“Don’t Get ‘Spiritual’”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles Tags: Bible Lessons on SpiritualityA recent mail-out from a denominational source dealt with some kind of public protest where one felt “called by God” to carry a wooden cross through the city streets. When one criticized the move as being “show-offy” and with virtually no promise of accomplishing any good, the person said, “Now wait. Don’t go getting ‘spiritual’ on me!” Peculiar twist on this, that.
Think of the word “spiritual.” It’s not something you “get”; it is not some kind of faucet that one turns on, and then turns off. It has to do with being “of the Spirit,” and in New Testament application, one who is “of the Spirit” in that he abides by the instructions given from the Spirit in the Word of God (2 Peter 1:21). The faithful child of God is “of the Spirit” in that he has obeyed the gospel – that instrument God uses to call a man from sin and darkness and unto Himself (2 Thessalonians 2:14). He walks “led of the spirit” (Gal. 5:18) because he is directed by that Word the Spirit has given. He walks, then, not after the flesh (Romans 8:1). He is a spiritual house, busy about the matter of offering up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5). The child of God IS, then, spiritual. Spirituality is not something he “gets” in reaction to something else. It is something permanently A PART OF HIM!
It is amazing how time and men take their toll on plain Bible teaching. Among words and expressions abused, mis-used, perverted, bent, twisted and wrested are such as “born again … spiritual … saint … sanctified … holy … converted…,” etc. It is little wonder that in a nation filled with Bibles men still have little concept of the will of God. And in a time and society wherein virtually everything has been placed on the altar of materialism, goods, fun, etc., very little thought is even given to being spiritual. But time does not change the Word, and it is still required that men obey the truth, and live by the truth, and thus, in life, to be spiritual. For the child of God the challenge is, again, to BE SPIRITUAL and not to just drift through life unguided and then, when faced with some situation, to “GET SPIRITUAL.”
THE SOUTHWESTERNER, December 2, 1990