Flesh vs. Spirit — know the difference!

Today’s reading is about the necessity of being inhabited and guided and empowered by the Spirit of Christ. It seems this is not well understood. Some Christians talk as if they are doing this all the time because they have been saved, yet the NT warns believers about doing the opposite:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another… But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:1–17)

In another passages, the NT describes the difference between a “natural person” and a “spiritual person.” It says: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:14–15) This verse is a contrast between those who are not saved and those who are. In other words, I can understand the things of God because the Holy Spirit lives in me and gives me that ability.

However, other verses like the those in Galatians, call Christians who act like natural persons “mere humans.” In this verse, it refers to those who boast of the leaders they are following:
For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? (1 Corinthians 3:4)

I’ve done this. We have moved many times because of my hubby’s work and when he was saved, we attended a church led by a well-known pastor. I’ve boasted about that. The Bible this is fleshy behavior.

It also says that old nature is dead (separated from God) and because the Holy Spirit lives in me, I have supernatural life flowing through me and can live with His power rather than my own. Galatians describes this by saying the flesh produces sin and selfishness but “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Galatians 5:22–23). Some sins are subtle, or do not seem like sins but God has shown me if love, joy, peace, etc. are missing, then I am not walking in the Spirit but behaving as a mere human, not a spiritual person.

This is not about knowledge but about character. Adam and Eve fell into sin because they wanted to be like God in knowing things, but God wanted them to desire holiness. Had that tree offered it, the world would be drastically different from what it is now. I would not battle things like pride, envy or any other selfish thinking that leads to words and actions contrary to holiness.

Walking in the flesh is an affront to the new life that God gives, a life of humility and growing in likeness to Jesus Christ. James makes the contrast as a warning to believers who assume their salvation alone makes us what we ought to be…

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:14–18)

PRAY: Jesus, I’ve been thinking much about holiness, and becoming increasingly aware of the subtleness of the flesh that is earthly, unspiritual, even demonic, and how much damage it can do in my relationships with others and with You. I’m thankful that You died to set me free from sin, from the world and the devil, and mostly from that old nature called the flesh. Remind me often that I am a new creature, changed by You and able to live by Your Spirit instead of reverting to that old me. But that old requires recognition, confession, and repentance to stop it from taking dominion of how I think, talk, and behave.

Broken to make us united…

 

The term “broken” is often used by Christians to describe the way God deals with our selfishness. Instead of letting us be the boss of our lives, He ‘breaks’ that old nature using circumstances and other means to show us that the old person is dead in Christ and useless to God. However, when the NT speaks of Christ being the “Bread of life” and His body being broken for us, He had no sin to be dealt with.

In the NT, this metaphor is not literal nor about Jesus. His body was not broken, not one bone. Some decide this is an argument for Transubstantiation. Others say it signifies something about the church because the Bible also uses the term “body of Christ” when speaking of the church.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, (Colossians 1:24)

When our church celebrates communion, Jesus is often quoted: “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” (Luke 22:19)

Each time I hear it, I tend to think of brokenness as first described — the way God deals with the old nature to ‘break’ our stubborn self-rule and bring us into a yielded body of believers. He wants us to be useful and fruitful to Him, united in our spirits.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4–5)

The old nature cannot do any of this. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned…” (1 Corinthians 2:14–15) Other verses describe this:

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? (1 Corinthians 3:4)
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

There is no way we can be the church without this experience of a changed life. The call to deny myself for the sake of love, to return good for evil, to forgive seventy times seven, to endure one another, and to keep on doing this with joy for fifty or sixty or eighty years is not possible to the natural human. It is only possible supernaturally as Jesus said:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

All of this says that this breaking of bread is more about the church than it is about the physical body of Jesus. One verse puts it this way:

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)

But what about the brokenness? Is it the process of becoming yielded? Or something else? Is it about the unity of many different members? Or about Christ giving His body so that the many could be one?

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  For the body does not consist of one member but of many. (1 Corinthians 12:12–14)

Whatever Jesus meant, it was for us to remember. He died so that we could be His Body and when we take the bread, we need to remember that we are united to Him and to one another. As He said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:24)

PRAY: Jesus, I do think of Your shed blood and Your battered body on that cross when I take communion. You prompt me to think also of those who take it along with me. We are one, unified because of You. I feel it and need to always remember it — as I remember all that You have done to make that unity possible; breaking sin’s hold on us by allowing Your own body to be nailed to that cross and allowing Your life to flow out that we might have life everlasting.