Don’t Trust Every Spirit

Right before Advent, my brother notified me that he’d be sending something my way that was related to Advent reflections. I waited. After a few weeks, he asked excitedly, “Did you get it yet?”

I said, “Nope. Nothing has arrived.”

He had ordered a gift from an Instagram site that likely was a scam. Thankfully the credit charge never actually went through, but we lamented together about how hard it is to know who and what to trust in this day and age.

In our first reading, John is taking on this same question with his community. How do we know who or what to trust? 1 John 3 counsels its readers to, “not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see if they belong to God.” This is age-old advice.

I mentioned last week that 1 John can be problematic because its writer condemns anything “of the world” and encourages us to reject anyone that does not acknowledge Jesus. Yet we know that people “of the world” and folks who don’t acknowledge Jesus can be far more Christ-like than the Christians! 

But the counsel to test the spirits and try to discern them is an important one. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians (5:21) says almost the exact same thing when he says, “Test everything. Hold fast to what is good.” 

So anyone in the Christian tradition who asks for your unquestioned loyalty has not read their own scriptures!

But how DO we discern what is “from God” and what is not? How would you say that you do that in your own lives?

I think our gospel reading from Matthew 4 offers some clues (without trying to necessarily offer a formula).

It starts by saying that “When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.”

Pause.

There are two things I glean just from this sentence. First, withdrawing or pausing (into quiet, prayer or reflective space) seems to be really important to Jesus in terms of discernment of spirits. Secondly, I would imagine that Jesus was disturbed by the news of his cousin being arrested – given that John only seemed to be trying to follow his own God-given path (as best he could discern it). This suggests to me that doing what is “from God” (like John did), may lead us into direct confrontation/conflict with power and authority, and not away from it. It may create more trouble for us, not less! And I’m guessing Jesus knew this.

As we read on, we hear that after his discernment, Jesus emerges and says, “Repent, the Kin-dom of God is at hand,” and then “went around all of Galilee, teaching…and curing every disease and illness among the people…”

Pause #2.

First off, Jesus re-engages the world (he does not retreat forever). He then seems to be indicating that God’s kin-dom is, in fact, discernable (if we know what we are looking for!) and that everyone has got some repenting to do.  And finally he then demonstrates that God’s presence is marked by forms of healing, freedom, liberation, alignment, etc.

In life, we’re probably all bombarded with various decisions that challenge us. We’re faced with lifestyle decisions, work decisions and relationships decisions – let alone all the myriad choices that we face every day related to how we spend our money or use our time or energy. Today’s scriptures remind us that not everything leads us to the same place, and so we must engage in a continual process of asking questions.

As I mentioned, I do not think that the scriptures offer us a “formula” so much as “directionality” or an “orientation” to life.  They may not tell us how to make an exact decision, but they may offer gut-level guidance that pulls us in one direction or another. It is to our peril to ignore or not consult this wisdom.

If I had to try to summarize what I read from the tradition today, it might go something like this:

Don’t just move through the world without questioning
Think critically because not everything is good for us
Take time to reflect 
On what you’re doing
What you’re consuming
What and who you are following
But after you reflect
Be sure to re-engage
Look for signs of the kin-dom
In fact, let your life BE a sign of the kin-dom
And know that no one gets to God
Without needing to change and grow
And sometimes
Even if you are doing it right
The powers of this world
Will be against you