Stefan Molyneux
  • yesterday
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works."

Matthew 16:25-27

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Transcript
00:00Good morning, everybody. I hope you're doing well. This is Sister Pamela Newton-Friedman. We're doing Bible verses and
00:09One of the most foundational and powerful
00:13verses in
00:14the Bible in the New Testament as a whole is
00:20There's a variety of ways in which it is put
00:23but for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and
00:29Lose his soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
00:37From the 21st century King James version. This is Matthew 16 25 to 27
00:42For whosoever will save his soul shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
00:49For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul of?
00:55What shall a man give in exchange for his soul for the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his father with his
01:01angels and then he
01:03shall reward every man
01:06according to his works
01:09It's very powerful
01:11chapter
01:1316 as a whole the Pharisees also with the Sadducees come and testing desired him
01:19Jesus that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them
01:23When it is evening you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red
01:28and in the morning, it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and
01:32Lowering. Oh, he hypocrites. You can't discern the face of the sky
01:37but can you not discern the signs of the times a
01:41Wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there should be no sign given unto it
01:47But the sign of the Prophet Jonah and he left them and departed
01:52And when his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them
01:58Take heed and beware of the leaving of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees
02:03And they reasoned amongst themselves saying it is because we have taken no bread
02:09But when Jesus perceived this he said unto them. Oh, you have little faith. Why reason you among yourselves?
02:15Because you have brought no bread
02:18Do you?
02:19Not yet understand neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand that how many baskets you took up
02:26Nor the seven loaves of the fourth out
02:29Do you not yet understand neither?
02:31remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up nor of the seven loaves of the
02:374,000 and how many baskets he took up
02:41How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not to you concerning bread?
02:46But that ye should beware of believing of the Pharisees and the Sadducees
02:51When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying
02:57who do men say that I the son of man am and
03:00They said some say that thou art John the Baptist some
03:04Elijah others
03:06Jeremiah or one of the prophets and Simon Peter answered and said thou art the Christ the son of the Living God and
03:15Jesus answered and said unto him
03:17Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah
03:20For flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee
03:24But my father who is in heaven and I also say unto thee that thou art Peter
03:29And upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
03:35Against it and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven
03:39And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven
03:48Then he charged his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ
03:55from that time forth
03:57began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go unto
04:01Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed
04:07And be raised again the third day
04:10Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying be it far from thee Lord. This shall not happen unto thee
04:17But he turned and said unto Peter
04:20Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savorest not the things that be of God
04:27But those that be of men
04:30Then Jesus said unto his disciples if any man will come after me
04:35Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me
04:41For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
04:49For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
04:58Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
05:02For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works
05:10Verily I say unto you there are some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man
05:16Coming in his kingdom
05:18Of course, there's a lot going on
05:21here as a whole
05:23And when they say prove your divinity
05:26By doing tricks little parlor tricks and Jesus says you can figure out the weather from the color of the sky
05:35But you cannot
05:37Determine the shape of a noble and virtuous man when he's standing right in front of you
05:42You should not need tricks
05:45To determine the nature of virtue this kind of like obviously a completely different category when people say to me. Hey, man, what's your IQ?
05:52That's kind of a trick do a parlor trick called having a 160 IQ do it
05:57I mean if my brain is studied after I'm dead, I'm sure they will find
06:01language landscapes of a village or something like that, but I mean
06:07You should be able to determine who is virtuous
06:10without tricks
06:12so
06:14The wisdom that is in this is something that the old are constantly trying to tell the young I
06:20Think about this
06:22You know when I see my daughter and her friends and so on I think about this because the young who are unwise
06:30Are you know full of youthful?
