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Scripture: Romans 8.5-8
5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Comments
For St. Paul, “flesh,” the Greek sarx, theologically does not refer to the body. And, Spirit is pneuma, and this can refer to the spirit of God or spirit of a person. “Flesh” refers to a heart not sensitive and pliable to the Spirit, even if that heart be filled with religiousness and moral concerns. Indeed, a person may be quite religious, even a “confessing Christian” who reads and prays daily, yet, her heart might be closed to the Spirit, for she is not practicing devotion, she is practicing religion. In that sense, then, she reads from the flesh and what she interprets will likely fit her flesh and leave her spirit unchallenged and untransformed into the likeness of the Spirit of Christ. Words will fill her mind, but her heart will remain untouched by the Breath of Christ.
Indeed, a person could well from fleshly religion be a martyr for the name of Christ and not know the Spirit of Christ. He could preach an impeccable doctrine and not be touched by Christ in the heart, or he may have been touched in the past and presently be cut off from the Spirit of Christ. And, if he is not touched in the heart, he remains cut off from Christ, even while claiming Christ and preaching Christ. It takes no touch of Christ for him to word a creed on a Sunday morning, for even a fleshly man or woman can quote the same creed from pure rote. I can go on the street and pay someone money to say the same creed recited up the street by someone on a Sunday in a local sanctuary, but both are fleshly confessions, if neither speaks from the heart and lives in word and deed the Spirit of the creed.
To live the creed, indeed, what all worship is a sign of, in the Spirit of Christ, now, that is something that we cannot do in the flesh. Indeed, it is our life that will prove whether we know Christ, am sensitive to the Spirit of Christ, am a man or woman of God-love, am a person of compassionate insight, or cut off from Christ and of the flesh. And, doctrine or moral opinions will give no sure proof of anything at all, except that we can talk about them as though we truly live them, but then we would not live them. Indeed, a man or woman might be a fine person and an outstanding member of the community, but that does not mean he or she is living from the Spirit.
St. Paul makes this clear, the Spirit evidences in “life and peace.” The person who is a trouble-maker, must have her way, backbites, and lives a discontented life shows that she is not living in the Spirit, for she is not a person of life and peace. One cannot say, “Oh, I am in the Spirit,” and, then, behave otherwise and consistently. In that case, words are no more than words, and her life convicts her of her error.
But, thankfully, where a person, wherever she is and of what tradition or no tradition, is a person of life and peace, spiritual life and spiritual peace, then, she shows she is sensitive and pliable to the Spirit of Christ. She may have no creed, but she has a life, an inner creed, which proves sincerity and righteousness. She is of the Spirit, for life and peace proves so, even as the lack of life and peace would prove otherwise.
St. Paul is very clear, “The person in the sarx cannot please God.” Even the religion of the sarx person, whether Christian religion or another one, is cut off from the fullness of the Spirit. And, the religion itself may well not only fail to reflect the truth spoken, but drive one farther from the Spirit.
So, what are we to do to become persons of the Spirit? We might think that we are to change our thinking and actions and go help save the world. No, not first. John Wesley, one of the founders of the communion I serve, says sin is relational, not as a substance inside us or inside society. Therefore, spirituality and righteousness is relational. To be persons of the Spirit is to be persons in relationship with Christ, through the Spirit, and this flows into relationship with all creatures.
To be a pneuma person, we cease using religion, its customs and means, to guard our hearts from Christ. Rather, we enter into the religion that it might serve the opening of our heart to Christ. Then, we shall be men and women of love, joy, and peace. We will spread the life of Christ by our very spirits in communion and union with Christ, and more so than those who argue about Christ and seek to convert the world to Christ. Without this openness to Spirit, regardless of how moral and religious we might be, we are cut off from Christ and in need of repentance, or a turning to Christ. This is really a return to relationship, not an intensifying of belief, faith, or rite, necessarily.
Therefore, again, to please God we become relational, in a lively and dynamic, growing and changing, celebrating and daring communion with the Spirit. Otherwise, we might perform well means of Grace, but they do not come from the warmth and devotion of relationship. But, employing the means of Grace out of the desire to mature and enrich the relationship with Christ, which we already enjoy, then, we grow to be more the men and women who please God by living truly godlike lives. We will be, not persons who have to contend about beliefs, rather, we will be persons who change the world by the glow of peace and life that flows through us by the one Spirit of Grace.
Can anyone demonstrate to me that religion does not often seem to spawn the exact opposite of what is a life of life and peace, a life of the Spirit? If so, then, no matter what it calls itself, it is of the flesh, not of the Spirit, and it is of discord and deathliness, not life and peace. For the Spirit cannot spawn what is not of the Spirit. Therefore, let us not ascribe to Christ any religiousness that is not spiritual in attitude and life. Let us be men and women of the Spirit, captivated by Christ, and, thus, persons that emanate and spread the virtues of life and peace. If we must become less religious to do so, as religion is often understood, then, let us become less religious and more the lovers of Christ. For, is it not true religion, yes, true Christianity in the factual sense of following the Way, that spreads, not necessarily religion foremost, but foremost life and peace for the good of all creatures? Is this not always by the enabling of the Spirit of Grace, who is gracious to all, even those who refuse life and peace?
Spiritual Exercise
Reflect over the last week. Have you been a person spreading life and peace? Explain. How might religion draw a sincere worshipper closer toward Christ? How might religion draw an insincere worshipper farther fro Christ?
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