Latest / Relish: a Christian podcast / Are Tattoos, Gambling, and Singleness Really Sins? What the Bible Actually Says

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Are Tattoos, Gambling, and Singleness Really Sins? What the Bible Actually Says · Relish: a Christian podcast

• 0:01
  Relish pleasing or zestful flavor a quantity just sufficient to flavor to be
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  pleased or gratified by enjoy we are hoping that what we bring to your table
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  today might add some spice to your life,
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  welcome back to another episode of relish i'm rowan miller this is pastor don
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  patterson how's it going today don,
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  all right good enough to be here Oh, that pregnant pause, you know?
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  Oh, have you had experiences which caused you to reflect on disabilities and
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  the nature and God's nature?
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  Had experiences which caused you to reflect on disabilities and God's nature?
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  Disabilities by? I'm just reading the question. Yeah. I'm trying to think what that would mean.
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  Here, what if God hadn't healed your leg?
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  Yeah.
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  Hmm. I don't know if I... Have you ever told about your leg?
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  Oh, not on here, I don't think. I don't think you have either.
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  I think that might be a good one to open up, because that was miraculous.
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  I would happen to be not your pastor, but Lincoln's pastor.
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  Had at the same time. And the boys were both born with that.
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  Yeah. Cousins. So me, my cousin Lincoln, we're the same age.
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  He's like five months younger than me, six or something.
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  So, but we, we would have went through this at the same time.
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  And so I was born with, we both were born with club foot. So it's like your.
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  And yours was your right. Yeah, my right.
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  Your ankle's like, your foot's like turned in and bent over the wrong way, weight twisted in.
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  And it's like a rolled ankle as if he's a really bad rolled ankle and just stays
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  rolled, doesn't go back.
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  And so, yeah, we both were born with that. And a lot of places all over the world still do.
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  There's two methods you can do. You can try to fix it by surgery,
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  which has proven to be not as effective.
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  And people are if it might work as a child then you'll still have problems with
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  it when you're older and then there's also a casting method where they kind
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  of slowly work it back to where it should be,
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  from like basically like braces for your teeth right on seti method yep on seti.
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  And so Lincoln and I were so fortunate to, like, the University of Iowa is the
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  best place to have that because Dr. Poinsetti himself was at the University of Iowa.
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  And living at that time. Living. Yeah.
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  Me and Lincoln, our first two years was with Poinsetti himself.
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  And so he was casting us.
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  And then it passed on to the next doctor, and we've both been going up for checkups
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  since I think it was when I turned 16. I went back one more time,
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  and they said, I'm all good and don't need to go back.
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  Wow, I didn't realize that they— Yeah, you have to just keep going back because,
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  it can stiffen up, and yeah, it could get bad again. Yeah.
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  I counted miracles. I was Lincoln's pastor at the time. Yeah.
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  His was younger than mine was, but I think.
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  It's amazing. Those two boys are now playing every sport imaginable. Yeah.
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  Basketball, golf, and baseball. And my goodness gracious, if you run, they play it. Yeah.
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  Hasn't bothered since. So, yeah, that is actually a great example.
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  But what which caused you to reflect on disabilities in the nature of god,
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  what experiences that's an experience i i guess i have thought about that a little bit before but,
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  not in too much depth i i think i mean life would have just been totally different
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  it's not like i would have known life did like the way i do now it it just always
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  would have been from a wheelchair so,
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  um yeah definitely would have had a different meaning different um experience through,
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  high school and the rest of my life so i,
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  don't know i i would definitely have had to find meaning and other things and,
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  yeah what find what god's purpose was for me outside of what I have so far.
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  Isn't that amazing? Mm-hmm. Never even thought about it until that question. Right.
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  Not a bad set of questions. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Cool. And I really think it's a miracle. Now, you know, been in the congregation
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  and around you guys long enough to see where you were at from that point and
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  all the concern we had at that point.
