To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 12:3 “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”

One of the commands of Jesus is that we say what we mean and mean what we say.  One of the ways in which He commanded this is found in the following passage from the Sermon on the Mount: “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Matthew 5:33-37).  In the Old Testament we have the same idea with these words from the Ten Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). 

In the interpretation of Scripture, it is important to compare Scripture to Scripture, i.e., what the Bible means in one place can often be discerned by what it says in another.   Which brings us to the Scripture above from 1 Corinthians 12:3. On its face, or if taken on its own, the verse simply says that if you say “Jesus is Lord” you are saying so by the Holy Spirit.  And if one has the Holy Spirit, that means he or she is a born-again believer in Jesus Christ with an inheritance of eternal life.  However, taken with the Scriptures that say that we must say what we mean and mean what we say, it is understood that when a person says “Jesus is Lord,” it must be a truthful statement if it is said by the Holy Spirit.  Anyone can say “Jesus is Lord” but that doesn’t mean Jesus is the Lord of that person’s life.  Anyone can say they are a believer in Jesus Christ. In fact, it seems that many people you talk to about this topic will claim they are Christians. However, if that person doesn’t truly love Jesus, and if that person has no interest in truly following Jesus, what their claims about their Christianity are meaningless.

As to the particular assertion by someone that “Jesus is Lord,” the Bible also says this, a quote from the lips of Jesus: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23). 

So, back to the verse above.  No one can say “Jesus is Lord” and truly mean it unless it is by the Holy Spirit.  This all points to a caution to be careful with what we think and what we say regarding eternal things.  A person can say just about anything.  And a person can get in a habit of saying something over and over again, and start to actually believe it, even if it is a lie.  How many people attend a church somewhere, singing hymns and praise songs week after week what extol Jesus as Lord, yet they have never truly put their faith in Christ and He most certainly is not the Lord and Master of their lives.  Thus, the Scripture’s warnings, such as this one from 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”  And we are to test ourselves by the Scriptures. We are to test ourselves by books such as 1 John, which describe a true Christian, as well as one who is not. 

How shocking it will be for some people to one day stand before Christ, claiming that He is Lord, but will hear these horrifying words: “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” You see, in the end it won’t matter what we have said regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. What will matter is whether we truly meant what we said from the heart.  May God help us to examine ourselves and the words that fall from our lips such that we say what we mean and mean what we say, for that’s the way God has always spoken to us in His Word.