Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. What's up gangsters. Yeah. Yeah. Gangsters. Yeah, get a lot of those out of here. Yeah, well, I've seen them all over. Have you. Not really driving slow in the rain. I've seen a lot. Yes. Yeah. So right now it's raining. At least it was raining and we're getting some thunder and some lightning and some really cool, great weather. Uh, we're recording this on Christmas Eve. Yup. Full disclosure. So we've been enjoying it. I mean, I came in. Uh, the only downside is that people drive differently in the rain, just like in California, people drive differently. They don't, I mean, they drive much lower than normal. And then if you're in the FA, if they're in the fast lane and they're driving way below the speed limit, you have to go around them in the slow lane, which I, you know, I, it may have put me off a little bit is all I'm saying. Uh, but it's beautiful out. I appreciate the rain. So that, that brings up an interesting note. Cause I assume you came down Preston. I did that. I did. Which Preston. Uh, it's it. There's a debate. Is there fast lane on Preston now? I'm not familiar with Preston. It's a three night, three lane road, but there are stoplights. Yeah on Preston. And so, uh, and there are also shopping centers on either side of Preston road, which is one of the arguments against there being. Uh, Fastlane on Preston because you have many opportunities and indeed many people do turn left. On Preston Roby kit from the left lane, because they need to get into one of these shopping centers sure. On the left. And so you're going to have people unlike the freeway, where there are no. Not really any left exits. There's a few, but not many. Uh, you've got the dedicated left lane. Like nobody, if you're in the left lane, you're not getting off the road anytime soon. So you better be driving up to speed and a little bit above it, right? Most of the time. Yes. Yeah. Spirit of the law Preston road. Is different because of that. And that's what I've heard. That, that there's an argument against it because it's a, it's a heavily populated suburban area. There's a lot of left turns off Preston road. So there's really no fast lane on Preston. Well, let's just set the table. Then we were driving here. And basically no one's on the road right now because it's Christmas Eve. So if you're in the left lane, which everybody understandably agrees is the Fastlane and it's, it's a philosophy of driving a universally. Understood. Universal. Yeah. This is kind of, it's just the way things are just like you drive on the right side of the road. It's just the way things are at least here in America. So if someone's driving in the left lane and they're going below the speed limit, if the lane to your right is going faster than you, you need to take that as a cue. Like I probably should move over. Yeah. Because. No one, no one is supposed to pass on the right. You're not supposed to. Right. That's dangerous. Yep. You're supposed to pass on the left. So if someone has to pass on the right, you're creating a dangerous environment. And even though you have left turn lanes, which I totally get, that means you stay in the right lane until, you know, I need to merge to get to the left lane. Yeah, but some people don't do that. Well, they don't plan. You're right. And even, I remember when we went down to that conference. Uh, in Dallas and we Mark's Tesla Darla's down there. Yeah. It almost killed us. You remember? When is it going to get over to get off the freeway? I didn't do it very well. It, it got us there. It. Right. Each struggle. We barely lived. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So Tesla's learning. Yeah. That, that makes sense. It's a machine. Yeah. I expect a human to do better. Yeah. I just think there's plenty of people out there. Okay, let me get over and plenty of times so that I have, I can get off. I can turn left when I need to turn left. I don't need to worry about it. And then it seems to me then out of love for God and for neighbor, you ought to at least drive the speed limit. Even if it's red, wet outside. Yeah. It seems like you have to drive that. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Well, Hey, I think this is going to be our shortest episode. Promises. We can't come up with. I mean 99.9. We don't know because we got two very small letters here. Yeah, but there's so much to say. Second John and third, John. Yeah. So second John is a addressed to the elder, the elders, the elect lady and her children. Some have wondered is this to the, to the church. Is that who the lady is? Or is this to a specific actual lady? I lent 10 towards thinking that this is towards an actual person. I don't think that he's metaphorically calling the church. The elect lady here. Uh, we disagree on that, but go ahead. Do you think this is to the church? A hundred percent. Okay. Alright, fair enough. Um, the second one that I don't think is, I think that would actually is to guidance. Well, because this has got a name there. Yes. I don't think he's gone the church guys anyways. He, uh, talked to you about, uh, hospitality and he's talking to in some way about who you welcome in and don't welcome into your home. And I think one of the key takeaways from second John is. It is okay. And right for us to draw clear. Uh, and stark lines within the church and to place people outside of those lines when appropriate, that's helpful. And I think that's what that's true. Arguing here in this epistle. I think he's saying, Hey, there are time do yeah. For the good health of the body, of, of the church, which. Okay, maybe I'm a little bit more towards your side then, then. I may have been otherwise. But for the good of the health of the body and the church, there are times when you don't let that person into your home. Right. And, and we understand this is as just general human beings. There are. There are certain types of people you're not going to have into your home for dinner. Like you may be willing to help them out on the side of the road. You may be willing to, to, you know, give them a few dollars here or there, but you're not going to pick up a hitchhiker and say, why don't you come into my house with my kids and spend the night tonight? You're not going to do that because of the danger and the threat that's posed there. So that's what his argument here is. Basically. He says, you need to be, be careful who you let in, who you bring in, uh, because otherwise there's a danger that is posed to your, your family. Yeah, I guess one of the things that challenges me is that there's lots of people that we list. I mean, the Mormons, they come to our door, we want to let them in by and large. If we're able to, if we have time, we want them to sit down in our house because at least we can engage with them in a productive way where our neighbors may not be as well equipped. Um, I don't see that in violation of second, John. The second John saying something to the, to the effect of. Uh, look, draw clear