Better Alone Than Fake Loved

“If you love me, obey my commandments” is either a comfort or a confrontation, and I treat it as both. We start with John 14 and a simple claim Jesus makes about real love: it shows up in obedience. From there, I pray for marriages, families, leaders, and those facing persecution, because faith is never meant to stay private or abstract. 

Then we get painfully practical with Proverbs on marriage and the cost of living in constant conflict. I say it plainly: it’s better to be alone than to pretend you’re loved. That idea isn’t about hopelessness, it’s about truth and the refusal to live on appearances. We also sit with one of the most relatable questions in Scripture, when Judas (not Iscariot) asks why Jesus won’t reveal Himself to the whole world, and I connect it to the questions we still ask about sickness, tragedy, and why miracles don’t look “blatant” anymore. John 14 answers with the Holy Spirit as Advocate and with peace that the world cannot give. 

From Psalm 119 to American history, I talk about what happens when a culture forgets what it once honored and taught. I reference current events, then pivot to courage and heritage through Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr, exploration, and presidential use of Scripture, including Grover Cleveland’s oath alongside Psalm 91. If you care about Christian faith, biblical truth, and the story of America, you’ll hear why I believe obedience and memory both matter. Subscribe, share the show, and leave a review and tell me: what does obedience look like in your life right now?

#Marriage

#Bibleverse

#Americanpatriot

Transcript

Scripture And Opening Prayer

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John fourteen fifteen. If you love me, obey my commandments.

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Father, help us to truly love you and your son Jesus Christ and obey your commandments and his. Amen. March 2026. Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia.

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His own three-month-old daughter. Blunt force trauma. Her autopsy. Murdered his own kid, felony, child abuse.

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It was 28 Guatemala national who entered the U.S. illegally as a got away in July 2023 near Albuquerque, New Mexico. ICE has issued a detainer. Interesting how many of these cases, right, are from repeat offenders. People that were allowed in to the country under the guise of kindness and compassion.

Welcome And Community Thanks

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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Thank you all for joining me. Giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you most of all for your prayers. Very, very grateful for those. And for those of y'all who have started to join us over on the sister podcast, the American Christian Heritage Podcast, hope y'all are enjoying that. We'll probably uh put an episode out every couple weeks on Thursday there. At least that's what we're going to start with. So I hope y'all are enjoying that. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins. For all the myriad of blessings that you bestow upon us, Father, the ones we admit, the ones we don't, for whatever reason, as individuals and as a nation. God, our steps, help us to truly obey the commandments of your Son Jesus Christ. To truly love Him, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to follow His example, to serve those around us. Bless our marriages, our families. Be with those listening to the podcast, Father, surround them with your angel. Give us a strong faith, give us wisdom and courage. Help us to overcome our fears, our anxieties, our depression, cowardice, unbelief, doubts. We do believe, Father. Be with our military law enforcement firefighters, EMFs, keep them safe, bring them home safe. Be with our leaders in the pulpit, our pastors and priests, bishops, cardinals, etc., and in the state, president, vice president, admirals, generals, senators, representatives, judges, governors, mayors, city council. Help them all to lead and rule in fear of you, Father. Be with those around the world who are being persecuted for the sake of your son Jesus Christ, abused, raped, murdered, imprisoned. Help us to comfort them, care for them. Father, help us to spread the gospel and bring us home to you. Guide my words here. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.

Marriage Wisdom And Hard Truths

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Marriage verses for today. Proverbs 21, 9, 25, 24. Better to live on a corner of a roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. Folks, it is 100% better to be alone than to be with someone and pretend to be loved. I don't know why, but for some reason the proverb jumped in my head just now that you know there's some people that pretend to be rich and have nothing, and those who pretend to be poor and have everything. Pretending to be loved certainly does not make it so.

John 14 On Love And Obedience

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John 14, 15 through 31. If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name, said to him, Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large? Jesus replied, All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I think it's interesting here that Judas asks a really great question. You know, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world as a whole? I think there's so many times we have those kind of questions, you know. Father, why is this person sick? Why is this good person that we know, and I'm using the term good relative to humans, not compared to God and Jesus Christ by, but why why is this person injured, ill, sick? Why did this person lose this loved one? Why did this tragedy happen? Why, why aren't you here today? You're alive today. Why don't we see you today? Why don't we have these blatant miracles like the parting of the Red Sea? You know, I th I think those are questions at some point that I would assume that all of us as believers come across on a not a regular basis, perhaps, but but maybe, certainly not infrequently. And and Judas, one of the disciples, asks him, you know, again, Lord, why why aren't you going to just reveal yourself to everybody? Wouldn't that be easier? And so I I hope that comforts, it comforts me a little bit that the disciples ask those kind of questions, right? I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart, and the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you, I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen, so that when they do happen you will believe. I don't have much more time to talk to you because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let's be going. Man. But I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father.

