According to the Apostle John, Spirit-filled people demonstrate their supernatural unity with Christ through the ordinary actions of faith, love, and obedience. Though many Christians associate abiding in the Holy Spirit with prophecies, healings, and a whole host of other things that would help one’s social media posts go viral, John locates encounters with the Spirit within the confines of ordinary Christian living. In other words, those who have the Spirit confess Christ, love the brethren, and obey God’s commands.
The Spirit and Salvation
In 1 John 4:13, John writes, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” The verses that precede and follow this one tie the concept of abiding in God to right belief and behavior. In verse 15, John writes, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” In other words, those who abide in God—and who have the Spirit of God—confess that Jesus is the Christ. They not only recognize that Jesus existed; they affirm that Jesus is fully God and fully man, and that as such he has offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for their sins and given them eternal life. As John writes in 1 John 4:9–10, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world…he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Those who have the Holy Spirit confess the apostolic gospel relayed through the Bible by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus told John in the Gospel of John 14:26, “The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Spirit uses Scripture to regenerate the hearts of God’s people. As the apostle Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” The first and great work of the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with the Father and the Son, is salvation.
The Spirit and Sanctification
And with salvation comes sanctification. Those who abide with God and have the Spirit will abide in love. As John notes in 1 John 4:11–12, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Salvation leads to love. Such love consists not of grand gestures tied together with red ribbons and expensive gifts; it consists of sacrificially serving others so that they might glorify God. What do we sacrifice? According to John, Christians sacrifice their sinful longing for relaxation and go read a book to their infant son. They surrender their desire to complain about cleaning their room and joyfully obey their parents. They sacrifice the longing to curse and instead bless their coworkers with their words. The Spirit enables men and women to keep the law through the power of Christ. As the prophet Ezekiel proclaimed long ago: “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19–20). Or as John says more succinctly in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” The Spirit enables Christians to love the saints through obedience.
Consequently, the Spirit can be said to lead people to church. If faith’s greatest outworking occurs as the people of God love one another, then those who abide in the Spirit will long to be with God’s people. They will desire to fellowship with the gathered body of Christ on Sunday mornings. Moreover, that fellowship will provide them with increased opportunities to love those who annoy them, who hold differing political beliefs, and who share none of their tastes in sports, cooking, or hunting. The Spirit leads the saints to fellowship with the saints, so that all might grow in putting sin to death and glorifying the Lord. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit consists in the saints faithfully loving other saints who are hard to love—because of the sin within one’s own heart and the sins of others—through obedience to God’s commands.
Final Thoughts
Though many Christians associate being Spirit-filled with abilities such as curing cancer, Johs in accordance with Jesus associates the main work of the Spirit with faith and obedience. Without question, God can and does heal and accomplish miracles through the work of the Holy Spirit in junction with the faith and prayers of his people. But the normal expressions of the Spirit are most commonly seen as men and women repent, believe, and love their neighbors. Though following Christ in the waters of baptism and visiting a shut-in can appear rather mundane, these acts are just as much a supernatural manifestation of the Spirit as the Spirit’s stirring someone to meet a need that was only mentioned in silent prayer. Only those who have the Spirit can confess Jesus as their savior and love the saints through obedience to the commands of God.