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00:00:00.000 | I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast.
00:00:15.620 | The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's
00:00:19.740 | been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand
00:00:24.600 | the test of scrutiny.
00:00:26.620 | As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people
00:00:32.320 | in the right direction.
00:00:39.940 | For episode 6, I wanted to take a detour of sorts from some of the topics I've addressed
00:00:48.420 | because well, frankly, I think it's important to do so.
00:00:52.800 | The term I want to spend some time talking about in this episode is the term "contributory
00:01:01.080 | negligence."
00:01:03.500 | The term itself is solely a legal term that I'm borrowing to illustrate a concept.
00:01:12.660 | So before we get to the borrowing, let's define the legal term first so we know exactly
00:01:18.280 | what we are borrowing.
00:01:20.100 | Britannica defines contributory negligence as follows, and I quote, "Contributory negligence
00:01:25.880 | in law is behavior that contributes to one's own injury or loss and fails to meet the standard
00:01:32.220 | of prudence that one should observe for one's own good.
00:01:36.520 | Contributory negligence of the plaintiff is frequently pleaded in defense to a charge
00:01:41.240 | of negligence.
00:01:42.240 | Historically, the doctrine grew out of distrust of juries, which have usually been more sympathetic
00:01:48.360 | to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits.
00:01:51.640 | The policy of not apportioning liability between parties to lawsuits, that is, charging each
00:01:57.300 | with some fraction of the blame, also encouraged the doctrine.
00:02:02.000 | Contributory negligence usually arises in a lawsuit in which a plaintiff has accused
00:02:06.320 | a defendant of negligence.
00:02:08.160 | The defendant may then charge the plaintiff with contributory negligence.
00:02:12.360 | At common law, if the defendant proves this charge by a preponderance of evidence, the
00:02:19.080 | plaintiff cannot recover any damages, even if the defendant was negligent because the
00:02:24.200 | contributory negligence breaks the causal connection between the defendant's negligence
00:02:29.240 | and plaintiff's injury or loss.
00:02:32.000 | In English law since the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence Act of 1945) and in many states
00:02:38.300 | in the United States, if the plaintiff is shown to have contributed to the injury, recovery
00:02:44.020 | may still be allowed, but provision is made for an equitable reduction of damages."
00:02:54.420 | I know that definition might be a little hard to receive just right away, so I want to illustrate
00:03:03.340 | this definition by giving you an example.
00:03:08.040 | Suppose you live in an apartment with a leaky roof.
00:03:12.540 | It begins to rain heavily and the leaky roof begins to allow water to drip into the bathroom.
00:03:20.940 | You walk into the bathroom, you slip and you land straight on your back and cranium, rendering
00:03:29.840 | you unconscious.
00:03:31.980 | Indignant at the leaky roof, you sue the apartment for allowing the leaky roof in the first place.
00:03:41.060 | When you hear these set of facts in a closed box, this might seem like an open and shut
00:03:47.860 | case, until perhaps I add some more facts.
00:03:55.580 | Suppose you've known about this leaky roof for over a year now.
00:04:03.060 | Suppose in the past year you had every opportunity to tell your landlord about the leaky roof
00:04:11.220 | that allows the water to drip into your bathroom, but you were just too lazy to contact him.
00:04:19.240 | This changes things significantly, doesn't it?
00:04:22.860 | Remember, the leaky roof still isn't your fault.
00:04:28.060 | It was not of your doing in any way.
00:04:30.420 | You live in an apartment, not a home, so you're renting, you're not the owner.
00:04:36.860 | And what that means is that the responsibility of the upkeep of the apartment, especially
00:04:41.800 | outside the apartment on the roof, doesn't fall on you.
00:04:46.460 | However, doesn't common sense dictate that having known about the leaky roof for quite
00:04:54.900 | some time, there should be some responsibility on your own part for not reporting the leak
00:05:03.060 | earlier?
