I often over-looked this passage in the Gospels. Jesus was speaking, and for some reason I many times over-looked it. It did not seem "relevant" to me at the time. Man... Jesus words not "relevant?"

There are many interpretations to these familiar words of God, but I never heard one that really made sense. But then again, is God really supposed to make sense to us?

Jesus said, "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."

You might have heard this before, or maybe not. I heard of hell-fire evangelists who have used this as a wedge to get people up to the altar. In plane sense it scares me into looking back, trying to remember if I ever said anything bad about the Spirit. Maybe I did and forgot about it? I have gotten scared before by that.

Today, a friend came to me and asked me what I thought it meant. I quickly put forth an answer because I am supposed to know everything about the Bible right? I thought it would look bad if I didn't know so I tried to come up with something to explain him away from me. In all reality, I was very familiar with this verse, but I didn't really know what it meant. So I sat down at lunch today to get a better look at it, and you know, ask Jesus what He really meant by saying it...

I know that God will never be figured out. He will continue to surprise us, even in eternity. So could this mean that if we said something bad against the Spirit in our life time we are going to hell? Possibly... However, it is my strong opinion that it would be not congruent with the character of God to be true.

*** Please note that heaven does not ask my opinion ***

Anyways... the Spirit showed me today a new way to see this infamous quote.

Preceding this verse is the incident where Jesus heals a demonized person. The religious teachers of the day tell the crowds that it was only because Jesus was Satan himself therefore he casted out his own demon. (And I wonder the look on Jesus' face when He addresses the teachers) Jesus tells them that a house divided against itself cannot stand. He uses an analogy saying that a theif cannot go in and steal unless the strong man of the house is tied up. In other words, members of the opposite team oppose each other, not members of the same team!

It may sound like Jesus was defending Himself, but rather He was making an observation on the teachers of the law themselves! In that He says, whoever speaks against the Spirit is not forgiven, or you can say, will not be saved. When Jesus talks about speaking against the Spirit, He is not leaving the subject matter that preceded, He is reiterating the concept of, a house divded will not stand.

(See Matthew 12 for the recorded event)

"Speaking against the Spirit" was what the teachers of the law were actually doing themselves right then and there. The religious gurus of the time were envious thus speaking against the Spirit. The Spirit healed the demonized man yet they continued to make themselves an enemy of the Spirit. They were claiming to be apart of the same house that they were dividing.

I am convinced that the same problem is true today. We have teachers of the law that continue to make themselves enemies of the Spirit. They speak against the works of the Spirit. God is moving in the church, but there have been many teachers that have fought against God's movement yet claimed to be apart of the church. The age-old issue has been repackaged and bought by many in the church today.

The good thing is that it is not our job to figure that out. God is our judge, and everything will be made clear when He comes.

Today, God showed me a new way to look at this passage. It just shows the zeal of God for a unified church. As He said, "Anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."

Those are heavy words, my friends.