"you who are spiritual"
(Gal. 6: 1)
In the previous chapter we looked at how the believer is enriched in faith, enriched in his understanding of the being, works, mind, and ways of God. He is enriched in his religion and worship. His religion is "pure and undefiled before God." It is manifested in his good works and in his keeping himself morally clean ("unspotted from the world"). It is intimately connected with "spirituality." But, what is spirituality? It is as broad in definition as is the word "religion." How one defines "spiritual" and "religion" is varied and difficult, much the same way other words are hard to define, such as "life."
Today, as in previous times, we have lots of claims to being "spiritual." "Spiritualists" and "spiritualism" in the occult world denotes something far different than what Paul or Peter meant when they spoke of people and things being "spiritual."
Spiritual People
"But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." (I Cor. 2: 15)
Who is the "spiritual man"? What characterizes him? How is he defined by the various religions? How is he defined by the new testament writers, the only ones to commonly use the term? Likewise, what are "spiritual things"? Paul had more to say about being "spiritual" in his Corinthian epistles than anywhere else. Why is this? Do the rich and powerful, the wise and learned, of this present age, claim to be "spiritual"? Is every human a spiritual man? Or, is it only the world's gifted elite who are spiritual? Or, is it as Paul affirms, only believers in Christ that are spiritual men and women?
The Greek word for "spiritual" is "pneumatikos" and is an adjective describing a person or thing. Strong says the word means "non-carnal, i.e. (humanly) ethereal (as opposed to gross), or (dæmoniacally) a spirit (concretely), or (divinely) supernatural, regenerate, religious." One of its definitions involves what pertains to the human spirit, to the non physical part of man, to the non material world. Paul was the only one to use it, with the exception of Peter, who used it in one sentence. (I Peter 2: 5) Paul, however, used the term frequently in his epistles and it is from his usage of the word that we discern its meaning. The word is found 26 times in the New Testament. It is translated"spiritual" in every occurrence, so we are not troubled with discordant renderings. The adverb form of pneumatikos occurs two times and is translated "spiritually" in both occurrences.
Paul used this term more frequently in his first letter to the Corinthians. Being spiritual was important to the Corinthians as it was to the apostle. But, what did they think was the essence of spirituality when they were Pagans versus what Paul taught them about it? Was it even a term used by Pagans? Or, was it a word that Paul gave birth to? Certainly his concept of spirituality is at odds with how most people today, including modern Polytheists, use the term. For instance, the word "spiritualist" (or "spiritualism") is used frequently today and denotes one who believes in communicating with the spirits of the dead. Some think "spiritual" is a synonym for "religious." But, Paul never used it in this sense, although his concept of spirituality involved religion. In fact, he would affirm that false religions are not spiritual, being rather "carnal," "natural," or "fleshly." Many people claim to be spiritual but not religious and so the terms are not synonymous with all.
Many scholars have written on the meaning of pneumatikos and spirituality. As concerns its usage in the new testament many scholars have rightly focused on how Paul contrasted both "psychikos" ("natural" or "sensual" KJV) and "sarkikos" ("fleshly") with pneumatikos. He also contrasts it with "soma" the word for the physical body. For instance, Trench the scholarly linguist, wrote (here):
"According to Scripture, the psyche (soul - SG), no less than the sarx (flesh - SG), belongs to the lower region of man's being. Since psychikos often is applied to man's lower level, it is no more honorable a word than sarkikos. According to Scripture, the psychikos is one for whom the psyche is the highest motivation of life and action. On the one hand, such a person suppresses the pneuma, the organ of the divine pneuma. On the other hand, the pneuma of the psychikos is as good as extinct, because the divine Spirit has never lifted such a person to the spiritual realm (Rom. 7:14; 8:1; Jude 19)."
What is the governing principle of men who do not possess the Spirit or presence of God? What motivates them? What causes their behavior? What influences their choices? It is often man's soul or psyche, his reasoning, the way he interprets things, that guides his beliefs, choices, and habits. It is often his flesh, denoting his corrupt, beastly, animal instincts, his sensuality, his immoral lusts and pleasures. Though the man governed by the psyche is higher in status and position than the man governed by materialistic and physical desires, yet he is not superior to the spiritual man. Paul, like many Gnostics, viewed men as either men of the flesh, men of the soul, or men of the spirit.