00:05:05.560 | Should you receive a windfall despite the fact that you easily could have had the leaky
00:05:11.100 | roof fixed had you reported it?
00:05:15.260 | Maybe some of you listening would say that you should still receive some compensation,
00:05:21.060 | but perhaps that compensation should be mitigated to some degree.
00:05:27.140 | Maybe not 100%, but to some degree.
00:05:31.860 | Maybe some would say that not reporting it when you had known about it for over a year
00:05:36.820 | is enough to not collect any compensation at all.
00:05:42.280 | For those who think compensation should be received, how would we calculate what percentage
00:05:49.220 | should be mitigated given these set of facts?
00:05:54.520 | In other words, how do we calculate justice minus responsibility?
00:06:04.020 | I hope you're beginning to see that it's not the easiest task to put into concrete numbers
00:06:13.660 | abstract concepts and principles that we normally take for granted.
00:06:20.640 | We typically demand justice when we see injustice, but who exactly has the requisite wisdom to
00:06:31.060 | mete out such weighty matters?
00:06:37.300 | How does this concept apply to what's going on right now?
00:06:43.060 | If you've been listening to this podcast, we've been covering some issues that have
00:06:46.820 | been hitting the entire world and the church pretty hard.
00:06:51.780 | People are saddened, confused, dazed, indignant.
00:06:58.460 | Moreover, the anonymity that social media could bring has led to vile commenting, caricaturing
00:07:09.020 | of others or their positions, ultimately fueling suspicion and cynicism of the other.
00:07:18.540 | Before it was almost en vogue, it was almost in style to have a close friend or friends
00:07:27.180 | that had differing ideological spectrums from you that is now extinct like the woolly mammoth.
00:07:37.540 | Before we look outside of us and wag the finger in dismay, I want us to consider if we ourselves
00:07:47.740 | could have possibly contributed in some way, in some way, to let's just call it a dumpster
00:07:58.340 | fire that is our current state of affairs.
00:08:03.300 | Because our current state of affairs in this country is a dumpster fire.
00:08:09.580 | Is there any part we as individuals played in shaping today's society?
00:08:17.820 | Most poignantly, if you claim to be a Christian, the same Christian who claims to be an ambassador
00:08:24.540 | of a message that has the power to change minds, hearts, and lives, consider if you've
00:08:32.860 | been a good steward of that message, the steward that the gospel message deserves.
00:08:41.220 | I have to tell you, as I say that, I'm inwardly cowering in shame.
00:08:53.020 | In the legal theory of contributory negligence, you don't have to purposefully intend to cause
00:09:00.340 | harm in order to have compensation mitigated.
00:09:06.060 | You just need to, as the phrase states, contribute in some negligent fashion even if the ultimate
00:09:15.940 | fault is not your own.
00:09:18.500 | I am not saying that any one of us individually is solely responsible for where we are today
00:09:27.100 | as a nation and/or as a church.
00:09:31.540 | What I am saying though is that we all, all of us, every single one of us, play some part.
00:09:38.820 | And before we wag the finger at people we believe aren't getting it right, before we
00:09:48.500 | do that, before we wonder why the other could be so blinded, before we fill up with pride,
00:09:59.180 | this might be a good time and sit back and examine whether or not there is a log in our
00:10:07.340 | own eye.
00:10:10.940 | And in case you're wondering how the legal theory of contributory negligence relates
00:10:16.180 | to what I'm saying here, since that theory applies to some wrongdoing against the plaintiff,
00:10:22.300 | my point is there are times we should see ourselves individually and there are times
00:10:30.660 | we should see each other collectively as one.
00:10:37.140 | Romans 12, 3 to 13 says this, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among
00:10:44.780 | you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have
00:10:52.660 | sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
00:10:57.820 | For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,
00:11:03.820 | so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
00:11:10.180 | Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to
00:11:14.760 | exercise them accordingly, if prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service
00:11:21.180 | in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who
00:11:28.020 | gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
00:11:35.460 | Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted
00:11:42.380 | to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind
00:11:49.300 | in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,
00:11:57.500 | devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality."
