James 4:5 says, “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain: ‘The Spirit, whom He has caused to dwell in us, longs to envy’?” Here the Spirit is revealed as the Spirit of envy. The law in the Old Testament tells us that God is a jealous God (Exo. 20:5), and 2 Corinthians 11:2 also speaks of the jealousy of God. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, is a Spirit of jealousy. James 4:4 says, “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” To love the world is to commit spiritual adultery. If a wife loves someone other than her husband, her husband will be jealous. In the same way, the Spirit of God is a spirit of jealousy. He is jealous, just as a husband is jealous over his wife. We should not love anything other than the Lord Himself. If we do, the indwelling Spirit will be jealous.
First Peter 4:13 and 14 say, “But inasmuch as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice exultingly. If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” In the Epistles of Peter, the Spirit is revealed as the Spirit of glory. The Epistles of Peter, especially the first one, deal with the sufferings of the believers. If we Christians suffer something for Christ, then the Spirit within us will be the Spirit of glory. On the positive side, all sufferings work out one thing; that is, they break the outer man. Then when our outer man is broken, the glory in the Holiest Place, that is, in our spirit, will be manifested. The Spirit in verse 14 is the Spirit of glory for suffering in the name of Christ. The more we suffer, the more the Spirit of glory will be manifest.
A small story may help to make this clear. In 1900, the year of the Boxer Rebellion, a certain young man was about seventeen years old, a young learner in a store in Beijing, the capital of China. One day all the stores were closed due to Boxer activity. No one dared to come out into the street. All of a sudden there was a shouting along the street, and something like a parade proceeded by. This young man watched the procession through the crack of a door. The Boxers were parading with swords in their hand, pulling a mule cart, upon which sat a young girl. This young girl was condemned as a Christian and was being brought to a certain place to be executed by beheading. However, she was singing as she was paraded on that mule cart, and her face was shining. The young man who was watching through the door marveled how, amidst that parade of cruel people, the girl could sit there and sing with a shining face. While that young sister was being brought to be executed, she was suffering, and the Spirit of glory and of God was resting upon her. Later, when the young man sought to find out about the girl, he came to know the gospel. It was through this that he was saved. Many years later, he preached the gospel to a second person, who was then saved. It was through this second brother that I learned this story.
First Peter 1:11 speaks of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets. This refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in the ancient times. Here again we see that the Spirit is the eternal Spirit. Even in the ancient times, the time of the prophets before Christ came, the Spirit of Christ was already working. The Spirit worked within the prophets as the Spirit of Christ. As a result, they were inspired by this Spirit to seek to know something about Christ. Today, however, we have the Spirit of Christ indwelling us, as mentioned in Romans 8:9.
In the Epistles of John, the Spirit is implied as the anointing Spirit (1 John 2:20, 27). Then 3:24 says, “And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” Verse 13 of chapter four continues, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit,” and verse 15 says, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” These verses prove that God is one with us, that God dwells in us and we dwell in God by this anointing Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit in the Epistles of John is the Spirit of mutual abiding. We abide in God by the anointing Spirit, and God abides in us by this Spirit.