Psalm 119 And Loving God’s Law

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Psalm 119, 33 through 48. Teach me your decrees, O Lord. I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will obey your instructions. I will put them into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money. Amen to that. Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word. Reassure me of your promise made to those who fear you. Help me abandon my shameful ways, for your regulations are good. Amen to that, too. Really, quite a few of these. I long to obey your commandments, renew my life with your goodness. Lord, give me your unfailing love, the salvation that you promised me. Then I can answer those who taunt me, for I trust in your word. Do not snatch your word of truth from me, for your regulations are my only hope. I will keep on obeying your instructions forever and ever. I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments. I will speak to kings about your laws, and I will not be ashamed. How I delight in your commands, how I love them. I honor and love your commands, I meditate on your decrees. Proverbs 15, 33, fear the Lord. Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom. Humility precedes honor. So true, so true. Amen.

Crime Reports And A Political Warning

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Abetty Mofred, 35-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, another small boat arrival, raped 15-year-old girl near Westgate Shopping Center and Oxford City Center, February 14, 2044. He was staying at an asylum hotel. Good grief, folks. The people that support this, not just the politicians, but the everyday citizens in the UK, in America, your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers, your family, your cousin, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, mom, dad, cousin, whatever it is, folks, that support the left, that support Islam. They have, regardless of what their intentions were, regardless of what they claim their heart says, the fact of the matter is they have supported the systematic rape, pillage, and plunder of our nation and our most vulnerable. They have given aid to those who hate God and Jesus Christ and our nation and abandoned those fellow brothers and sisters who had a first right to our help and needed our help. And that's really uncomfortable, I know. And there's probably a few of y'all that I lost just then that turned the podcast off, folks, but that's the bottom line truth is that that's the fact of the matter, regardless of what our feelings or emotions tell us. And there is no such thing as a moderate follower of Islam or leftism. And there is no possibility of long-term peaceful coexistence alongside people who insist on following those evils.

Courage Stories From American History

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Spitzbergen, Norway, for distinguishing himself conspicuously by courage and intrepidity at the risk of his life in demonstrating that it is possible for aircraft to travel in continuous flight from a now inhabited portion of the earth over the North Pole and return. Man. God help that we have enough men left like that to save us one more time. Accredited to Virginia, not awarded posthumously, presented February 25th, 1927 at the White House by President Calvin Coolidge, born October 25th, 1888, Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, died March 11, 1957, Boston, Massachusetts, buried Arlington National Cemetery, MH2 Tech 4969-Tech 1, Arlington, Virginia, location of Metal Marshall Museum, Virginia Military Institute, VMI, Star Design, Lexington, Virginia. Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr. Continuous flight from a inhabited portion of the Earth over the North Pole and return. That is, that echoes, folks, one of the things that so many today who want to talk about Indigenous People Day, when they really get on to Christopher Columbus, that they refuse to acknowledge either out of ignorance or fear or just deceitfulness. The amount of courage, bravery that it took for Christopher Columbus to sail with no maps, no chart, no knowledge really of what was there into the new world and then return again and again going back, right? Is just it I can't even you can't even get your head wrapped around it. It would be like sending a spaceship up into space with no knowledge of the sun or moon or stars, no telescopes, no no idea whatsoever what was gonna be out there as soon as you left the earth.

Why Christian Roots Get Erased

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I'm gonna read a couple more where I left off. Grover Cleveland, President Cleveland, Presidential Oath of Office in 1893, Psalm ninety one, verses twelve through sixteen. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot upon a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion, and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Again, Grover Cleveland, eighteen ninety-three, presidential oath of all this. How come we don't teach that in every history class across the nation in public school each year? How come that's not a repetitive these places that our presidents have put their hand on the Bible? Why don't you think that's that's required memorization? I would immediately answer that that's purposeful by design, because that's such a simple example of how we are not a secular nation, how we are not anything other than a Christian republic. And so, of course, the left Islam today, Buddhism, Hinduism, people that want to destroy and tear down America, they don't want that taught. They don't want that knowledge out there. They certainly don't want it because eventually, folks, the truth will corrupt if you'll allow that word. Uh they're their own children, you know, long enough. If you put the truth out there enough, the children of those ideologies will start to turn away from those evils, which is why it's so important to spread the gospel. Right? So, so important.

No Hope Without God Closing Prayer

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Thomas Paine, author of common sense.

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But where says son is the king of America. I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above. You go through I well, we'll just leave it at that. He reigns above.

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We have no hope but turning to God and Jesus Christ first and foremost. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is a kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages if you're married, your kids if you have them, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening, God bless America. We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.