The Spirit of Truth, Whom the World Cannot Receive
David W Palmer
(John 14:15–17 NKJV) “If you love Me, keep My commandments. {16} And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— {17} the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
Jesus promised to give his loving, obedient followers the “Spirit of truth”— to dwell “with you” and “be in you.” Because he made the conditions for receiving this Spirit so limiting—“love me, keep my commandments”—then it is impossible for “the world” to receive him, this Spirit of truth. The ramifications of this are enormous and explain a lot of what is going on in the world around us. For example, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah said:
(Isaiah 59:14–15 NLT) Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. {15} Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The LORD looked and was displeased to find there was no justice.
This passage describes so accurately what is happening in much of the Western world today. In other words, this is particularly relevant to us. So, let’s investigate what Jesus said to understand its full ramifications for us, how to receive this Spirit; and let’s discover how this applies to us and how we can best cooperate with the Spirit of truth as we interact with a truth-less world.
(1 John 5:19 NLT) “We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.”
We see here that the world with which we are surrounded is “under the control” of the “evil one.” Yes, Satan, the devil, the deceiver and accuser controls the world. I know that this doesn’t seem right—that the whole world system is controlled by the devil. We can easily say that there are many “good” people out there in the world; they do good things and keep some bad people from perpetrating evil. But, we must remember that the tree that threatened to bring death in the Garden of Eden was characterised by “good” as well as evil:
(Genesis 2:9, 16–17 NLT) The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ... {16} But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— {17} except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
The deadly and deceiving tree—representing the lethal danger of taking on the role of judging what is good or evil and then acting on your own conclusions—is completely deadly and just as much about “good” as it is “evil.” This “tree and fruit” typifies human choices made independently of God; actions based on its worldly wisdom lead to death.
So, we should obviously expect both good and evil in the world around us—it is at the heart of the devil’s way to keep people away from God and thus to control the world through them. Always remember that God’s word says that the “world” is controlled by the “evil one.”
The only people who have been freed from the enemy’s kingdom are those who meet the conditions Jesus mentioned in our opening passage: “love me, keep my commandments.” (His primary commandment is to love.) Elsewhere, the New Testament expands on this to explain that this means that we live by faith, walk in the spirit, be worshippers of God in spirit and truth, give, love, and be holy, etc.