06:32vigor and and strength and
06:36There is a beauty in youth as a whole
06:40but in general there is unwisdom in youth as a whole and
06:45The old who are wise are physically decrepit
06:49but
06:50Morally beautiful and it is one of these
06:53Paradoxes, of course
06:55That the less beautiful the exterior at least the potential is the more beautiful the interior
07:01now
07:02When you get older as you age
07:07Possessing possessions mean less and less and less as a whole
07:14to be a
07:15Rich man with a bad conscience is to be in a worse prison
07:21Than an imprisoned man with a good conscience
07:24to walk golden halls with sick unease and self recrimination in your heart mind soul and bowels is
07:32A fate in many ways worse than death
07:36we live
07:38for two things
07:39We live for two things. We live for virtue and we live for
07:44Relationships
07:45We live for goodness and we live for love and the two are intertwined like two trees of that have grown together
07:52You cannot have
07:54Love without virtue
07:57You can not
07:59Have virtue without love the two grow together
08:03You cannot have virtue in isolation because virtue is a relationship
08:07What does it mean to be good or evil on a desert island?
08:11Where you are all alone for years and years
08:14It does not mean anything to be good or evil good or evil are in your relationships in
08:21specificity to human beings
08:24You can be good to people you can be evil to people if you are isolated
08:30good or evil
08:32Have no meaning
08:34It's like having a plug without a socket
08:38it means
08:39nothing
08:41So in order to get love
08:43you must be virtuous and
08:46In order to be virtuous
08:49You have to have love you have to have love of others
08:52You have to have love of virtue and you have to have the feedback of course of those who love you and love virtue
09:00You cannot be virtuous in isolation. All you can do is survive
09:06You need good people around you to remind you of
09:10virtue to remind you of
09:12Morality to remind you of integrity and then the test of your virtues is how you treat
09:19Those in the world that you meet
09:21money
09:23isolates or has that potential
09:26So if a man makes five million dollars
09:29He can use it to found a family and then be surrounded by if he's a good man
09:35virtuous and loved people
09:37or
09:39He can say with his five million dollars
09:42Fantastic. I don't need anyone. I can live and act entirely on my own
09:46I need nothing and no one and he can use it to isolate himself
09:50It is actually quite sad and not an uncommon phenomenon that when men come into money
09:55They found families and when women come into money, they often will break families or when they're bribed with money
10:02so money has
10:05the potential to
10:07Expand virtue through the founding of families through the funding of good works through the spread of morality and integrity
10:14Which is aided though, not specifically required by money because you can spread
10:18Virtue conversationally, you don't need a studio or a big technical setup or anything like that
10:25So money can aid in the spread of virtue, but money can
10:29isolate you
10:30From moral interactions with people and there's two ways, of course that money isolates you from moral interactions with people
10:36One is that you just start functioning in solitude
10:40You say oh, well, I've got enough money and I don't need people and I can do my own thing
10:45and I don't need to compromise and I can act in isolation and
10:50Your social and relationship skills
10:53Atrophy atrophy over time and you just get more and more comfortable with solitude and then every
11:01Interaction that requires compromise which is the recognition of self and other that other people have needs and preferences
11:06You have needs and preferences and you should work to
11:09maximize
11:11People's happiness in win-win situations those muscles
11:15Atrophy and it's tough to
11:19Maintain virtue if you're isolated there really is no such thing as virtue in isolation
11:24And of course the other thing that happens is you get so used to having your own way
11:29That all other perspectives tend to bring out a kind of petty irritability. I shouldn't have to compromise and
11:38other people's needs and preferences are
11:40interferences with my
11:42Somewhat lazy self-indulgent a will it's easy to forget
11:47The vivid reality of other people when you use your money to isolate yourself. Now the second way, of course
11:54that you
11:55Cut off yourself
11:58from moral connection with people through money is
12:02To use your money as a tool of power and manipulation and
12:06control
12:08We can call this the Bill Gates path or something like that
12:12So then you use your money
12:15to
12:16Dangle in front of people maybe to sleep with a lot of girls or to you know fund various
12:22corrupt causes in the typical
12:25Zillionaire's wife scenario divorced wife scenario and
12:29That's another way, of course that you
12:32Isolate people because people are not there for your virtues
