Over the last week there has been a mood around the traps of despair. This came up in SSM thread about sexbots, and the sense that we are cut off from each other within marriage and shunted into divorce and singleness was quite despairing. Cane Caldo has some great advice for men, based on theology,
In short, women want to be loved, And men want faithfulness. In all things, but particularly sexual. The need for love drives women into religion. But that can easily turn to fanaticism. We are not called to be slaves to a God… that is the trap that the Islamists fell into. Instead, we are to be indwelled by God.
14Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit 16(for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). 17Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
I do not want to deviate into the errors of Pentecostalism. There is but one salvation, and that salvation is through Christ, But as Christ was filled with the Spirit of God, so he wants us to be filled. We tend to skim over this in our arguments, but that is something that I have huge difficulties with.
For none of us is pure. None of us does not have difficulties with sins — if you confront your brother about his gambling or gluttony, be aware that your wrath and lust need correction as well — and we are supposed to be filled with the Spirit of Christ.
But we sin. The more aware we are of ourselves, the more we realize just how much we do this. And how easy it is to fall into the habits of perdition. (This should make us act gently with our fellow sinners, but still confront the sin. Humility is a virtue, but turn us into jellyfish is an error)
But we cannot get away from the fact that the Spirit must indwell. Without it, we cannot do what we ought. We are left trapped in a cycle of guilt and shame. With the spirit comes love, joy and peace.
And the correct term is indwelling — it is not a matter of baptism (in some version of an Anabaptist error) in the spirit, or second experience, or deeper experience. There are people who are saintly, but before God we are all equal and there are no great degrees of virtue or levels of promotion within the Christian life. Instead, we are talking about the daily help with our tasks and burdens. The tasks we face, and the burdens we carry are heavy. Only the spirit makes them light.
