“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1st John 4:1)
If I have done just that to the fullest capabilities that I have been blessed with, tested that person, and fully believed they also, as I am, are hid in Christ and then I perform a task for their benefit, there is a blessing of some form in that. Yet what if that which I have given to them, whether it be an act of compassion, a deed that assisted them in some way, or a materialistic item that would help them in some manner, and then they abuse that gift somehow? Going completely against what they promised, or against the intent of the gift?
“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matt. 18:22)
If I understood the answer given to Peter that day by the Lord correctly, He was saying that we have brothers and sisters in Christ, those who truly will spend eternity with us in His Kingdom, that are going to sin against us on an almost regular basis.
How are we to rest assured that we have indeed tested the spirits properly, and in accordance to the Scriptures, when that person who claims to be saved by grace through faith continues to sin against us?
If we are to judge with righteous judgment, and we are, if we will know each other by our fruits, which we should be able to discern by the grace and mercy of God through the wisdom that He has blessed us with, and that brother or sister seems to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, yet still sins regularly against us, how are we to determine if we have made a mistake in our evaluation of that person? How are we to know if we are to continue to forgive them each and every time or if we are to employ Matthew 7:6 upon them?
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
We all have faults, all who are born again still sin, yet as we grow in the grace and knowledge and love of the Lord, we recognize those sins more easily and are able to restrain ourselves from them. Or at least that, it seems, is one of the surest signs of one born again, one would think.
Peter may have been thinking about Proverbs 24:16.
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”
He may have had a personal experience with someone who was almost always sinning against him. That word “brother” that he used may not have meant a brother in Christ, but instead a family member, a brother by birth, or a fellow member of the children of Isreal.
I do not know.
But I do know that today, and for centuries, that we have presumed it means a brother in Christ. So, we continue to forgive, but doubts arise in our mind, how can one who professes to serve the Lord of Glory continuously keep sinning against us?
“And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” (Matt. 18:17)
Are we to forgive them each time, but have nothing to do with them on a personal basis until they come to their senses, until they repent and stop behaving in a manner that does not reflect one born again?
Testing the spirits my friends, apparently, is not a one time and done thing, at least in accordance to what seems to be the truths written here. Herein lies the mindset of those who believe everyone will be as that thief on the cross next to our Savior. And that is a dangerous mindset to have.
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matt. 7:15)
I wish I could offer you more.