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  And then to see you guys play on the field like you do today. My gracious sake.
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  Another thing is my grandma was still a nurse at University of Iowa at that
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  time. So I was getting one more person there. Amen. God had placed there.
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  Amen. Good deal.
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  If we were living anywhere else, then there's a chance we would have had surgery
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  and wouldn't have been able to do anything that I've done.
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  And that's your kicking leg, isn't it? It is. For soccer? Yeah.
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  Didn't play too much soccer, but I played. It challenges your golf. I never hear you.
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  Got to keep things in the right swing. Eye on the ball.
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  All righty. Back to you now. Okay. I worked so hard on it.
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  What does the Bible say about singleness? Is it okay to be single? Oh, yeah.
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  You wanted the short answer. You want the longer one. Maybe something in between.
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  Maybe something in between.
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  Well, I think Paul speaks to it probably the best as anybody does. in 1 Corinthians 6 and 7.
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  And part of the reason, I mean, 7 is where we talk about sexual immorality in the end of 6.
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  And when it goes in chapter 7, it talks about marriage, and then it ends up
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  talking about, for the rest of you,
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  Nevertheless, each one should remain in the place in which the Lord has called
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  him to be, which is verse 17.
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  That's not where I wanted to go.
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  Slave, slave, free, free. Free of concern.
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  Oh, I would like for you to be free of concern.
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  Now about virgins, verse 25. Yeah, that's nice to set up the conversation.
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  I have this command of the Lord, but I,
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  give a judgment as one who, by the Lord's mercy, is trustworthy.
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  Because of the present crisis, and I don't know exactly which crisis he's talking
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  about, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are.
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  If you're married, don't seek a divorce. If you're unmarried, don't look for a wife.
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  If you do marry, you haven't sinned. If a virgin marries, she's not sinned.
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  But for those who marry, they'll face troubles in life.
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  And I want to spare you this. What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short.
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  From now on, those who have wives should live as if they don't have any,
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  and those who mourn as if they did not, those who are happy as if they were
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  not, and those who buy something as if it were not theirs to keep,
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  those who use these things of the world,
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  as if not engrossed in them,
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  for this present world is passing away.
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  And so it seems like he is nudging, especially from here on,
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  if I would like you to be free from concern, an unmarried man is concerned about
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  the Lord's affairs, how he can please the Lord.
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  A married man is concerned about the affairs of the world, how he can please
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  his wife, and his interests are divided.
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  An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs.
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  Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.
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  A married woman is concerned about the affairs of the world,
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  how she can please her husband.
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  I'm saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but you may live in
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  a right way, in undivided devotion to the Lord.
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  So, it seems like he's saying it's sort of a blessing not to marry.
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  Wasn't Paul himself single? We believe he was single. Okay. We have no reason
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  to believe otherwise, except he's jealous of Peter, who has a wife. Okay.
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  Well, we seem to think as we read that passage, he talks about,
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  well, Peter does this, that maybe he has some feelings.
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  Imagine Paul having feelings But yeah Yeah, there's definitely a place for him in the church Oh yeah,
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  yeah, absolutely And I think Paul's concern is right It does take energy to,
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  have a spouse And to raise a family And so you're always going to be concerned
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  You want to take care of them,
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  Whereas a person who's unmarried Can live into what God wants them to do A little
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  bit more and it doesn't maybe take quite the same amount of money.
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  It doesn't take quite, I mean, you can live according to what you feel is right
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  rather than getting a corporate model with a family. And the kids always want shoes.
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  And go out to eat. And go out to eat, yes. And you can live.
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  You can have full control of how much you want, at what level of life you want to live.
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  And so if you choose to live to the Lord You can do it without any boundaries
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  on you Because it's your choice It's what you're doing Between you and us Your
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  devotion is undivided Just like he said,
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  So it's all right Yeah, you can be single Yeah.
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  I take it that question didn't come from you.
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  I don't know. I don't know. I didn't know comment there. No.
