Holy Conviction
A followup from my last post
I wanted to follow up my last post about spiritual discernment with a—hopefully—clarifying explanation.
It was rightfully pointed out that the Holy Spirit does convict us. But how do we discern that holy conviction from imposition or coercion?
In my own experience, when the Holy Spirit convicts me, that conviction is experienced as coming from my own heart rather than being imposed from the outside; it’s accompanied by the desire to follow through with what I’m being convicted about; and it brings a feeling of hope that God will actually bring about this change in me, and therefore make me more free. It does not feel like shame or fear.
Matthew chapter 5 may be helpful here. Jesus presents himself as the new lawgiver, the new Moses, and says, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (21-22).
He follow that up with a similar teaching about lust, “You have heard that it was said,‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (27-28). Then he ends this teach by saying, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (48).
What Jesus is teaching here is really challenging and convicting. He’s not mincing words or watering down the commandments. However, there’s two ways we can present and hear his teaching.
The first way comes with an explicit, but more often implicit, threat: “I must be not-angry, not-lustful, and perfect in order to be good, to be loved, to belong.” It’s transactional. And the motivation for change—the conviction—comes from shame and fear.
The second way, what I believe the Church presents as the true way, of hearing this teaching flips the transaction on its head. I receive this teaching knowing the truth that I’m already and will always be good; that God already loves, and will never stop loving, me; and that I already, and will always, belong with Christ and his Church. The motivation for change, the conviction, comes from the hope and joy of knowing that Christ will liberate me from my anger, lust, and imperfections.
Thank you, Paul. This is good stuff,
Really clear distinction between conviction rooted in fear vs hope. The Matthew 5 framework helps clarify why the same teaching can land so diffrently depending on the theological foundation underneath. I've wrestled with this exact dynamic in spiritual directon myself, where the same challenge can either tighten around shame or open toward freedom. The "already loved" framing is what makes conviction actually sustainable long term.