The Gentleman Spirit?

Introduction

I have heard it said, “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, He won’t force Himself on anyone.” I have been wrestling with this statement trying to determine where it comes from and if it is true. Here is some of my research and observations.

Don Basham, writing on how the Holy spirit works in our lives, says “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He works in our lives only to the extent that we are willing. He prompts and leads and woos and persuades, but He does not force.”¹

Another writer uses phrases like, “He never asserts His way”, “He will never barge into our lives uninvited” and that the Spirit is, “longing for intimacy [with us], But, He will never demand our attention.”²

This whole idea may be coming from the belief that the Holy Spirit would not violate someone’s free will. It goes like this: Forcing someone to do something (violating free will) is not what a gentleman would do. Since God gives us free will, and lets us choose, therefore the Holy Spirit is a gentleman.

My View

I would agree that God has given man free will allowing him to make his own choice, but it does not mean that He leaves us alone. I think there is a confusion of what God’s role is here. God is the One who pursues us and sometimes He must force us to see the truth. I have several examples and passages to consider.

Trinity

The Scriptures reveal the Trinity -Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -which can be defined as, “In the one living and true God there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in existence.”³ Some major passages revealing the distinction of the Spirit:

• His role is to guide us into the truth, and to bring glory to Jesus. (John 16:13-14; Rom 8:14)
• He reveals God’s wisdom to us. (1 Cor 2:10-11)
• He is Deity. (Acts 5:3-4)
• He is the Spirit of truth and abides in believers. (John 14:17; Rom 8:9-11; 1 Cor 6:19)
• He can be blasphemed. (Mat 12:22-37)
• Believers are sealed in Him and He fills them. (Eph 4:30; 5:18)
• Spiritual gifts are given to believers as He wills. (1 Cor 12:4-11)
• The Spirit bears fruit in our lives. (Gal 5:22-23)

Each member of the Trinity has certain distinctions, but no where does the Bible say that the “Spirit is a Gentleman.” In fact, the following example reveals Him confronting sin.

Confronting Sin

In John 16:8, Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit’s role. Calling Him the Helper, Jesus says that the Spirit “will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment;” so that the Holy Spirit’s role is confrontational toward the non-Christians. We know that it is directed at non-Christians because verse 9 says the conviction is ‘because they do not believe in Me (Jesus).’ John 16:7-11 says,7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

Examples

In many examples, we see that the members of the Trinity are referred to in the same passage as God. The Acts 5 passage (mentioned later) is an example of this where Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, who is later called God. Because the Holy Spirit works in men, I believe that the following examples of God working in people can be attributed to the Spirit of God.

Example of Paul

The passage I first think of on this topic is the story of the conversion of Paul, who became an apostle and writer of much of the New Testament.

In Acts chapter 9, we are brought into the story at the point where Paul is not a Christian, and is persecuting the followers of Jesus. He is convinced that they are wrong and is granted authority from the Jewish high priest to pursue Jesus’ disciples and put them in prison. Traveling to Damascus for this purpose, he was stopped along the way by a very bright light shining all around him.

Picking up the story in verse 5, Paul says,“Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

After arriving in the city, God sends a disciple to Paul, saying,“Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”⁴

Paul is trembling and astonished, having been confronted by Jesus Himself. Paul is told the truth concerning Jesus, and has a choice to make. Paul had great religious credentials, but they were of no value when it came to salvation. Paul made the choice to not depend on his credentials, but to follow Jesus. (Philippians 3:7, 8)⁵

Example of Ananias & Sapphira

In his sermon against this idea of the Holy Spirit being a gentleman, Dr. Mark A. Barber recalls the passage in Acts 5:1-11. In this passage, Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied to God concerning a financial gift they had made to the fledgling church. The Scriptures tell us in verse 5 of the passage, that Ananias was confronted about his lie,
“And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came upon all who heard of it.”
Later, his wife Sapphira suffered the same fate.

