Sixty years ago social scientists were predicting the demise of religion in western culture. The reasoning went something like this: The more discoveries science makes, the higher the level of education among people, and the more secularized our society becomes, the less people will be concerned about things like God, salvation, and spirituality. Well sixty years later sociologists and cultural anthropologists have had to eat crow and admit that couldn’t have been more wrong.
People today are more into spiritual topics than ever before in our nation’s history. In 1991, Newsweek did a cover story on the popularity of talk about spirituality. How else can we explain the phenomenal success of the Psychic Friends Network? Books on spirituality make the third largest market among book sellers.
People turn to a variety of sources to nurture their souls these days. Some opt for more traditional approaches, like reading the Bible, prayer, and worship in a church. But many opt for less traditional options, like yoga, past life regression therapy, hallucinogenic drugs, and so forth. For a whole segment of our nation Oprah Winfrey is a spiritual mentor.
How can we become more spiritual people? Are all these bewildering approaches equal options, kind of like all the ice cream flavors at Baskin Robbins? Is choosing prayer or past life regression therapy no more different than choosing chocolate or jamoca almond fudge?
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of 1 Timothy called Deepening Your Life With God. Last week, our pastor of student ministries Jason Lanker did a great job of talking about deep worship. Today we’re going to look at how to become a more spiritual person. In 1 Timothy today we’re going to see two warnings and two prescriptions for becoming more spiritual people.
1. The Warnings (1 Timothy 4:1-5)
We begin with the first warning in vv. 1-2. Here we find a contrast between what God’s Spirit says and what "deceiving spirits" are saying.
The "later times" here isn’t referring to something in the distant future, but for the apostle Paul who wrote this letter, it describes the time he was living in when he wrote these words to his young protégé Timothy. In the Bible, the "end times" or "last days" refers to the final phase in God’s plan of salvation. This final phase began with the first coming of Jesus at Christmas and it will conclude at the end of the age when Jesus Christ comes again. So Paul lived in the last days and so do we, because we both live during this final phase in God’s plan.
For Paul, the existence of people abandoning the true Christian faith and following "deceiving spirits" and the teachings of demons was proof that he was living in these later times. Here we learn that some ideas about becoming more spiritual come from diabolical sources.
This implies that there are right ways to become spiritual and wrong ways to become spiritual. That’s not a very popular idea these days, but when you think about it, it makes sense. The terrorists behind the September 11 attacks believed they were becoming more spiritual by sacrificing their lives to further their cause. I don’t think anyone can doubt their sincerity or the depth of their commitment, yet we look at what they did and say, "That’s an evil way to try to become a spiritual person." Many of the people back in the 1960s who used LSD to become more spiritual found their lives destroyed by the chemicals they thought would unlock the spiritual life.
Paul would agree; in fact, he would go further and tell us that some ideas about the spiritual life actually come from an unseen evil realm. The Bible teaches that there are demonic spirits in our world.. These beings are called "deceiving spirits" and "demons" here in this text.
But Paul also points to the people who teach dangerous ideas about becoming more spiritual. He calls these teachers "hypocritical liars." The word for "hypocritical" means "to give a false impression," and it was a word that came from the world of theatre. The word was used of actors who played a part on a stage, which is okay on in a stage performance, but in real life, we call that kind of person a phony.
Their conscience has been branded as with a hot iron. These are people who’s moral compass no longer functions. Their sense of right and wrong had been deadened. These are people who taught ideas about the spiritual life that were false and dangerous.
So here we find the first warning if you want to become a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, don’t ingest spiritual poison.
Not every idea about the spiritual life is a good one. In fact, some ideas are downright poisonous. Last year an Illinois scientist named William Walsh studied strands of hair from the body famous classical composer Beethoven. By studying those strands of hair, Dr. Walsh discovered that Beethoven’s body had one hundred times the normal amount of lead. He concluded that Beethoven’s untimely death at the age of 57 was due to lead poisoning. Beethoven’s lead poisoning can be traced to the mineral spa that he went to in order to relax. Think about that: the very thing he thought was bringing him relief and relaxation was actually slowly poisoning him to death.
That’s what spiritual poison is like, that as people engage in practices and embrace ideas that are spiritually poisonous, they think it is making them more spiritual, when in reality it’s gradually killing them spiritually.