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  I think you can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That wasn't mine, but I was going to say you have a girlfriend.
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  Yeah. Hi, Claire.
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  Are piercings and tattoos unholy? Oh, I knew that was going to come up someday. Oh man.
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  It was like the verse that some people I've heard quoted before when discussing
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  this is like the bottom of six there, 19 and 20.
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  I mean, it's obviously talking about sexual immorality before that,
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  but it says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who
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  is in you, whom you have from God?
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  You are not your own for you were bought at a price to glorify God with your body. Right.
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  And so I'd have to say, does a tattoo glorify God? See, in the Old Testament,
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  we can, and I can't quite get to the exact spot in my mind where that's at,
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  but it was a sign of slavery to have an earring because it took a piercing.
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  And so they'd get a slave and they'd park you up against the doorpost and they'd
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  stick it all through your ear.
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  And then their unique earring would be the mark, like an ear tag,
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  like we do for cattle and pigs. And so that, that earring was a mark of your master's.
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  And, you know, made a difference whether it was right or left or,
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  you know, says Howard on it or.
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  Kind of like branding, yeah. Kind of like branding. Tattoos were the same thing.
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  It was a mark that was often put on by the master to identify his property, if you will.
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  And the thing about tattoo is it was much more permanent than the earring.
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  I mean, the earring could be ripped out.
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  And so it's thought that that was more for the indentured servant because they
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  could say, okay, now you're free and we'll take this off. And now you go on
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  your way and it seals up and you're gone, right?
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  And a tattoo doesn't do that.
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  You don't, especially in the ancient world, you didn't get rid of,
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  you had no laser to take care of that.
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  And so in that way, many of our Christian circles would say,
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  nah, that's not a good thing.
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  Because it marks us with slavery.
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  Now, I've got one fellow, a friend of mine, who believes that he's a slave,
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  a doulos, if you will, to Christ.
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  And so he's got a tattoo about Christ where not everybody can see it.
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  I mean, it's up on the top part of his arm where he's not showing it every Sunday
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  morning unless he wants to.
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  Yeah So What was the question again?
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  Is it a bad thing or a good thing? Are piercings and tattoos unholy?
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  Unholy Unholy would mean Couldn't be sanctified And that's where Well that one
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  tattoo That guy's got on his arm about Jesus That might be all right.
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  Part of it is, what are we trying to communicate? I mean, basically,
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  Temple of the Lord, we are the Temple of the Lord. So how we present ourselves,
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  okay, let's go from the earthly thinking. So a building, if it's,
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  derelict, is it attractive? I mean, are you invited to be part of a derelict? building.
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  It's not very inviting. It's sort of, you might get some of those treasure hunters
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  around once in a while, but it really isn't inviting.
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  However, a temple with clean edges and clean and beautiful and sparkling,
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  that entices us to at least investigate, right?
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  We're to be presenting our bodies as a temple a living sacrifice to the Lord,
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  So we've got to take care of it, present it well.
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  That then, is it holy or unholy?
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  If it's a set apart to the Lord, remember my illustration of holy,
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  that which is set apart, we don't put it back in the dirty again.
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  We wash the dish, we set it apart rather than putting it back with the dirty dishes.
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  If it sets us apart then, for Christ, that's holy.
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  Well does that tattoo do it does the ring does it do it in the air or earring do it,
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  i i think that's i i guess i hate to be the bishop that says no yeah maybe it'd
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  be easier if we had bishops that said no you cannot do that,
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  so are they unholy i'd say it's how how you mean it uh and sometimes maybe it's
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  holy because it it creates the question that somebody has to say,
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  well, now I see John three 16. What's that?
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  What's that mean? Right. Okay.
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  And, uh, so you could answer the question. So maybe that's holy because it's
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  set apart, sets you apart for Christ.
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  Um, I have no, I have none either.
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  Yep. Do I? Yeah.