00:12:05.780 | What a list, right?
00:12:09.020 | Has our love been without hypocrisy?
00:12:13.560 | Have we abhorred what is evil?
00:12:16.420 | Have we clung to what is good?
00:12:18.500 | Have we been devoted to one another in brotherly love?
00:12:24.740 | Do you think the absence of these things would produce any type of effect in you?
00:12:32.260 | Would it produce any type of effect on a group at large?
00:12:37.600 | Would the degree to which we exercise these commands corporately have any effect on our
00:12:43.380 | direct surrounding area?
00:12:48.540 | 1 Corinthians 12, 12-20 says this, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members,
00:12:56.540 | and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
00:13:02.540 | For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
00:13:07.340 | slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
00:13:11.380 | For the body is not one member, but many.
00:13:14.260 | If the foot says, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,' it is not
00:13:19.700 | for this reason any the less a part of the body.
00:13:22.940 | And if the ear says, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,' it
00:13:27.300 | is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
00:13:31.860 | If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
00:13:34.260 | If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
00:13:37.820 | But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
00:13:43.540 | If they were all one member, where would the body be?
00:13:46.980 | But now there are many members, but one body.
00:13:52.980 | The body is not one member, but while there are many members, but one body, we need each
00:14:01.660 | other.
00:14:03.660 | We are stuck with each other, and we are not allowed to just cast off each other because
00:14:11.620 | we are one body.
00:14:14.540 | We are to love on one another, and win our brothers and sisters over as opposed to seeing
00:14:21.820 | the other as just that, the other.
00:14:26.460 | This is not an easy saying, and it doesn't mean that we throw judgment and discernment
00:14:32.620 | out the window.
00:14:34.100 | However, what we should see in every human being is that imago Dei that brings inherent
00:14:45.460 | worth to every embodied soul.
00:14:49.060 | Imago Dei is Latin for the image of God.
00:14:51.740 | We see that in everybody regardless of a synthetic classification.
00:14:56.460 | Galatians 6.10 says it like this, "So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good
00:15:01.660 | to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith."
00:15:09.660 | And we know that Paul wrote that in Galatians 6.10 because the world will know who we are
00:15:17.860 | in part by the way we love one another.
00:15:24.100 | Does someone, your neighbor, your coworker, your brother or sister at church have a different
00:15:28.460 | view than you on masks or COVID in general?
00:15:34.180 | What about a differing nuanced political view on abortion or taxes, social justice, Trump,
00:15:40.220 | Biden, Republican, Democrat?
00:15:43.500 | Resist the urge to allow your heart to turn the corner into bitterness.
00:15:52.420 | Again, I am not saying that we throw judgment and discernment out the window.
00:16:01.760 | I am not saying everyone should become completely eclectic in a flood of hippie harmony.
00:16:10.900 | What I am saying though is that whether you see it or not, we all played a part in where
00:16:18.940 | we are today.
00:16:21.140 | We have all failed to grow in the way we should, to understand the Word the way we should,
00:16:29.840 | to understand the times in the way we should.
00:16:33.420 | We have all to some degree squandered our time, our money into frivolous things, rendering
00:16:41.540 | our testimony impotent at times.
00:16:44.540 | We have supposedly been students of the Word for years, yet know very little or have very
00:16:49.680 | little desire to get out of the rut that we are in.
00:16:53.620 | Or perhaps our prayer lives have been muted for so long that we are afraid to even bring
00:16:59.720 | it to light and in so doing only prolong that mutedness.
00:17:08.140 | Perhaps we lack the humility to acknowledge our weak areas for fear of a tarnished reputation
00:17:12.980 | in the eyes of others, wanting so badly to build our kingdom within His kingdom as if
00:17:19.740 | that were even possible.