But we also find a second warning here in vv. 3-5. After reading that these ideas about becoming more spiritual are "things taught by demons," we’re expecting something really, really bad. When we find out that these false teachers are telling people to become more spiritual by forbidding marriage and abstaining from certain kinds of food, it seems a little anti-climactic. We’re expecting people who practice human sacrifice or cannibalism, something horrible and awful. Celibacy and vegetarianism may not be our cup of tea, but at first it hardly seems to merit the dangerous warning Paul gives.
But let’s think deeper about this. These people were teaching that sexual intimacy between husbands and wives and certain kinds of food were inherently evil and a hindrance to becoming more spiritual. You see, food and marriage relate to two of the most basic human appetites: hunger and sex (Stott 112). By forbidding people to get married, these teachers were saying that sexual intimacy in marriage prevents you from becoming more spiritual. And by forbidding certain kinds of food they were claiming that some foods are inherently unclean.
Throughout history, religious people have had a kind of love-hate relationship with sexuality. On the one hand, some people worshipped sex in the name of religion. The temple to the Greek god Aphrodite in Ephesus employed hundreds of temple prostitutes. Men would regularly visit this temple and be with a prostitute as an act of their religious devotion to Aphrodite, and no one would have a second thought about it, not even their wives. So some people turned sex into a religion itself.
But on the other hand, a lot of religious people believed that sexuality was inherently evil. Following the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato, these people believed the physical world was evil. The physical body was thought to be a prison for the soul, and so long as the physical body existed, the soul couldn’t become spiritual and free. So the physical drives of the body (the appetite for food, sexual intimacy, sleep and so forth) were thought of as inherently unspiritual. Gradually this idea developed into a whole new religion called Gnosticism.
Unfortunately, many Christians have often sounded more Gnostic than Christian in their view of sexuality. Within a hundred years after the New Testament was completed, Christian leaders started idolizing the single, celibate life, implying that a married people were less spiritual than single people. Pastors were required to live single, celibate lives, because it was thought to be more spiritual. This is still the case in Roman Catholic churches. Many of these Christians believed that sexual intimacy was always wrong, even between a husband and a wife. One theologian went so far as to say that God’s Holy Spirit departed the bedroom when a husband and wife consummated their marriage.
Apparently some of the people in the church in Ephesus had been captivated by this same kind of thinking.
We also learn here that some of people at the church in Ephesus were forbidding the eating of certain kinds of foods. Now this teaching probably goes back to the Jewish dietary food laws found in the Old Testament. God had given the nation of Israel very precise laws about what they could and could not eat. Since the Christian faith grew out of Judaism, the early Christians struggled with whether they should obey these food laws. The apostles who wrote the New Testament taught that the coming of Jesus had overturned these food laws, and that for the follower of Jesus, no food was unclean in itself. But still many people struggled with this question.
Paul reminds us here that physical intimacy within marriage and food both were created by God. Because God made them, we ought to receive these gifts with gratitude. Instead of viewing the physical relationship between a husband and wife as unspiritual and certain foods as unclean, we should rejoice in these good gifts God has created. Everything created by God is good so long as it’s enjoyed within the parameters God has set up.
You see, according to the Bible, human sexuality is a gift of God to be enjoyed in marriage. Although sex outside of marriage is wrong and immoral, it’s not the act itself that’s inherently evil, but it’s the fact that the act is performed outside of the confines God set up. And food is a gift of God, and although the Bible warns us about overeating and becoming slaves to our appetites, we should enjoy the culinary gifts God has given us.
When Paul says these gifts are consecrated by the word of God, it’s likely that he’s alluding to Genesis 1:31, where the Bible says, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." That verse from the Bible consecrates all of God’s creation gifts.
And when Paul says marriage and food are also consecrated by prayer, he’s talking about the common practice of praying before meals. When we begin a meal by thanking God for providing that meal, we’re receiving God’s gift with gratitude. But this also applies to the marriage relationship, that husbands and wives should pray this same prayer in the bedroom as they enjoy intimacy with each other.
So here we find a second warning about becoming a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, don’t reject God’s good gifts.
