Bible Study series: Matthew 12:31-37. Jesus also discusses the blasphemy of the Spirit.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 12:31-37
31 For this reason, I tell that every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven of people, but the blasphemy of the Spirit of God shall not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man shall be forgiven of him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven of him, neither in this age, nor in the one to come.
33 Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, for by its fruit a tree is known. 34 You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good person from his good treasure brings forth good things. And the evil person from his evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 And I tell you that every careless word which people shall speak, they shall return an account for it on the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you shall be vindicated, or by your words you shall be condemned. (Matt. 12:31-37)
Comments:
These two pericopes or sections or units follow from the previous one about Satan. So the blasphemy of the Spirit must be interpreted in light of the previous one and the one that follows about the good and bad trees at their roots. Don’t separate them.
31-32:
“Son of Man”: see v. 8 for more comment.
“him”: Matthew switches to the masculine singular pronoun. It could be translated generically as “him or her,” but I left it as “him” only for readability.
“a word”: as I note in many places in this commentary, it is the Greek noun logos (pronounced loh-goss and is used 330 times in the NT). Since it is so important, let’s explore the noun more deeply. It is rich and full of meaning. It always has built into it rationality and reason. It has spawned all sorts of English words that end in –log-, like theology or biology, or have the log– stem in them, like logic.
People have the deepest need to receive solid teaching. Never become so outlandishly supernatural and entertaining that you neglect the reasonable and rational and logical side of preaching the gospel and teaching the Bible.
On the other side of the word logos, people get so intellectual that they build up an exclusive Christian caste of intelligentsia that believe they alone can teach and understand the Word. Not true. Just study Scripture with Bible helps and walk in the Spirit, as they did in Acts. Combining Word and Spirit is the balanced life.
Here the religious leaders had a bad theology all worked out. It could be translated as “a logical message” against the son of Man, and in Greek we could supply the word logos, as follows: but whoever speaks a message against the Holy Spirit.”
These verses are often misunderstood and therefore over-applied. If someone you meet is nervous that he may have committed this sin, then he did not, because it speaks of being so far gone that no one who truly commits is upset about it. He’s oblivious to it.
What Is the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
The men who were on the verge of committing the sin were fully religious, educated, and observed Jesus ministering, Their hearts were evil in the religious sense. This not about an average Joe who spoke bad words against the Spirit on the basis of his ignorance, even when he tells you he was not ignorant. Just ask Joe whether he was as educated in Scripture as thoroughly as the Pharisees were. He’ll have to answer you no. Then he has not met one or all of the conditions.
“this age and the age to come”: Jesus divides the entire existence of the world in two: this age and the age to come.
For more information, please click here:
What Jesus Really Taught about End Times
33-35:
The first punchline is in v. 33. Each tree is known by its own fruit.
“by its own”: this means that we should not overgeneralize about the whole orchard, just because one tree is unhealthy. As the modern saying goes, “One bad apple does not spoil the whole barrel of apples” (or words to that effect). Take each person on his own terms.
It is implied that the bad person from the (heart’s bad treasure) produces the bad.
Here is the main point to this whole pericope or section. It is possible for a man to have basic goodness. We observe it all the time. Rich atheists with a bankrupt personal life give away millions to charities. The theologians who emphasize man’s evil must not exaggerate. No, this does not deny original sin. No, a man’s goodness is not sufficient for him to strut into God’s eternal and holy presence (see Is. 6). He needs grace and to be invited through his Son. But here it is a moral truth about Jesus’s disciples and humanity in general. In the kingdom community, look for men and women who speak words of blessing and edification. In business endeavors, look for men and women who do the same. The ones who consistently and characteristically speak good words have good hearts and can be trusted. It’s a general principle.
36-37:
“I tell you” see v. 6 for more comments, but the words indicate solemnity and authority. Pay attention!
These two verses put the fear of God in me. I do pay attention to them. I write my commentary and translation prayerfully and carefully. Unless I hear differently, I don’t plan to publish it in a book. In addition to being too expensive, I may need to revise things, and I can do this online much more easily. I call myself, accurately, a perpetual student or learner, which means I am a perpetual disciple. I am willing to change my viewpoint when convinced. I write my commentary and translation to learn.
Further, these two verses have to be very sobering for chatterboxes on youtube and in the comment sections in social media. Every word, spoken or written, will be judged by God at the Final Judgment. I plead with everyone: Make your words few and valuable. Your words should be few because you may not know what you are talking about. I see this all the time with the heresy hunters who set themselves up as teachers, but God has not called them. How do I know? They do sloppy research and don’t understand their opponents. They are not generous towards mistakes that all of us make. Further, many of them also have controversial theology, like Limited Atonement or double predestination (God predestined some for heaven and others for hell) or cessationism (the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor. 12:7-11 have ceased). They need to look long and deeply into their own mirror and stop badly misinterpreting Scripture. They themselves may be mistaken.
Everyone who has set himself up on youtube may know how to edit their videos with clever effects and interesting theme music, but by my observation, God has not sent them. They don’t stay close to a community of teachers in commentaries but interpret Scriptures in odd ways. They like the fact that they have developed a little or large following. However, they don’t seem to realize that they will be judged more severely or more strictly precisely because they are teachers (Jas. 3:1).
Others should stop writing comments without studying the issues. Some doctrines are not as clear as they think, like punishment in the afterlife or interpreting Bible prophecy. They don’t put in the hard work to understand the complex matters. Yet they pop off according to what they have been taught–and taught deficiently and badly.
Finally, every careless word shall be judged, in private conversation, not just doctrinal disputes. Let your words be few and edifying.
When words are many, sin is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. (Prov. 10:19, ESV)
Everyone Shall Be Judged by Their Works and Words
GrowApp for Matt. 12:31-37
1. Read Gal. 5:22-24. How do you ensure that the Spirit produces good fruit in you?
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14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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