Who Are My Brethren?
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Closely connected with Christ’s warning in regard to the sin against
the Holy Spirit is a warning against idle and evil words. The words
are an indication of that which is in the heart. “Out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh.” But the words are more than an
indication of character; they have power to react on the character. Men
are influenced by their own words. Often under a momentary impulse,
prompted by Satan, they give utterance to jealousy or evil surmising,
expressing that which they do not really believe; but the expression
reacts on the thoughts. They are deceived by their words, and come to
believe that true which was spoken at Satan’s instigation. Having once
expressed an opinion or decision, they are often too proud to retract it,
and try to prove themselves in the right, until they come to believe that
they are. It is dangerous to utter a word of doubt, dangerous to question
and criticize divine light. The habit of careless and irreverent criticism
reacts upon the character, in fostering irreverence and unbelief. Many
a man indulging this habit has gone on unconscious of danger, until he
was ready to criticize and reject the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said,
“Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and
by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
Then He added a warning to those who had been impressed by
His words, who had heard Him gladly, but who had not surrendered
themselves for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not only by
resistance but by neglect that the soul is destroyed. “When the unclean
spirit is gone out of a man,” said Jesus, “he walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my
house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it
empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and
dwell there.”
There were many in Christ’s day, as there are today, over whom the
control of Satan for the time seemed broken; through the grace of God
they were set free from the evil spirits that had held dominion over
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the soul. They rejoiced in the love of God; but, like the stony-ground
hearers of the parable, they did not abide in His love. They did not
surrender themselves to God daily, that Christ might dwell in the heart;
and when the evil spirit returned, with “seven other spirits more wicked
than himself,” they were wholly dominated by the power of evil.