12:35They're there for your money, but they have to everyone has to lie and pretend that you're you know
12:39Just a great guy that everyone cares about and loves but you're just a guy with money
12:44So everyone has to lie and pretend right every time you're there in a relationship for something other than the person's virtue
12:51You have to lie about it and pretend that you're there because the person is good and positive
12:56I mean, this is a bit diminished in the business sense, but you know every
13:00Man who is a man whore right every man who sleeps with a lot of women has to lie to those women either
13:07explicitly or implicitly and say that he likes them as a person rather than
13:12If you try and sleep with a woman by saying I dislike you and loathe you as a person
13:17But I want to use your body for
13:19physical satisfaction I
13:21Mean all but the most corrupt women will recoil and the corrupt women you're just adding to the damage of their prior
13:27Exploiters if they react in any positive way to such a horrendous statement
13:31So if you have money and then you dangle it in front of people
13:35in order to
13:37Have them lie about liking you when they in fact only like your money, you know, like
13:42nobody
13:43Nobody wants you when you're down and out. It's an old blues song and
13:47See, you know you you rent a yacht and you your friends come on a big party and and and so on
13:53But they're there for the yacht. They're there for the
13:56Selfies the bikinis the status they're not there for you, but they have to pretend a great. Thanks, man
14:01You know, you're great, you know as opposed to you could be anyone as long as you have kashoki's
14:06intergalactic space yacht
14:08So just lie everyone has to lie
14:11now
14:13life is
14:16generally short for the virtuous and
14:19endless for the corrupt and
14:21as you age
14:24the value of things
14:27diminishes and
14:29the value of
14:31love of virtue
14:34increases
14:35And I remember this and I've mentioned this before when I started to make some money and I was living
14:42I would say I broke up with a girlfriend and I was living as a roommate in a condo
14:48I was just a home room in a condo in
14:51Toronto and
14:53It had a nice gym. It had squash courts and
14:57It had a fairly big swimming pool for an apartment building
15:01Yeah, it was all very nicely done all quite ornate and I remember
15:06Swimming in the swimming pool. I was in my 20s at this point and I remember swimming in swimming pool thinking
15:12Well, let's say that I make a massive amount of money, right? This is just the beginning
15:18Right. I said, well, what if what if I make a massive amount of money and I can have a
15:24swimming pool in my own house and
15:27I am swimming alone in my swimming pool in my own house
15:33Well, how sad would that be?
15:35How sad would that be and of course if you have a bunch of cool stuff and you can't
15:42Even get shallow friends, then that's a really tragic situation, right?
15:48So what would that mean? I have I have stuff and
15:52No one to share it with and most of us I mean if you live
15:56I mean certainly into your 50s, right the people
15:59elderly relatives die and they get inheritances and so on and I've known people who've come into money so to speak and
16:09Their
16:10Unhappiness increases. I mean one of the ways that you can keep
16:14the unhappiness of
16:16a loveless life at bay is to be constantly in a situation or state of scarcity because then you're just
16:24trying to figure out how to
16:26pay your bills and meet your expenses and so on and you just
16:31Constantly on the ragged edge of need and want and so it's easier to just you know, if you're just
16:37Looking down right?
16:38It's like if it doesn't seem like such a long walk or hike if you're just looking straight at the ground if you look up
16:43At the high mountain you've got a climb and you get perspective. It can be it can fill you with despair
16:48and I've known people who've made some money or come into some money and their unhappiness tends to
16:55escalate or or increase
16:57Because they're immediate, you know looking at your toes
17:02running on the treadmill once the needs have been removed and
17:06one of the ways that people
17:08Escape or avoid meaning is to keep themself in a state of scarcity if that state of scarcity is lifted or removed
17:14and then people often get a
17:17Pretty miserable. This is a big sort of curse of winning the lottery, you know that kind of stuff
17:21so
17:23as you get older if your
17:27Physical wants are taken care of and they tend to be I mean
17:31I've known guys who you know lived in a one-bedroom apartment and you know, they didn't have great jobs
17:37But you know over time they make a little bit more money their expenses don't go up
17:42Because I don't have families or anything. So
17:45they
17:46start to
17:47become more financially comfortable over time and
17:53Their
17:54ragged-edge physical needs are
17:57softened into the far horizon and
17:59Then what and
18:01Then what this is the problem with retirement, right? And then what?