00:17:23.460 | As we look at how deceptive philosophies have seemingly stolen the hearts of many, it is
00:17:32.620 | not a bad time to be introspective.
00:17:38.620 | Could it be, could it be, that at least in part the reason so many have become captivated
00:17:46.780 | to deceptive and empty philosophies is because they looked at those who purportedly held
00:17:54.380 | to a confession of truth, beauty, goodness, without the evidence of a changed life?
00:18:03.340 | Colossians 2, 8-9 states, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy
00:18:10.660 | and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles
00:18:16.220 | of the world, rather than according to Christ.
00:18:19.380 | For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form."
00:18:25.300 | Could it be that at least in part we are wired to believe that one's actions illustrate
00:18:32.860 | their own personal beliefs and convictions?
00:18:36.340 | If someone is looking at you and your actions do not line up to what you profess, then why
00:18:42.860 | wouldn't someone want to look elsewhere?
00:18:48.060 | When we see our own house burning, it is not wrong to ask if there is some contributory
00:18:57.700 | negligence on our own part.
00:19:01.340 | Do you know what you believe?
00:19:02.820 | Do you love what you believe?
00:19:04.740 | Does your life line up to what you believe?
00:19:10.440 | Titus 2, 11-14 states, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all
00:19:18.380 | men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously
00:19:25.140 | and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the
00:19:29.620 | glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from
00:19:35.260 | every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for
00:19:42.020 | good deeds."
00:19:45.340 | I want to render a challenge to you.
00:19:50.100 | A sign of true maturity is when what you take the most pleasure in lines up with what is
00:20:01.580 | eternally good and that is what you are also immersed in.
00:20:06.860 | I want to say that again.
00:20:08.420 | A sign of true maturity is when what you take the most pleasure in lines up with what is
00:20:19.740 | eternally good and that is what you are most immersed in.
00:20:26.020 | I want to read to you Philippians 3, 7-15, "But whatever things were gained to me, those
00:20:32.860 | things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
00:20:36.300 | More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing
00:20:41.340 | Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but
00:20:46.700 | rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness
00:20:51.880 | of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
00:20:56.180 | which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
00:21:02.300 | and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may
00:21:07.100 | attain to the resurrection from the dead.
00:21:10.500 | Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so
00:21:15.780 | that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
00:21:22.100 | Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting
00:21:30.500 | what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
00:21:38.340 | the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
00:21:43.460 | Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if in anything you
00:21:49.740 | have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you."
00:21:58.060 | Did you catch what Paul said right here at the end?
00:22:01.740 | He says, "If you are perfect, then you will also adopt the same attitude as Paul."
00:22:10.740 | And if you think differently, if you have a different attitude than Paul, he doesn't
00:22:16.940 | say, "Agree to disagree."
00:22:18.180 | No, he doesn't say that at all.
00:22:21.140 | He says, "If you think differently, well then, God will show you."
00:22:27.860 | God will show you.
00:22:28.860 | Meaning, what he's stating is exclusively the right way to think about Christian maturity.
00:22:39.900 | Paul is not saying, "This is a different level of maturity that is optional."
00:22:47.620 | He's saying, "If in anything you think differently, well, God will reveal, essentially, that you
00:22:56.380 | are wrong."
00:23:00.380 | That is a high calling.
00:23:02.500 | It is an extremely lofty calling.
00:23:06.700 | But it is completely consistent in the sense that we are called to live a life worthy of
00:23:16.900 | the calling that we have received.
00:23:23.100 | Do not be overwhelmed by this.
00:23:26.740 | If you seek him, he will provide you with all the resources that are necessary.
00:23:35.780 | Thanks for making it to the end.
00:23:37.740 | I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it.
00:23:42.620 | To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion.
00:24:06.140 | Amen.
00:24:12.980 | Amen.
00:24:19.740 | (upbeat music)