tax law. Can you imagine? Can anybody ever become a subject matter expert in the whole of tax law? No.

There are specialties within specialties within specialties within specialties. You know what the best attorneys in the world will actually do? The best attorneys in the world will look for principles that carry over within very generalized concepts that will allow them to have the most diversity in litigation that they can possibly proceed with. That's why lots of attorneys tend to be attorneys that deal with what we call tort law, negligence, that kind of thing. They like litigating those cases. Why? Because there are only a few little pieces that relate to the legal theory of negligence that once you can meet those requirements, then your ability to litigate those cases is a lot easier than anything else, especially when it relates to the constitution and everything else.

Let me simplify this for you because sometimes illustrations are designed to make things simple and they actually feel more complicated, especially when you bring up an area that a lot of people are not familiar with like the law. When you take matters of the law and you come with the idea that you can understand the whole of it somehow, someway with as complex as it is, you're delusional. It doesn't work. Even if you were to claim to be a constitutional law expert, there are areas within the constitution that you would have to dedicate your life to specializing in because you're never going to understand the whole of it with respect to how it applies.

Imagine the Bible. Let's carry it over to the Bible. Imagine the complexities that are found within the word of God. Oh sure, it is simple enough for the most simple of people, but it can become uniquely complex on so many levels that it's very easy to step out and to make a tremendous mistake because you grasped onto something that maybe you weren't completely or fully aware of. I see this happening a lot. One of my most entertaining moments when I see people teaching the Bible, especially the new subject matter experts of the universe, those people who are all of a sudden super knowledgeable of the Bible because they are podcasters and they have big audiences so they think they have all the authority in the world, and they'll open up the Bible and they will define a word based on Webster's or Oxford Dictionary.

"Well this word right here when you look it up, Oxford says it means this." Well good, I get it. But the Bible wasn't written that language. The Bible wasn't written in the English language. The Bible was written primarily in three languages. It was written in Hebrew, it was written in Aramaic, and it was written in Greek. You have some really complex problems that are presented by all of those languages that require a tremendous amount of attention before you can even conclude what the meaning might be. Sometimes the complexities that can arise from trying to even understand the basics of these things can become very difficult, especially if you're trying to get your head around the whole of it.

I've given you these demonstrations before. We could talk about the Hebrew language for one example of this, but by the way, this doesn't apply to just the Hebrew language, this applies to any language that we would consider to be a Semitic language. I could take the Arabic language for example. If I were to go to you right now and I were to say, "ruḥ it-tallāga jīb lī ḥāga sa’a," I just told you in the Arabic language if it's a word-for-word translation, if I translate it literally, I just told you to go into the ice. Go into the ice and get me something cold.

Now if I were to translate that in its dynamically equivalent fashion—when we say dynamically equivalent fashion I'm oversimplifying the terminology but it basically means that I'm hearing your tone, the tone of your voice, I'm watching what you say, I'm looking at the context around me, I'm taking into account everything that's happened before and after, I'm analyzing the culture, I'm thinking about all of these different variables before I use that level of analysis to determine what it is you're trying to tell me. If I were to translate that in its dynamically equivalent fashion in the modern day, I wouldn't be telling you go into the ice and get me something cold. I would actually be telling you go to the fridge and get me a Coke.

If I were to go to Egypt today and I were to say, "ruḥ it-tallāga jīb lī ḥāga sa’a," I'm literally asking somebody to go into their refrigerator and get me a soda or something that's refreshingly cold to drink. The problem is this: how do you interpret what the value of a particular representation may be when it is a language that's been dead for thousands of years in a culture that's been misunderstood for equally as long with a lot of questions as to how things are interpreted? Can I tell you how complicated it can actually get?

When I go to a passage in the Old Testament and I'm seeking to understand something in the Hebrew language that requires me to use a dynamically equivalent approach because of the way it's contextualized, it's very difficult. I might not be able to understand what's being said and so in my confusion, what I have to do is I have to find a translation of that text by translators that were much closer to that time period who translated it into a language that actually requires a word-for-word understanding.

So if I'm confused about what something means when I'm reading something in Genesis or Exodus or I'm reading something in Isaiah and I'm not quite sure how to approach its correct translation, I may go to the Septuagint. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and the people that translated the Septuagint were much closer to that time period when they did translate it from Hebrew and so their awareness of what it was that they were translating might be a whole lot more viable, thus giving me a greater understanding of what's being said because the Greek language is a word-for-word language which allows me to be able to understand it deeper with a better sense of understanding as in what's being communicated.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. Pastor James, today you pointed out how it's so easy to draw the wrong conclusions as we read and study the Bible. Looking through modern-day American eyes can be part of the problem. What would you recommend as common Bible study tools that might help people get the most out of their devotional time with the Lord?

James Kaddis: Well, of course, first and foremost, I would say that read a Bible translation that you can understand. I would recommend something like the New King James and most of the battle is accomplished in doing something that simple. Now, if you're looking for outside resources, there's always two that I really, really like and I oftentimes recommend and one of them is Halley's Bible Handbook—even the most recent version of it is very, very good. I also like Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts. That's a great supplement to trying to understand the bigger picture.

And of course, I can't help but to recommend my own book on the book of Revelation because although you only are going through the first 10 chapters and the second book is coming out soon, it really does help you to make biblical connections as you watch the patterns that are being communicated and taught. The book was actually designed to teach you how to study the Bible better, especially within the context of Bible prophecy.

Guest (Male): That's very helpful. Thanks, Pastor James. We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, The Last Book. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you to see current events with a biblical worldview. Look for these at jameskaddis.com. Now, Pastor James will conclude today's study.

James Kaddis: If you want to understand and study the whole of the Bible, that can get very tricky if you're not being given rails that keep you within the areas that you need to stay within in order to get the most out of what it is that you're reading and what it is that you're trying to understand. Jesus does exactly that right here. Jesus gives you rails to go by that keep you constrained in a place of safety to be able to understand something. Guess what? If you will understand this one principle that Jesus is about to expound upon, then everything that you discover in the Bible becomes a lot easier to understand because it contextualizes it very well.

Guest (Male): Come back next time to hear what those rails given by Jesus are. This program is listener supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.