Rees: distinguishing the spirits

Thursday, April 12, 2012
Meditation:
    Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
    —Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The criteria [for distinguishing the spirits] which Paul therefore sets forth for the guidance of the Church, that it may know where the Holy Spirit works, and what spiritual phenomena are its gifts, are the first three: the constant recognition of Christ’s lordship in the individual life, the realisation of His love in the Church, and living His life in all moral relations. Where Christ reigns, where brothers serve one another in the order and unity of love, and where they live the high morality of Christ’s gospel, there, and nowhere else, the Spirit always dwells and works. These tests may still be subjective and indefinite, but they have the merit of measuring “spiritual things by spiritual things” (1 Cor. 2:13), and Paul refrained from attempting to delimit the action of the Spirit by any external and formal boundaries, whether of sacrament, order, or dogma.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 90 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send the fullness of Your Spirit. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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