This is where the Christian faith is different than many other religions. Many of the world’s religions treat certain parts of God’s creation as inherently evil or unspiritual. This is why Buddhist monks take a vow of celibacy, because in certain branches of Buddhism the sexual drive is viewed as inherently unspiritual. This is why the Hindu leader Gandhi took a vow of celibacy at the age of thirty-seven, even though he was married (Yancey 167).
It’s unfortunate that so many Christians throughout history have rejected God’s good gifts, thinking that this would make them more spiritual. I think of the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, who wrote the book War and Peace. Tolstoy married a beautiful young woman named Sonya. Yet Tolstoy came to see his desire for intimacy with his wife was unspiritual, so he took several public vows of celibacy. However, each time he was unable to keep his vow (Yancey 126). Tolstoy walked under a huge burden of guilt because he kept going back to his wife, failing to understand that the husband-wife relationship is a good gift from God, to be enjoyed not rejected.
Rejecting God’s good gifts is not the pathway to becoming a more spiritual person.
2. The Positive Prescriptions (1 Timothy 4:6-10)
This brings us to two positive prescriptions for how we can become more spiritual . Look at v. 6 and the first half of v. 7. Timothy has a tough assignment, to point out these false approaches to the spiritual life to the people in the church. Yet here Paul reminds Timothy that his ability to do this will reflect how he’s been brought up in his own faith.
The phrase "brought up" in v. 8 is a verb that refers to being "nourished" or "nurtured." Timothy has been brought up to maturity in the truths of the Christian faith and good teaching. This refers to the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. These good teachings are the spiritual food that nurtured Timothy to become the spiritual young man he had become.
The contrast with the truths of the faith and good teaching is the godless myths and old wives’ tales in the first half of v. 7. A myth is a legendary tale that can’t be confirmed or verified. Greek philosophers used the phrase "old wives’ tales" to describe ideas that were irrational and bizarre. We saw in the first chapter of 1 Timothy that many of the people in the church in Ephesus were devoting themselves to these myths instead of the clear truths of the Christian faith. Paul wants Timothy to entirely avoid these myths and irrational, bizarre ideas.
So here we find in the example of Timothy the first prescription for becoming a more spiritual person. If you want to become more spiritual, look for nourishment in God’s truth.
Be nourished in the truths of the faith and good teaching. I heard about a letter to the editor of a British newspaper several years ago that went like this:
"Dear Sir: It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church for 30 years and I have probably heard 3,000 sermons. I can’t remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s job might be spent more profitably on something else."
One of the replies that came went like this:
"Dear Sir: I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals-mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I can’t remember the menu of a single meal. And yet I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago."
Yet it’s not only here at our weekend services that we look for nourishment in God’s truth. As we participate in small groups, home Bible studies, and personal Bible reading our souls are strengthened. Every Christian ought to spend time each day reading the Bible devotionally, to find spiritual nourishment in God’s truth.
Yet many Christians are drawn to speculative ideas that have nothing to do with the truths of the Christian faith. We see it in excessive speculation about Bible prophecy and with the quest to uncover secret Bible codes. We saw it with the y2k speculation that some Christians engaged in before the year 2000. We see it when Christians get so enamored with a theological system that they start building excessive speculation about things the Bible only hints at.
These things will stunt our growth spiritually, and cause us to become less and less spiritual people. Instead, we need to follow Timothy’s example and look for nourishment in God’s truth.
We find another prescription in vv. 7-10. Instead of jumping on the speculation bandwagon, Paul wants Timothy to train himself to be godly.
Now the word "train" here is the Greek verb gumnazo, where we get the word gymnasium. It’s a word that described the physical training an athlete went through to compete. So the training of a professional athlete provides a word picture for us of spirituality.
Notice he tells Timothy to train himself. He doesn’t say, "Hire a personal trainer" or "take a seminar" but "train yourself." This is something no one else can do for you, not your spouse, not your parents, not your pastor, not your friends.
The focus of this training is godliness. Godliness is simply a God centered life, and this word emphasizes a continuity between what we believe and how we behave. A God centered life is a life that has accurate beliefs about God that are expressed in consistent and appropriate ways in our behavior. Our culture trains us in "self-liness," a self centered life, so we need to engage in training to shift into godliness, a God centered life.
Paul uses physical training as a metaphor for spiritual growth. Physical training has some limited value. However, spiritual training in a God centered life is even more valuable, because it not only has value now, but it also has value for eternity.
