Good is good regardless of who does it!

Mark 3:22-30

The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last. And if a household is divided against itself, that household can never stand. Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either - it is the end of him. But no one can make his way into a strong man’s house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first. Only then can he burgle his house. ‘I tell you solemnly, all men’s sins will be forgiven, and all their blasphemies; but let anyone blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness: he is guilty of an eternal sin.’ This was because they were saying, ‘An unclean spirit is in him.’

Food for thought!

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is doing something we don’t. When his enemies criticized him, to the point of calling him an agent of Satan, Jesus “called them to him and spoke to them.” This is very important because his enemies were speaking, not to him but against him. Just as we so often do, when we speak, not to but against those we dislike and disapprove. As a principle: if you can’t say it in one’s face, don’t say it at all; what you can’t tell directly to someone, don’t tell it to others.

We offend God when we stubbornly refuse to see and acknowledge the good in others. This is what the Pharisees and scribes did with Jesus. They called him agent of Satan. Have you ever noticed that if we like someone, we tend to like everything they do? And if we dislike someone, we will dislike everything they do? The people we dislike we label them as evil, even when they do good, we see their good as evil. This leads to the sin against the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus said, it is unforgivable.

The unforgivable sin is the sin against the Holy Spirit.

Both Matthew and Mark record that Jesus spoke about this sin immediately after the scribes and Pharisees had attributed his cures to the prince of devils instead of to God (Matt.12:31-32; Mk.3:28-29). These men could look at the very grace and power of God and call it the work of the devil. So, the sin against the Holy Spirit is about calling good as evil, treating good as if it was evil. Why is this so?

Why is that the unforgivable sin?  Because it is the Holy Spirit that makes us do good; whoever does good is under the influence of the Holy Spirit; whoever. So, when you don’t acknowledge the good being done by others, you are in effect not acknowledging the Holy Spirit in them; you sin against the Holy Spirit. Good is good, thanks to the Holy Spirit, not Beelzebul.