18:04Your days are gonna be filled with something. It's either work and love or avoidance and regret
18:10So as you age your money becoming often more plentiful
18:15becomes
18:16less valuable
18:18less important
18:20Because it cannot buy you happiness
18:23You you you get maybe you could afford some big
18:26gaming computer and and you can play some games and
18:30This puts you back into the moment-to-moment thing, right?
18:33The moment-to-moment thing is really important in the avoidance of perspective and meaning in life. Just live moment to moment
18:39Oh, I've got to win this online video game. Oh, I've got to build this thing in Minecraft
18:43Oh, I've got a scroll through Twitter and it's moment to moment boom boom boom, right?
18:47It keeps the perspective at bay. It keeps a larger view and then the zoom out at bay and
18:53As you get more money
18:55And of course each additional dollar
18:58is as a diminishing value, right? If you're starving and
19:01You get ten dollars then you can get a meal
19:04Not a great one, but a meal and that is the world of difference, right?
19:08If you have a million dollars getting ten dollars doesn't change much of anything
19:14So when your material needs are met
19:18you will almost inevitably be faced with regret and
19:22And your money income your income tends to go up over life and your regrets at a loveless life a loveless life is a life
19:30Without virtue it is at best neutral and most likely corrupt
19:36And I don't know if you've ever been in the presence of someone. I've had it a couple of times in
19:41in-person before the show where
19:44The despair just I mean it's like it's like that school bus in that meme with the freight train coming to
19:50When the regret hits someone I
19:53remember being at a
19:54Karaoke night and the guy was singing and just put down his mic in the middle and just like sat down on the stage like
20:00A guy I knew it's just like regret regret regret. I
20:05remember one guy who I knew many years ago who was
20:09diabetic and was
20:11doing a pretty trashy job on a cruise ship and
20:15He was so seized with despair
20:19That he woke up
20:20went down to the
20:22Dessert buffet and ate an entire chocolate cake and then he had to be airlifted out because of the health issues
20:29people will roll a grenade into their own tent metaphorically when they are filled with that level of despair and
20:36You can't buy back your youth
20:40It's a one-way ticket and the despair also kicks in
20:44when you age and
20:47Infirmities and
20:48two creaks and two groans and
20:51little shooting pains and the
20:53The presage of decrepit age begins to creep into your system against your will. I mean almost no matter what you do
21:01it's gonna happen and
21:03That is of course the little
21:05ripple whispers of death coming down
21:08The pipe, you know, like a the myth of the old
21:12Indigenous people in North America who could put their ears to a train track and hear the train long before it had any other presence
21:21like a whisper in your ear death
21:23sends murmurs of discomfort to remind you of the bed you sink into and never arise from and
21:32the distraction has you
21:35spend your days in
21:37useless short-term abandoned and
21:40Then right since the devil is cruel
21:44Since corruption is cruel. The veil is lifted from your eyes long before you die about how much time and life you've wasted
21:52so easy to waste life when you're young because you think you have a virtually infinite supply and
21:58It is very hard
22:00To waste your life
22:02When you get older without great regret, this is why like I just can't get into video games anymore
22:07Because I just recognize that's going to be
22:11Time out of a finite supply when you're young time is an infinite supply as you get older you realize
22:17you are taking from a
22:19pile
22:21that has a
22:22visceral end
22:24You can't buy love. You can't buy relationships. You can't buy your way out of regret
22:30you can't buy your way out of
22:33aging and
22:35It's very hard to reverse bad habits later on in life
22:40It's very hard and I would say functionally impossible functionally impossible is like you don't
22:46Calculate the odds because it's kind of pointless like it's functionally impossible to win the top prize in the lottery
22:52Do people win it? Sure
22:53But it's functionally impossible because your odds are more likely you get into
22:57Killed in a car crash going to pick up your ticket than actually winning the lottery, right?
23:01So it's functionally impossible. I
23:03Mean it's like saying well
23:05I'm not gonna say for my retirement because a distant relative
23:08I don't even know about might leave me five million dollars in her will when I hit the age of 65
23:15Could it happen? I mean, it's certainly within the realm of possibility
23:19But it's functionally impossible. Like will it happen? I know well, you have to act like it won't happen, right?
