DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Powers From Satan? Really???
By David Thompson
Jesus must have been the most misunderstood entity of the times. It's bad enough to have the Pharisees constantly questioning Him, but we see in today's passage that His family had decided that He had gone over the edge and had lost His mind. They totally missed the point of His ministry. Not only had they missed who He was, they missed what He came for. John 3:17 tells us "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world."
The teachers of the law even went so far as to say Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan. The passage in verse 22 says "He is possessed by Beelzebul: By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." How silly it is to think that Satan would do good! Jesus confronted the teachers of the law (the Pharisees). He didn't answer outright but answered them in parables. He said in verses 23-25, "How can Satan drive out Satan: If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can not stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided he cannot stand; his end has come."
Then Jesus says something that has always worried me. "Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven." Wow, have you ever wondered if you have blasphemed against God (Holy Spirit)? I can remember thinking "God d---" and then catching myself and worrying about that verse. Have you ever thought about it? Don't worry it does not mean some slip of the tongue will send you to Hell. I like how the Life Application Bible speaks on that verse. It says the following, "Christians need not worry about this sin because this sin is attributing to the devil what is the work of the Holy Spirit. It reveals a heart-attitude of unbelief and unrepentance. Deliberate, ongoing rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy because it is rejecting God himself." As Christians, we are certainly not rejecting the Holy Spirit, and ultimately God, by an unintentionally or even an intentional sometimes slip of the tongue. So rest easy. The only ones in the passage that were doing that were the Pharisees. We are OK.
PRAYER
Jesus, thank you for your Word and the ability to read it for ourselves and interpret it by the power of the Holy Spirit and by our great pastors and teachers. We thank you for giving us good reference materials to help us when a passage is too complicated for our finite minds. Be with us in all that we do and say. Amen.
