Simon was a genuine believer. He was baptized, he followed Philip, he saw the kingdom breaking into the visible world. But when Peter and John laid hands on people and they received the Spirit, something shifted in him. He saw what looked like power, and he wanted to buy it. Money was his object language. He'd built his reputation and identity around having resources that others wanted. Now he was seeing a new kind of resource, and he reverted to type.
I work in tech, and I see Simons constantly. Smart, entrepreneurial men who encounter God and genuinely want in. But they can't shake the operating system they were built with. They want to scale faith. They want to monetize spirituality. They want exclusive access to the miraculous. Peter's rebuke is sharp: your heart is not right. It wasn't that Simon wanted the Spirit for selfish gain exactly. It was that he wanted the Spirit within his existing framework of power and possession.
The thing is, Simon could have developed differently. There's no indication he was unsaved. But his heart never fully converted. He wanted Jesus' endorsement on his old life, not a new life altogether. How many of us are like that? Believing in God but refusing the deep repentance that would break our attachment to power, status, influence? I'm asking myself that this morning.
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