This explanatory clause stands inside Mark 3:20-35, which together with Matthew 12:22-50 gives the account of who are Christ's brethren. It gives the occasion for the warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, for after the healing of a possessed man who was blind and dumb the Pharisees said He had an unclean spirit. They charged that He was controlled by an evil spirit and cast out devils through the prince of devils, by the power of Satan, thus calling God's holy power in His works satanic.
They could not deny the remarkable healings or explain them as natural, yet they recognized supernatural power at work. They stubbornly shut their eyes to the evidence and knowingly accused Him of serving the devil, resisting the truth so they would not be converted. News of that charge reached the sons of Joseph along with reports that entire nights were spent in prayer and days were so thronged that there was no time even to eat. Friends thought incessant labor was wearing Him out and could not account for His attitude toward the Pharisees, and some feared His reason was unsettled. The brothers felt keenly the reproach this brought upon them through relation to Him and knew the tumult His words and works created, and they were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to stop this manner of labor, and induced Mary to unite with them in hope that His love for her would prevail upon Him to be more prudent.
The sin against the Holy Spirit is wilfully attributing to Satan, to evil agencies, or to a human source a work known to be the work of God's Spirit. It rejects convincing evidence of its divine character and falsely condemns it as evil despite its good fruits, and such opposition is not done in ignorance. This deliberate rejection and perversion of the Holy Spirit's work is the unpardonable, unforgivable sin. The same serious guilt applies when Spirit-inspired messages are credited to a human giver, as when it was claimed after such messages were given that the human agent had given their inspiration, and when the power and heavenly light attending the first and second angels' messages is called satanic.
To declare the Spirit's work to be from Satan cuts the speaker off from the fountain of blessing and cuts off the channel by which God communicates and works upon the heart. It shuts the person out in spiritual darkness where repentance and faith cannot come, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more God can do for the soul. By contrast, speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the person can be brought to see the error and repent. Whatever sin is repented of and believed is washed away in His blood.
Because ascribing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit to evil agencies brings such guilt, passing judgment on the work of others must be done with great care. The church is to labor to separate evil from good and not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from heart and life, rather than mingling evil with good and confusing good and evil. Those who experienced the power and glory of the first and second angels' messages and then called that heavenly light satanic and hardened their hearts to refuse the third message are shut out, with more hope for sinners than for them. But those who have not hardened their hearts or received and resisted the earlier messages can still recognize their effects, understand how they join together, and joyfully accept and be brought to the truth.
This explanatory clause stands inside Mark 3:20-35, which together with Matthew 12:22-50 gives the account of who are Christ's brethren. It gives the occasion for the warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, for after the healing of a possessed man who was blind and dumb the Pharisees said He had an unclean spirit. They charged that He was controlled by an evil spirit and cast out devils through the prince of devils, by the power of Satan, thus calling God's holy power in His works satanic.
They could not deny the remarkable healings or explain them as natural, yet they recognized supernatural power at work. They stubbornly shut their eyes to the evidence and knowingly accused Him of serving the devil, resisting the truth so they would not be converted. News of that charge reached the sons of Joseph along with reports that entire nights were spent in prayer and days were so thronged that there was no time even to eat. Friends thought incessant labor was wearing Him out and could not account for His attitude toward the Pharisees, and some feared His reason was unsettled. The brothers felt keenly the reproach this brought upon them through relation to Him and knew the tumult His words and works created, and they were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to stop this manner of labor, and induced Mary to unite with them in hope that His love for her would prevail upon Him to be more prudent.
The sin against the Holy Spirit is wilfully attributing to Satan, to evil agencies, or to a human source a work known to be the work of God's Spirit. It rejects convincing evidence of its divine character and falsely condemns it as evil despite its good fruits, and such opposition is not done in ignorance. This deliberate rejection and perversion of the Holy Spirit's work is the unpardonable, unforgivable sin. The same serious guilt applies when Spirit-inspired messages are credited to a human giver, as when it was claimed after such messages were given that the human agent had given their inspiration, and when the power and heavenly light attending the first and second angels' messages is called satanic.
To declare the Spirit's work to be from Satan cuts the speaker off from the fountain of blessing and cuts off the channel by which God communicates and works upon the heart. It shuts the person out in spiritual darkness where repentance and faith cannot come, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more God can do for the soul. By contrast, speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the person can be brought to see the error and repent. Whatever sin is repented of and believed is washed away in His blood.
Because ascribing the manifestation of the Holy Spirit to evil agencies brings such guilt, passing judgment on the work of others must be done with great care. The church is to labor to separate evil from good and not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from heart and life, rather than mingling evil with good and confusing good and evil. Those who experienced the power and glory of the first and second angels' messages and then called that heavenly light satanic and hardened their hearts to refuse the third message are shut out, with more hope for sinners than for them. But those who have not hardened their hearts or received and resisted the earlier messages can still recognize their effects, understand how they join together, and joyfully accept and be brought to the truth.