8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regards to sin and righteousness and judgement: 9 in regard to sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 in regard righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgement, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. John 16:8-10

Jesus was talking to his disciples about his imminent departure and how it would be followed by the coming of the Holy Spirit. One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit would be to prove the world wrong with regards to sin. You might ask yourself (I’m sure often) “what is wrong with this world”? I don’t know about you, but when I look at the world and the things people get up to, I often ask myself that question.

I often wonder whether technology and globalisation are our problem. If it wasn’t so easy to find and propagate the atrocities and scandals of mankind, perhaps we would be in a better place? Surely in the last 10 years, this world has become bad? Some countries have also become big, bossy and greedy; they are the problem.

Actually, we need to return to the Bible’s classical position. The problem with the world is sin; it always has been. On the Holy Spirit’s job description is to convict the world with regard to sin – to prove to the world that it is wrong about sin. That’s good news for us. Where the world thinks ‘love has won’ when a supreme court rules in favour of same-sex marriages, let us not forget that the Holy Spirit is at work in people’s hearts.

Our job as Christians is to pray in line with that and then to allow God to use us to bring the Truth to people. God is still in the business of saving – convicting people of sin and bringing them to faith in Him. Let us not forget. This is our mission, to come in line with what He is doing and to see the world changed.
I read this on the internet: “The world is a sinful place, and one of the Holy Spirit’s tasks is to convict the world of its sin. No amount of preaching, pleading, or pointing of fingers will bring about the conviction of sin, unless the Holy Spirit is at work in the sinner’s heart.”

Let’s change our approach. Let us return to the classical truth. Let us pray and preach both with our lives and with our words. God is at work in the world and there is still hope!

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