lines, right? And today 2024, the clear line is not. If I let someone in my house, I obviously endorse everything that they talk about. All that they believe and share. So I think there's a difference today that that's a harder thing to know. Maybe don't quote, tweet, somebody who you're agreeing on. I don't know who you don't agree with. Yeah. Without context. There's probably a lot of other ways that we need to apply this today. Are there any that come off the top of your head about how we should apply this? Yeah, I think social media is, uh, uh, uh, Uh, good realm there. I think being careful about even just the books that we pick up, the books that we recommend, that's a good point. I will, I will deliberately not put things on my good reads that I'm reading that I don't want anyone to say, oh, he endorses that. Right. Even though at the end of it, I'll give it a two star, put a little something or a one-star and say, Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I don't want people to think that the wrong thing before that, right. Yeah, I would agree with that a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. When I was talking about welcoming people in. Just continuing on the metaphor of the church at the home. You just want to be careful about that. And, and that begins with us as, as individuals guarding our lives. And the perimeters as well. Yeah. We're not going to give the, the pulpit to somebody that we wildly disagree with. Right. Right. And, and sometimes. People get mad at people like John MacArthur, because they're like, well, he just names, names. And I don't, I don't think he needed to do that. And yet MacArthur stance has been looking at, this is a public position that you've taken and you are publicly influencing the church. Then I'm going to call you out publicly. And I'm going to, I'm going to point out your error and the fault that's there because I want to protect my flock. I want to shepherd my flock and guard the gates there. Guard the perimeters. Um, and so I think second John lend support to that idea that there is a time to jock hard, clear stark solid lines. And when you need to put somebody outside those lines, put somebody outside those lines, it's good for the home. It's good for the people to protect them that way. And probably the biggest challenge is knowing where to draw those lines. And I think that's where we've had a lot of fights in it. Well, you and I, but the church as a whole has fought a lot about where those lines should be. And I think that's a good thing. We should fight productively, uh, about the things that are inbounds and things that are out of bounds. And that's largely what the church has done for the last 2000 years. We have fought successfully, I'd say over the things that really mattered and we've clarified those things. And consequently, because of that, we now have things like systematic theologies and we have things that we could say, that's for sure, a heresy and that's for sure within orthodoxy. It gets harder when you get to second and third level issues, because it can kind of get like, oh, this is related to that thing. And this is affecting this other thing. It gets challenging, but the point is we should draw lines. Those lines are good. We do them graciously. We do, we do them with wisdom. And of course, as we said, during one of our prior podcasts, no knowing the word and doing it within the community of the church is one of the best safeguards against false teaching. Yup. Yeah. That's second, John third, John then is written to Gaius who is somebody that, that John knew that John had shown affection for. And as opposed to second John being, Hey, be careful who you let in third, John is, is commending hospitality basically saying, Hey, it's, it's good to be hospitable. It's good to care for one's soul support, people that are worthy of our support. Um, and yet we see a line drawn and somebody put outside in verse nine, I've written something to the church, but Diadra fees who likes to put himself first does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I'm going to bring up what he's doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And so he's AKA talking, smack talking smack. Yeah. Yeah. And so he's, he's throwing shade, warning. Yeah. Verse 11 do not imitate evil, but imitate. Good. Whoever does good is from God. And so this is just a general letter of commending, godliness hospitality. That's written to somebody that John cared about deeply in this man, guys. Yeah, I guess it also has something to say about the way that we receive missionaries. Assuming that they're people that are. Missionary for the right reasons. Right? I think that's part of what John's point is here. And Demetrius is interesting. Cause I don't know if he is either the courier. He's the one who's bringing the letter to Gaius or if he is maybe one of the missionaries that he's commending and saying this guy's on our side. This receive him, take care of him, support him or whatever it is. Demetrius is the one who's received a good Testament. I want to be that guy. I don't want to be like atrophies. I want to be Demetrius. There we go. Yeah. So if you have a child coming, do not name him. Daddy's. That would be a bad decision, but Barnabas. We're still going to skip Barnabas. I mean, you're on board. I've kind of moved on from that. I don't think the Daniel family is going to do that. But maybe Demetrius, if you put that name in front of them yet. Demetrius. We knew Demetrius in California. Yeah, we did. Yeah. Yeah, we did. I remember Dimitri. Demetrius, I guess. There you go second and third, John. Verse 15. Go ahead. The friends greet you. Great. The friends each by name. If that's not a call to memorize the names and faces of the people that you interact with at your church. I don't know what else is. I've got to be good at that. Gonna. I say the name three times when you meet somebody. You can't call them bro, or. How were the girls? What do the women say when they find similar? Sister. Hello. They'll use friend a lot. Hi. My friend. I don't know. I don't know if I've been paying attention enough to notice that I'll have to think about that now and see. I think that's what they do. Is that what you say? It's what I say all the time. That's what I do. Alright. That was good. Alright, let's pray. And then we'll be done. Got thanks for this day for our church. We just pray that we would be clear on the lines that need to be drawn in, not draw unnecessary lines, but that we would be protected as a result of that and help us to be a church that loves one another well, and that is a church that supports those that are worthy of support and commends. Uh, the good work that they're doing. And so we want to be a church of Demetrius is not a church of Dodger fees. And so Gardas from that we pray and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All. Keeping your myopes Bibles, buy Bibles, keep bringing those Bibles. Yep. And tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. I see it back.