Said Trench:
"According to Scripture, both the sarkikos and the psychikos are opposed to the pneumatikos. Sarkikos and psychikos refer to different ruling principles, each of which is antagonistic to the pneuma. When Paul reminded the Ephesians of how they once behaved, "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2:3), he described them first as sarkikoi and then as psychikoi. In unregenerate people, who live their lives apart from God, there are two forms of life. Although every unregenerate person partakes of both forms, either form may predominate. In the sarkikoi, the sarx predominates; in the psychikoi, the psyche rules. Sarx often is used in the New Testament to refer to the entire domain of our fallen nature, to the source of sin (Rom. 7:18; 8:5). Thus the erga tes sarkos (Gal. 5:19-21) not only are sinful works done in and through the body but also include sinful acts of the mind. More than half of the sins listed in Galatians 5:19-21 belong to the latter class. Although sarx can include everything in man that is alienated from God and from his life, it is limited when contrasted with psyche."
One way of discerning the meaning of "spiritual" is to look at the words used as its opposites, to its antonyms (in addition to any synonyms of it), words such as "carnal," "natural," "sensual," "fleshly," as Trench does above. Thus, "spiritual" denotes what is supra natural, or supernatural, what is not subject to physical laws. Thus also, "spiritual" denotes negatively what is not carnal, not fleshly, not brutish or beastly, not animalistic, and what is positively of a higher excellence, a higher level of thought and life.
Notice how all three words (standing for types of men) "refer to different ruling principles." This is true. Thus, we may ask of every man - what governs you in your choices and behavior? In neither the soul governed man nor in the flesh governed man does the Spirit and word of God rule. What rules is the ego, the "I," the "self," in men governed by the soul and flesh.
Trench, citing another, said further:
"Thus psychikoi are those who "do not have the Spirit" (Jude 19), however much they shine with the most exquisite natural gifts, cultivate the mind, the most excellent part, with all types of education, and direct their life very strictly according to the dictates of reason. Finally he calls psychikoi those to whom he previously had appealed as the wise, the scribes, the scholars, and the leaders of that age that they suppress any natural or acquired rank, in order that human reason may be able to increase with its natural strength "psychikos is one who yields in everything to the reasonings of the soul [psyche], not thinking there is need for help from above," as Chrysostom has rightly stated he is one who has nothing extraordinary in himself except a rational soul, the light and guidance of which alone he follows."
The worldly wise, the mighty and powerful, the elite, are not spiritual people, but are carnal, natural, and governed by the depraved soul and by the lusts of the flesh. This being so, they are not truly elite, being presumptuous in that respect, not being God's chosen and favored ones. The spiritual man is superior to the carnal man though the former be among the poor and weak of this world and the latter among its ruling rich elite. The elites of the world, those who are judged to be the wise, noble, educated, rich, etc., are mere low level men, men ruled by their depraved souls, by their morally corrupt hearts and minds.
Trench continued:
"Grotius made similar observations:
A psychikos person is not the same as a sarkikos individual. Psychikos is one who is led only by the light of human reason; sarkikos is one who is controlled by bodily desires. But usually psychikoi are in some way sarkikoi as the Greek philosophers, fornicators, corrupters of boys, snatchers of fame, slanderous, envious. Nothing else is denoted here (1 Cor. 2:14) but a person who thrives on human reason alone such as most of the Jews and the Greek philosophers.
The question of how to translate psychikos is not easy to answer. "Soulish," which some have proposed, has the advantage of having the same relation to "soul" that psychikos does to psyche, but the word would certainly convey no meaning at all to ordinary English readers. Wycliffe translated psychikos as "beastly," which is equivalent to "animal" (animalis occurs in the Vulgate). The Rhemish Version has "sensual," and this was adopted by the Authorized Version in James 3:15 and Jude 19, instead of "fleshly," which appears in Cranmer's Version and in the Geneva Version. The other three times psychikos is used in the New Testament, it is translated as "natural." "Sensual" and "natural" are both unsatisfactory translations, but "sensual" is even more so now than at the time when our Authorized Version was made. The meanings of sensual and of sensuality have been modified considerably and now imply a deeper degradation than they formally did."
Pneumatikos is a compound word linking "pneuma" with "tikos." The former simply means "spirit," the literal meaning of which is air, breath, or wind, and generally denotes that which is invisible and non physical, or immaterial. Air and wind are metaphors for spirit beings. The latter (tikos) means "pertaining to, or from." It is what concerns the spirit, or has its source in spirit. In Paul's teaching spiritual is defined as "what pertains to or is from the Holy Spirit." It is set in opposition to psychikos ("natural" or "sensual") and to sarkikos ("fleshly"), as we have observed.
Said one writer on the "pneumatics" among the Greeks and Gnostics:
"The pneumatics ("spiritual", from Greek πνεῦμα, "spirit") were, in Gnosticism, the highest order of humans, the other two orders being psychics and hylics ("matter"). A pneumatic saw itself as escaping the doom of the material world via the transcendent knowledge of Sophia's Divine Spark within the soul." (See here)
Spiritual men are indeed "the highest order of humans," but who are the true spiritual men? Who are the supermen, the elite specimens of humanity? On a lower level are those governed by soul and flesh.