This verse is implying something that only now scientists are beginning to discover. This verse implies that people who have a God centered life are more healthy, more happy, less depressed, and have more satisfying personal relationships. Only in the last few years have scientists begun to confirm what this verse is saying.
But a God centered life also has value for eternality because it prepares us for living in heaven. The "trustworthy saying" in v. 9 looks back at the command to train ourselves to live God centered lives.
So here we find the final prescription to become more spiritual. If you want to be more spiritual, engage in a lifestyle of spiritual training.
If you think becoming a more spiritual person is a passive lifestyle where God simply zaps us with spiritual depth, you’re mistaken. For an athlete to compete, he or she must live a different kind of lifestyle than other people. Olympic marathon runners train between 80 and 150 hours per week. Olympic cyclists ride between 400 and 600 miles during a typical training week. Many athletes train in high altitude areas to build greater stamina and endurance. Often an athlete will focus on strengthening a specific muscle or muscle group to increase her performance. This lifestyle of training enables athletes to compete at their maximum potential.
Paul tells us to look at how an athlete trains, and then to learn from that how to train ourselves to become more God centered. Spiritual training involves participating in spiritual exercises, sometimes called disciplines or habits. These spiritual disciplines are similar to the various exercises an athlete uses to train.
Some spiritual disciplines are things we withdraw from. These are called disciplines of withdrawal, whether it’s fasting from food for a period of time, withdrawing from people for a day of solitude, or whatever. We don’t fast because certain foods are inherently unspiritual or bad, but to take a time out to focus on our souls. These disciplines of withdrawal are temporary times to get our bearings.
Other spiritual disciplines are disciplines of engagement. These are spiritual disciplines where we engage in some activity, whether it’s prayer, Bible study, service, worship, confession of our sins, whatever.
Another way to think of spiritual disciplines are individual disciplines and corporate disciplines. Individual disciplines are things we do alone, like solitude, personal Bible reading, meditation on Scripture, study and so forth. Corporate disciplines are disciplines we do with other people, like worship, group prayer, celebration, and so forth.
Richard Foster’s classic book The Celebration of Discipline is a great introduction to these spiritual disciplines. We also introduce you to five basic spiritual disciplines in our 201 seminar "Discovering Spiritual Maturity." The Growth Guide I put together each week is designed to give you specific spiritual disciplines to engage in throughout the week.
Now it’s important to remember, these disciplines aren’t an end in themselves. They’re not just a checklist we can mark off, and then say, "Well I guess I’m godly because I prayed, studied my Bible, worshiped" and so forth. These are exercises that strengthen us to live a God centered life in the ordinary details of our lives. These are the calisthenics that help us respond to our boss with patience, forgive our spouse, and face trails with faith, and share our faith in Christ confidently. In other words, engaging in this lifestyle of spiritual training enables us to do in life what we wouldn’t be able to do had we not engaged in the training.
Conclusion
Despite our culture’s fascination with spirituality, there are a lot of dangerous ideas out there. Many people are drawing from wells that are nothing but poison, like Beethoven in his mineral spa. Here we find a warning against ingesting spiritual poison and a warning against rejecting God’s good gifts. But we also find two positive prescriptions: To look for nourishment in God’s truth and to engage in a lifestyle of spiritual training.
Our problem in our culture is that for all our talk about spirituality, we devote very little actual time and energy to cultivate our souls. We’re obsessed with how we look, with having the right clothes, the perfect body, a beautiful face, and so forth. Many people spend hours and hours in the gym, running, or doing aerobic exercise to look fit and trim. We have fit bodies but flabby souls in our culture today because we neglect that which we can’t see. And then we find ourselves frustrated because we want to live God centered lives, but no matter how hard we try, we find ourselves failing again and again. We’re like the little leaguer who buys a Barry Bonds batting glove, thinking that using that batting glove will somehow make him a home run hitter. The little leaguer mimics Barry Bond’s mannerisms, his batting glove, his shoes, perhaps even his earring, but neglects to mimic Barry Bonds’ rigorous lifestyle of training.
May God help us become men and women who train ourselves to be godly.
Sources
Stott, John. Guard The Truth: The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus. InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Yancey, Philip. Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church. Doubleday, 2001.
