Plato had a this idea of how we should look at the world called Dualism. He said that there is this physical world—the one we see—and a spiritual world that we don’t see. The body and the soul, he would say, are distinct and unconnected things.
We’ve adopted this idea and begun to believe that our physical lives and our spiritual lives are two distinct, unconnected things. We say, there’s the sacred and there’s the secular. There’s church and there’s work. There’s Sunday, and there’s Saturday. You see?
John Wesley had a Theology of perfection. He said, “beware of desiring anything but God. Admit no desire of pleasing food, or any pleasure of sense, no desire of pleasing the eye, or the imagination, by anything grand, or new or beautiful; no desire of happiness in any creature.”
…Fun!
He meant well. But he was wrong. We’ve taken verses that talk about, “not being conformed to this world,” and ones about “earthly things” to mean that anything physical—that is, anything we can see, touch, feel—is wrong; sinful.
Yeah, don’t be like this world, in that they don’t trust or believe in God, they do things that are counter to what God intended. They don’t love or forgive like Jesus, etc. Don’t conform to the sinful nature of this world. But, the world itself was created by God.
Col 1:15-17 says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
So, when you are asked, or ask yourself, questions like: How’s your spiritual life? Am I spiritual enough? You may start to see the emptiness of those questions.
You may be growing in Christ, and have Cancer. “Well, my spiritual life is great, but my normal life stinks.” No, no. The fact that you are being drawn closer to him affects the other things in your life. You will have One to lean on in your sickness, you will have the God of all faithfulness to trust in your trial. But, if you separate the two, you run the risk of thinking that God doesn’t care.
Am I spiritual enough? It doesn’t make sense, does it? Am I living? That’s our question. It’s all spiritual. It all has to do with our relationship with God.
You see, our problem with balancing God and life is that we do see spiritual and physical things as two different aspects of our life. So, in beginning to understand that—that our lives are not two separate things—we can begin to understand that the balance need only be recognized, not created. It’s already there.
Because we see things like church as spiritual, but don’t look at things like doing our jobs well, or being a good friend as worship or spiritual. And they are. They honor God.
We talked a few weeks ago about the fact that something like resting could be glorifying to God because he made our bodies to rest, and we can’t go on without it. Something like enjoying our food is glorifying to God because we give him praise for providing. Things like recreation, laughing, working, sex and friendship, they are all capable of glorifying God.
There is no secular and sacred. It’s all made for him. For instance, I don’t believe there is any such thing as Christian music. [It’s like the guy who walked up and asked, “Is this chair saved?” and the man next to it said, “I don’t even think it’s under conviction yet.”]
I mean there are songs with Christian words, but any music—or book, or movie, or art, or anything, for that matter—that speaks truth, glorifies God. Because Jesus is Truth.
That’s why something like your job can praise God. That’s why you being anything from a surgeon to a stay-at-home mom is just as much a call to ministry as being a pastor or deacon. If what you do is truth, then it has the ability to worship him.
How? Col 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,” So, then, if we are doing our job as if we were serving Christ himself, and not that jerk of a boss, or your ungrateful children, or co-workers, or whatever, then we begin to think of our work not as a duty, but as a privilege to serve Him.
But, we don’t see things like that. We live a dual life, trying to bring in our saintly life when we need it.
And, because we have that view, when things get heavy. When our friends or family start getting on us about this Jesus thing. Our first instinct sometimes is to back off, or walk away completely. But, to back off or walk away is to move away from life itself. Because there is no separation of God and life. God is life. A life without spirituality—without a relationship with Jesus—is not just a life half-lived, it is worse than that, it’s a life wrongly lived.
Luke 12:51-53 says, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."”
What’s he saying? It’s not all dandelions and puppy dogs. A life, a life free in Christ, is going to upset people. Because it goes against the life they are comfortable living. It challenges them, through love, to be different. And we, as humans, hate change. We hate for our very souls to be challenged. And, I believe, somewhere deep inside of all of us, we know that it is true, and that angers us even more.
So, the Gospel brings offense. But, the sad thing is, much of the offense we cause now is from calling people fags and acting like we’re better than everyone else. It doesn’t come from Jesus-love.
Listen, a spiritual life is a fundamentally different thing than what you may be living right now. It’s not becoming less secular and becoming more spiritual, whatever that means, it is your life well-lived.
Our lives should show others that we are His. But, not in the way that you’re thinking. Do you know how historians in the first and second century identified Christians?
Was it how they dressed? Or their picket signs? “They shall know you by your picket signs!” Or their nice, big church buildings? Was it because they were lobbying against the government? No, sorry.
They talked about things like them making sure everyone had enough food and clothing. They talked of their compassion for the widows and orphans, the poor and the needy, and how they all just took care of one another.
That’s a whole life. Their lives didn’t include Jesus. Their lives were Jesus, guys and gals.
When we try to separate God and life, instead of compassion and love then being a part of who we are, they are things that we do because we go to church.
Because we separate God and life, we think we can walk away from one without damaging the other. But, the truth is that both will suffer, because they are not made to be divided. It’s like separating air and lungs.
As I said, it’s not a matter of balancing God and life. The balance is God and life as one. There is only spiritual.
Christ is in you, verse 27 of Colossians 1 tells us. So, if he is in you, then he shares in all things you do. He is with you when you’re folding laundry just as much as when you step into this church.