Dr Barber points out that it can be quite a shock if we have a distorted view of God and then come to a passage such as this. If we overemphasize God’s love and leave out God’s Holiness, we can come to wrong conclusions. In our world today, it would be easy to trivialize sin, thinking that it is not that big of a deal. The Acts passage shows us that God does not think lightly of sin.

Dr Barber goes on and says, “Jesus did not come preaching: “Please consider the gospel and whether you should repent or not.” Rather it is the imperative: “Repent and believe the Gospel!” The same can be said of John the Baptist and the Apostles.”⁶

The message concerning repentance is not taken lightly because our eternal destiny is at stake! We are confronted by the Gospel and have a choice to make. He gives us the truth and then lets us decide for ourselves.

Other examples

There are other examples in the Scriptures of men being confronted by God with very tough choices. A few of them are:

• Abraham -tested by the sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22)
• Job -Satan incited God against Job, to ruin him without cause (Job 2:3)
• Jonah -God ‘convinced’ him to preach to Nineveh (Jonah 2:9)
• Nebuchadnezzer -He became proud, so God drove him away from mankind, and he ate grass like the cattle, until he repented (Daniel 4:28-37)
• Philip -suddenly found himself about 30 miles away in Azotus (Acts 8:40)

The preceding examples demonstrate the importance God places on following Him. These Scriptures are given to us to illustrate the point, and are perhaps extraordinary, but may be more common that we know. However, we do know that God created us, loves us, is jealous for us, and therefore teaches us so that we can share His Holiness.⁷ Becoming like Christ is God’s goal for each of us! (Galatians 4:19)⁸

Learn to Love Reproof

Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline love knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

We don’t want to be stupid, but that is what we are when we hate the reproof. When we respond correctly, we benefit by gaining knowledge. We don’t automatically think rightly about all things, and need to be corrected from time to time.

Discipline from God

In Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 & 6, the writer reminds us of the exhortation addressed to us as believers and says,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
Then in verse 11,“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

God disciplines His own, which is a demonstration of His love for us, and we get the benefit of a righteous life. It is God’s grace to confront us when we need it so that we can be reconciled to Him.

Benefits

Confrontation and discipline from God, if we receive it with the right attitude, can cause spiritual growth in our lives. It is important for us to understand the benefits we receive as His followers from His work in our lives (just to name a few things):

• Godly character
• Righteousness
• Holiness
• Reconciliation with Man and God
• Purpose as God’s creation
• Knowledge
• Fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)

Conclusion

When I started working on this article, I had only thought of Paul’s Damascus road experience. As more examples came to my attention, my pride swelled up momentarily and I thought, “Who does God think He is to treat me this way?” Then, I realized how stupid and arrogant I was to think I knew better than God, my Creator! God is gracious! One reason I know this is because He did not strike me dead at that moment for making myself greater than Him!

As I neared completion of the article, I realized that God is right to confront us. If He did not, we might still be in our sinful state, or immature and worldly thinking, without knowledge of God or His Grace. Summarizing Romans 5:3-5,“We should be glad in our tribulations because it produces character in us, gives us hope, and continues to demonstrate God’s love for us.”⁹

Finally, He is the Lord. Since He is our Lord and Creator, He does not need our permission. I write about this in, Jesus is the Kyrios (Lord).

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1 Don Basham, A Handbook on Holy Spirit Baptism, 1969, 54 (Sorry I do not have a better reference.)

2 https://ilovethechurch.com/the-holy-spirit-is-a-gentleman/ 6/15/22

3 Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1986), 632

4 Acts 9:15, 16

5 Phil 3:7, 8 -“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

6 https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/514740-is-the-holy-ghost-a-gentleman 6/13/2022

7 Hebrews 12:10 “For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He [disciplines us] for [our] good, so that we may share His holiness.”

8 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on Gal 4:19 – “i. e. literally, until a mind and life in complete harmony with the mind and life of Christ shall have been formed in you.”

9 Romans 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.