23:24Yeah, is it possible that I don't know whoever you find to be really attractive
23:29I had a mild partiality to say Sandra Bullock
23:33So if I were single, is it possible that Sandra Bullock could call me up tomorrow and want to go on a date?
23:39It's not impossible. I mean we both exist in the same time continuum, I suppose
23:44But you don't sit there and say no. No, I'm not gonna go meet anyone because I'm waiting for a call from Sandra Bullock
23:51it's frankly impossible, right and
23:55You start to get the real
23:58Hints and intimations of mortality and
24:01You know
24:01There are software issues where you get sick and you get better and then there are hardware issues where you end up with sort of permanent
24:06Things right like I have a bit of tinnitus and that's like a permanent thing. So
24:12That happens in your 50s, but you're probably gonna live to your 80s. That's 30 years
24:16When I think of how long 20 to 50 is
24:20Right 20 to 50. It's a long time
24:23Her 50 to 80 it's a long time, but the difference is
24:2820
24:29To 50 you're building and growing and you have hail hearty
24:34You know solid youthful sleep and and so on right?
24:38I'm gonna remember this the old man in 1984 saying he had to get up what eight times ten times a night to pee
24:45Now and then I assume that's gonna be pretty rough and difficult. Maybe it happens. Maybe it doesn't but I'm sure it increases
24:51So what's that Paul Simon song the obvious child I don't expect to sleep through the night
24:56So you have
24:57less energy less health
25:00less future
25:01Less to offer others, right?
25:03So when you're young and you're going out in the world and carving your way and making a couple of bucks and so on
25:08Right, you have more to offer people more to offer the world
25:13When you get old, what do you have to offer if you're full of regret?
25:17Well, it's too late really to start relationships when you're old
25:22What do you have to offer people? Well, I'm aging. Well, I'm full of regret
25:26I mean, I have some money but that doesn't buy me virtue. That certainly doesn't buy me love and
25:31You have the bad habits of solitude and exploitation if you've developed those which are not
25:37Functionally reversible. It's a long time. It's what I was one of the tweets I had on Twitter back of the day
25:43Your fertility mostly ends at 40
25:45What are you gonna do from the ages of 40 to 80?
25:48They remember like your travel and have sex and it's like, you know, well, maybe not when you're 70 75 maybe maybe not
25:56so
25:57if you gain the whole world
26:00but lose
26:02your sense of satisfaction your sense of virtue your sense of having done good with the
26:09incredibly rare gift of life
26:13What do you get? Well, you get some money
26:16money
26:17Actually makes your regret worse because you don't have that head-down live day by day stuff
26:23So this is the cry from the old to the young
26:26focus on virtue do good take your energy and use it to bind yourself to people with ropes and hoops and chains of
26:35mutually admirable
26:37virtues do that and
26:39Then your old age will be full of comfort and love companionship connection and
26:46Even if of course
26:48You are married. You're a woman and your husband
26:51He's probably gonna die six seven years before you do and that's a long time
26:54to be alone if you don't have kids if you don't have a
26:57community and
26:59of course as you age
27:00The people who are a single and solitary and particularly those without kids
27:06They don't actually have a huge amount to offer because of that solitary
27:10Aspect that non-compromise aspect that non building-of-life aspect so you might just end up in an old age home home full of other
27:18weirdo
27:19unconnected regretful
27:21Losers are full of regret losers and that's that's a really tragic way and and so let's say that you have
27:27You're wealthy enough to have an indoor swimming pool in your house, but nobody's in your house
27:32You haven't done the good it gets you the love and because you don't have the love you can't do the good
27:40whoo
27:42That's a nightmare
27:44That's a nightmare. And then you have to cling to other people who've also avoided virtue and it ended up being a tribe of
27:51Fairly sick and sickened corruption and this can go on year after year decade after decade
27:57Until death becomes a sweet release from endless regret the money is not worth it
28:03The money is used to build love connection families
28:08It is not used to buy trinkets that are tossed out when you're tossed in the ground