.... love is shown in deeds.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, ... it remains with you, and will be in you.
... the holy spirit, or the "good spirit" as Ignatius would call it? For Ignatius, the feelings aroused by the good spirit (and also the bad spirit) help a person discern. The good spirit's advice brings "consolation" - feelings of peace, joy, and an increase of hope, faith and love.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
... but he will be "indwelling" rather than coming in the sense of "parousia", the second coming. Jesus keps telling the disciples he's leaving soon, and is trying to comfort them, but if I was one of them, I think I'd be worried, angry, hurt, and I'm not sure an amorphous advocate would takes his place for me.
4 comments:
You're right, Crystal. They were very upset and distraught by the physical absence of Jesus --- until On the day of Pentecost (cf
Acts 2) the Spirit descended upon them and charged them with a power equal to what Jesus had given them. It was Christ within.
Many of us are 'pre-pentecostal' waiting for the power like they were. Maybe for some of us it's a lifelong wait and search and hunger. That's okay. Christ is here and we are loved.
Hi Larry. I know almost nothing about pentacost - I've not read Acts or actually anything in the NT besides the gospels and that one letter we did by James.
But the amorphous advocate that you mentioned comes with power -- tongues of fire, miracles, wonders. Don't think that's exactly flimsy.
Stephen looked into the sky and saw Chrsit seated at the right ahnd of the Father.
Meanwhiel amorphous probably describes my experience. Signs following doesn't exactly describe my faith life.
Ha, David :-). Your faith life sounds still better than mine. Maybe we'll read Acts here in the study group sometime - it might be interesting.
Post a Comment