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  I personally struggle with them some, but I haven't found anybody I haven't
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  loved that's a Christian that still has some.
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  And I'm ornery enough. Can you imagine that?
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  I'm ornery enough that if a guy comes with a whole bunch of tattoos,
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  I'm going to ask him about him. So where'd he come from?
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  And some of the guys. I guess those guys like talking about him. And they do.
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  Yeah. Yeah, and some of the guys have said, well, you know, this comes from
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  my days on the motorcycle, in the motorcycle gang days, and I decided not to
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  have it raced, because it reminds me from where I came,
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  from whence I came to Christ, and then they'd maybe have something different
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  on this arm that describes where they are in Christ, a new creation.
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  And so it becomes a discussion starter, if you will. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
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  Yeah. All right. Good question. Not an easy one to answer, but a good question.
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  One more question here. Is gambling a sin? I mean.
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  Well, is gambling a sin?
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  And every time this comes up, somebody says, well, they cast lots for Jesus' clothing.
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  Yep. Yep. So they gambled for his clothing, and so it must be all right since
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  they did it for his clothing.
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  I just remind people that's done on the downside, you know, because they're,
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  they were separating a criminal's garments, according to them.
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  And so they were taking looting, if you were, they were allotting, drawing lots for loot.
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  On the other side, you know, then if we put it in that light,
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  we go over to Acts chapter 1, and then we cast lots for the office of apostle.
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  Is that gambling? Well, did we gamble for that apostle?
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  Or did we allow the Lord to work in it? The thing about gambling that's interesting
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  is, and I wonder sometimes why it even comes up,
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  is that gambling is almost always done for the benefit of the main gambler.
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  In other words, a game won't be played where the guy at the table doesn't win
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  most of the time. Yeah, a casino would never put a game on.
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  Dan Kale wouldn't put a game out there that didn't gain any more money.
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  And so i i see when we go to like a casino or something like that the uh the
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  pillaging that is done for the sake of entertainment.
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  And i had a personal conversation with kail and uh his point was this is entertainment it's like your uh,
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  subscription you have on your tv to watch sports or soap operas or whatever
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  you have subscriptions for.
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  And so you're just coming here and you're playing games and it's entertainment.
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  And you leave money behind, of course. And once in a while you win,
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  but most of the time you leave money behind.
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  And so I still say the overall gambling is taking from others.
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  And I still read the Bible says, thou shalt not steal.
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  Of course, it's not stealing if they offer it willingly. Right. You know.
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  Sort of like taxes, right? Yeah. If we offer them willingly,
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  it's not stealing, right?
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  Something like that. Something. Oh, my.
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  Yeah. And it's interesting because a lot of money does come back into the community from the casino.
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  But let's realize that's only a 10% of all the money that goes out through the
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  casino comes back to the community.
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  10%. Yeah. And when you see the size of those checks and realize,
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  ooh, 90 times that, okay.
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  And that's, yeah. Don's opinion, I'm sorry, but that's where Don's at with gambling.
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  Yeah. Well, I know if we'll play poker with our friends or something, and,
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  we might put five bucks in or something. And more than a poker? Yeah.
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  Just be like, well, if we were to go do something else, then it would cost more than this.
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  At least you know where it's going.
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  Worst case scenario, your friend gets it. Yeah.
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  And it just nudges you to know how to do poker just a little better next time. Okay.
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  Alrighty. Well, thank you guys for joining us. Hope you found it fascinating
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  and interesting. Got some questions answered.
• 22:11
  Thank you, Don. Or questions. I could raise new questions. Maybe, yeah.
• 22:18
  Okay. That's all right. That's good, too. Yeah. Thank you, Don,
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  for putting yourself online again.
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  Hope you guys enjoyed, and we'll see you next time. Lord willing.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast.
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  Feel free to become part of this ministry by sharing with others our goal is
• 22:36
  to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who god is and is calling
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  to us in our daily lives thank you again for joining us and may god bless your day.