This philosophy of the pneumatics is also what those who embrace the "new age movement" believe. They believe that they are "spiritual" because they are in communication with the spirits of the dead, with the demons, with the intermediary gods, and have the "divine spark" within them, a divinity with which they find all the wisdom and knowledge they need, a kind of mystic intuition and insight. They believe that they have divinity already within themselves, in their own "spirits," and all they have to do is to tune into it or connect with it. Many of them call this inner divinity "the Christ within you," or "the god within you," or "the secret knowledge that is within you."
The author says further:
"In the New Testament a contrast is made between the psychikoi and the pneumatikoi, in the former of whom the mere animal soul predominates, the latter exhibiting the working of a higher spiritual nature (Jude 19; Cor. 2:14–15; compare also 15:44–46). In the Valentinian system this contrast is sharpened, and is made to depend on an original difference of nature between the two classes of men, a mythical theory being devised which professed to account for the origin of the different elements in men's nature; the psychic element being something higher and better than the mere material element, but immeasurably inferior to the pneumatic. It may well be believed that in the language of the Gnostic sects, the "pneumatici" are "spiritual men who have attained to the perfect knowledge of God, and been initiated into these mysteries by Achamoth" herself (Adv. Haer. I. 6, 1), ordinary Christians being branded as "psychici.""
In the Gnostic belief system, hylics, also called somatics (from Gk σώμα (sōma) "body"), were the lowest order of the three types of human. The other two were the psychics and the pneumatics. Humanity thus comprised matter-bound beings, matter-dwelling souls, and the matter-free or immaterial spirits. Somatics were human in form, but since their entire focus was on the material world, such as eating, sleeping, mating, or creature comforts, they were seen as doomed. The pneumatic saw himself as escaping the doom of the material world via secret knowledge, through initiation into the "mysteries." Somatics were thought to be incapable of understanding or insight. As we will see, Paul would agree that what is spiritual denotes a higher state of being or consciousness and also that such an elevated state involves possession of special knowledge. Where Paul would disagree with the Gnostics, however, is in how to properly define spiritual and who to judge as being spiritual. Paul would also agree that spiritual knowledge was integral to being spiritual, or having spiritual life. Said another on the subject:
"Barclay - Paul has just been talking about the difference between the man who is spiritual (pneumatikos), and who therefore can understand spiritual truths, and the man who is psuchikos, whose interests and aims do not go beyond physical life and who is therefore unable to grasp spiritual truth. He now accuses the Corinthians of being still at the physical stage. But he uses two new words to describe them. In 1 Corinthians 3:1 he calls them sarkinoi. This word comes from sarx which means flesh and is so common in Paul. Now all Greek adjectives ending in -inos mean made of something or other. So Paul begins by saying that the Corinthians are made of flesh. That was not in itself a rebuke; a man just because he is a man is made of flesh, but he must not stay that way. The trouble was that the Corinthians were not only sarkinoi they were sarkikoi (sarkikos), which means not only made of flesh but dominated by the flesh. To Paul the flesh is much more than merely a physical thing. It means human nature apart from God, that part of man both mental and physical which provides a bridgehead for sin. So the fault that Paul finds with the Corinthians is not that they are made of flesh--all men are--but that they have allowed this lower side of their nature to dominate all their outlook and all their actions." (As cited here)
Again, the discussion centers around what it is that governs a man's thinking and behavior.
