Bonus Features of Spirituality
March 15, 2009
There is some neurosis in my brain, some compulsivity that draws me toward the “Extra features” of a movie or TV show DVD. I must exhaust the contents of the disk, even if the movie was not terribly compelling. And this frequently involves watching the “deleted scenes” of the show.
I recognize that most people do not share this drive toward comprehensive viewing. For that reason, I am reluctant to transfer my viewing habits to my ministry of the word and assume that everyone wants to know everything I did not have time to say on Sunday morning. That being said, for the second week in a row I am eager to share a few “deleted scenes” from the application portion of Sunday’s sermon. I will try not to make it a habit.
In 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:4 we gathered enough data to see Paul define a “spiritual person” as one whose life is increasingly transformed by the Spirit as he illuminates the gospel. The point of application we worked through the most was how this speaks to our relationships within the church, especially as we see Paul confronting the Corinthians, “But I, brothers [and sisters], could not address you as spiritual people” (1 Corinthians 3:1).
I see two further points of application flowing from Paul’s definition of spirituality. The first involves our relationship with non-believers, particularly in evangelism. In the sermon I mentioned two conversations- the nature-loving waitress and the pornography-toting guy-where I was told, “I am a very spiritual person.” At the time I did not know what to do with that. But now, armed with Paul’s definition of spirituality, I think my follow-up to that claim would include questions like these: “When you talk about being spiritual, what spirit are you referring to? Is it your own spirit, or a spirit outside of you? How do you communicate with this spirit outside of you? What types of things does it or he or she communicate to you?” And then I would ask them if they would allow me to talk about what my spirituality looks like.
The second point of application concerns the way non-believers view us as “spiritual people.” In 1 Corinthians 2:15, Paul says, “the spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” What this very clearly does not mean is that believers have some special immunity where no one is allowed to call their life or speech into question. First Corinthians is Exhibit A for calling errant believers into question. So what does it mean?
Here’s what I think Paul is reasoning. As a person in increasingly transformed by the Spirit to see the eternal riches that God has prepared, his or her decisions are motivated by eternal realities rather than temporal realities. So she might decide to quit her job and focus the rest of her days on sharing this spiritual wealth with those in an unreached people group. He might decide to turn down the lucrative job in the prestigious law firm to fight human trafficking so that prostituted women might experience the mercy and justice of God. What will non-believers say of this? “You’re crazy!” If their only frame of reference is this age, if they don’t see anything being real after death, then they will not be able to discern or judge the motives of spiritual people.
I hope this sparks even more arenas in which defining spirituality helps us make more sense of our pilgrimage on this earth. May God continue to shape us through the way he defines the world around us.
Pastor Chris