From who

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

FROM WHO

Matt 12:30-32

30 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

NIV

This is a continuation of his rebuttal to the Pharisees regarding their charge of his doing this miracle of healing the blind and mute man by the power of Satan. We looked at the house divided concept, but now in addition he tells them if they are not with him, they are against him. The purpose of Christ, therefore our purpose being in Christ, or rather Christ being in us, is to gather the harvest of souls. Those who do not gather with Christ are therefore opposed to the gathering of souls for the kingdom of God and consequently scatter them. We could extrapolate this idea to include how we live our Christian life. That is to say do we gather souls for the kingdom of God or are we content just being a believer, going about living our own salvation, attending church on Sunday.  Do we just get together with other believers, even though we may not even talk about God, or the scriptures? That is do we only socialize with those of like minds? If that is our lifestyle, then how are we going to gather? It certainly is not about gathering other believers from one church to another. It has to be about gathering souls for the kingdom of God. If we are not gathering, according to Jesus we are scattering. That could lead us to the idea of how unbelievers perceive our lives. Some would accuse us of being hypocrites, saying one thing, but living differently. If we tell them God loves them, but we do not demonstrate the love of God toward them, then their accusations may be right. How we love them may depend somewhat on our particular personality, but the point is we show them love, compassion and mercy. These next words have caused some consternation within the body of Christ.  The idea that all our sin can be forgiven except blasphemy, or speaking against the Holy Spirit, has some believers concerned. How can we speak against the Holy Spirit? What Jesus was telling the Pharisees was exacting what they we doing. They were accusing his power from being from Satan rather than from the Spirit of God. How this translates into our lives as believers may not be exactly the same as how the Pharisees were speaking against the Spirit. How we might be guilty of this is in our denial of some miracle of God, seeing it as just a coincident, or by the hand of man. If someone gives us something, we could see it as a helping hand, or we could see it as a provision from God. If we expend our energy and resources to gain something we could see that as our making our way in life, or we could see it as a provision from God. As true as it is that God has told us to work for our sustenance, it still all comes from his hand. Although the people of Israel had to go out each morning and gather the manna, it came from God. Our jobs, our wages, are a result of the provision of God. If we do not act accordingly to that principle then perhaps we are speaking against the power of the Spirit of God. Surely we could see that those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have spoken against the Holy Spirit as his power is to convict people of their need to repent and accept Jesus. When a person refuses that conviction, they are in essence speaking against the Spirit and are therefore not forgiven of that sin and by so they have condemned themselves. But it is us believers who need to make sure we do not take on an attitude other than, “All we are, all we have, all we do is a result of the Spirit working in our lives”. If we see anything else than that, if we consider we are responsible in any way for who we are, what we have, and what we do, then perhaps we are denying the power of the Spirit. Did not God form us, knit us together in our mother’s womb? He designed every aspect of our being, we are just as he formed us therefor we live as a result of the power of the Spirit of God. We all have differences in our appearance and our interests. Not all of us are bent toward engineering, or the arts. Not all of us have the same abilities, but we all have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. Therefor it is by his Spirit that we live, in all we are, all we have and all we do. If everything is not from God, then who is it from? This is what Jesus told the Pharisees, they refused the power of God and therefor it must have been from Satan. Let us always be willing to admit all we are, have and do is from God.