Mark 3:28-30
28-30 “Listen to this carefully. I’m warning you. There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you persist in your slanders against God’s Holy Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives, sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.” He gave this warning because they were accusing him of being in league with Evil.” The Promise
28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit.” NRSV
What ever Jesus means about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - a sin which cannot be forgiven - this is for sure: anyone who fears they have committed it haven’t.
It is a sin which happens when we believe we are right so strongly that we are not open to any other thought or any other possibility. We are not even open to the Holy Spirit having something different to say to us and through us. It is not letting anything – even the spirit of God which blows over us and through us like the wind - change our closed mind and heart.
As we struggle with faith, hope, and love in our lives we need the encouragement which comes from the promise of forgiveness, not the threat of condemnation. The God (Jesus) I meet in the New Testament is a God who would rather forgive then condemn, and doesn't like the unforgivable sin any more than we do.
“It is a reminder that a totally
closed mind and heart are
headed on a dead end street.”
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, open my mind and heart to what Your Spirit wants me to hear, believe, and do.” Amen
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