The same writer says:
"John Eadie Comments: Pneumatikos is, indeed, in a generic sense opposed to sarkikos (pertaining to what is human or characteristic of human nature = human, natural) in 1 Corinthians 9:11, and in Ro 15:27; while in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46 pneumatikos is employed in contrast with psuchikos (natural, sensual.)-the latter term descriptive of an animal body, and the former of a body elevated above animal functions and organization, with which believers shall be clothed at the last day. Similar usage obtains in Eph 6:12; 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Corinthians 10:3; 1 Corinthians 4:3. But in all other passages where, as in Eph 1:3, the word is used to qualify Christian men, or Christian blessings, its ruling reference is plainly to the Holy Spirit. Thus-spiritual gifts, Ro 1:11; a special endowment of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:1; 1 Corinthians 14:1, etc.; spiritual men, that is, men enjoying in an eminent degree the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 14:37; and also in Galatians 6:1; Romans 7:14; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; and in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “spiritual” means produced by or belonging to the Holy Spirit. Therefore the prevailing usage of the New Testament warrants us in saying, that these blessings are termed spiritual from their connection with the Holy Spirit. (Commentary on Ephesians)" (Ibid)
So then, who is the real spiritual man? In the above definitions we see how the comments are mostly upon identifying "spiritual" people, not spiritual things. Few of the definitions above apply to spiritual things, such as spiritual food, spiritual house, etc. Inanimate and material things, as food and houses, do not have souls, hearts, and minds. They do not have spirit. So, how do we define "spiritual" when it is applied to non human things? Is "spiritual" the same as mystical? As religious? As otherworldly? As metaphysical? As supernatural? As heavenly? As transcendent? As divine? Is spirituality connected with asceticism as some think? How is it connected with knowledge in Gnostic thinking? Is the realm of thought and imagination a spiritual realm? In the new testament it is an adjective as in "spiritual things," "spiritual gifts," "spiritual food," "spiritual drink," "spiritual body," "spiritual blessings," "spiritual songs," "spiritual wickedness,"
"spiritual understanding," "spiritual house," "spiritual sacrifices," "spiritual rock."
In some of these instances "spiritual" seems to carry the connotation of "antitype." This is true with regard to Paul calling the food (quail and manna) and drink (water from a rock) of the Israelites in the wilderness "spiritual." In this sense material things become types of spiritual things (antitypes).
What was spiritual about the manna and the rock and the drink? If spiritual means immaterial or non physical, then how can there be a "spiritual body"? Is that an oxymoron? Is such a thing not an impossibility with such a definition? Is it not the same as saying "immaterial material"? Like saying "physical spirit?" The same with "spiritual drink" or "spiritual food." How can we speak of non physical material? Clearly the usage of spiritual as an adjective describing physical things proves that spiritual cannot be equated with what is non physical. Many believe that a "spiritual body (soma)" means a "supernatural body," and this is reasonable. It surely means a physical body that is no longer governed by itself, or by the soul, but by the Spirit of God.
The reasons why the food and drink and the rock were "spiritual" is because they had their source in God and his Spirit, and because those things "concerned" or "pertained to" antitypes, things invisible, to the things they pictorially represented. So Paul says "that rock which followed them" (the Israelites) in the wilderness "was Christ." (I Cor. 10: 4) That is, it was a picture of Christ. The rock, food, and drink were physical things but were spiritual in that they conveyed messages from God. It also means that those things were produced by God, the Holy Spirit. Visible things are often used as metaphors for invisible things. The manna was called "angels food." It is also called "the bread of heaven." (Exo. 16: 4; Neh. 9: 15; Psa. 105: 40; John 6: 31-33)
“And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.” (Psalm 78:24-25)
“Manna,” “the corn of heaven,” “angel food,” the "bread of heaven," and “meat” are all different ways of describing the same food. But, it being "spiritual" food did not mean it was not material or physical. Said Dr. Gill:
"And did all eat the same spiritual meat. Meaning the manna; and which the Jews also call "spiritual food", as also their sacrifices, "spiritual bread": not that the manna was so in own nature; it was corporeal food, and served for the nourishment of the body; but either because it was prepared by angels, who are ministering spirits, at the command of God, and hence called angels' food, Psalm 78:25 or rather because it had a mystical and spiritual meaning in it; it was not the true bread, but was typical of Christ, who is so." (Commentary on I Cor. 10: 3)
Notice how Gill sees the word "spiritual" as sometimes denoting that which is an antitype, the thing represented by visible symbols, to the mystical meaning. It clearly seems to denote such in this text:
"And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." (Rev. 11: 8)
Commented Albert Barnes on the use of "spiritually": "Here it seems to be used in the sense of metaphorically, or allegorically, in contradistinction from the literal and real name." Others agree. We could also substitute the word "divinely" for "spiritually" to denote what God and the Spirit call the earthly city of Jerusalem. Here "spiritually" seems to be equated with "morally" and so may read "which morally is called Sodom and Egypt." "Spiritually called" by whom? By the Spirit of God.
"Spirituality" is defined as "the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things." Spirituality is a broad concept. Some think it denotes a belief in something beyond the self and the visible world. The Cambridge dictionary defines spirituality as, “The quality that involves deep feelings and beliefs of a religious nature, rather than the physical parts of life.” Collins dictionary says, “Spiritual means relating to people’s thoughts and beliefs, rather than to their bodies and physical surroundings.” The Oxford dictionary defines it as “Relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.” In none of these definitions, however, is there reference to the Spirit of God. If it does not come from or pertain to the Spirit of God, then it is not spiritual.
In the next chapter we will continue our look at how the believer is of a higher status of being because he is possessed and led by the Spirit.
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