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What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  We'll ask three people to explain what it means to be spiritual, and you'll
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  get four different answers. That's a humorous the way to state the problem.
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  Definitions of spirituality are very squishy things. The term means something different to everyone.
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  So what is biblical spirituality? And can we settle on an objective definition
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  of spirituality from the Bible. That's the question today from a young woman,
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  and for her, it's not a theoretical question at all, Pastor John.
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  My mother and I have different views on biblical spirituality, so much so that
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  she has said that my husband and I are not spiritual. I believe this
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  is because she embraces spirituality as spiritual gifts, such as speaking in tongues,
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  interpreting dreams, and claiming healing. My husband and I have worked in the
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  mission field, are heavily involved in church, love the Lord, and seek
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  after him in all things. I don't know what to say to this.
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  Is it possible that we, my husband and I are not spiritual? I
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  feel that this is not the cases. I see the fruit of the spirit
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  in our lives. How would you respond to such a statement toward yourself?
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  And more broadly, what does authentic Christian spirituality look like. Let's start with
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  a few comments about the use of language and the importance of definitions, and
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  then we'll move over to the Biblical use of the term spiritual, which is
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  especially interesting because in the ESV the word spiritual or spiritually occurs twenty nine times,
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  and twenty seven of them are in the writings of the apostle Paul,
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  and the other two are in Peter's first letter, So it isn't a very
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  widespread term, and we're mainly dealing with Paul. We're dealing with his understanding
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  of it when we talk about the meaning of spirituality or being spiritual in the
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  New Testament. So first, a few thoughts about the use of language.
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  I wonder what our friend would feel or think if a new age spiritualist who
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  practices divination and fortune telling and necromance, the in palm reading and earth worship
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  were to say to her, to our mature Christian friend, you're not spiritual
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  because you don't pursue these spiritual practices like I do. Now. My guess
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  is that our friend would not feel very threatened at all or seriously criticized,
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  because she knows that those practices are not at all what the Bible means by
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  spiritual. In fact, just the opposite. The Bible opposes those practices.
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  But the point is that the new age spiritualist is spiritual by his own definition,
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  So there would be no point in arguing which of those is spiritual.
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  Like if you don't define your terms, it would go nowhere. The argument
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  would go nowhere if you said which one of us is spiritual? Because they
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  don't agree on what they mean by spiritual, they are using the word in
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  drastically different ways. So when our friends says my mother and I have differing
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  views on biblical spirituality, she could mean my mother and I agree on the
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  meaning of the word, but we disagree on whether my husband and I are
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  living up to it. Or she could mean that they seriously disagree on the
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  biblical definition of spirituality and so they can't assess the other with say criteria,
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  and we just talk past each other. Now I'm pretty sure from what she
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  says that our friend takes the latter view, because she says she embraces spirituality
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  as spiritual gifts such as speaking tongues, interpreting dreams, claiming healing. So
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  the mother thinks that being spiritual in a biblical sense is exercising spiritual gifts,
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  while our friend thinks being spiritual means something else. So let's go to Paul
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  Paul's writings and see what the term actually means. So Paul uses the word
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  spiritual to refer to spiritual wisdom, spiritual blessings, spiritual songs, spiritual bodies,
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  spiritual gifts, spiritual rock, spiritual food. Now we're going to leave
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  all that out of side. We're only going to talk about spiritual people.
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  I think he uses the term in three ways, but they are all rooted
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  in the same basic idea. And I think that basic idea is that a
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  person is spiritual if, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he has
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  experienced a new birth and is no longer defined by the flesh, which opposes
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  God, but is defined by the Holy Spirit, who causes him to trust
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  God and love God. So a spiritual person is most fundamentally a supernaturally transformed
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  person who has been transferred by the Spirit from the natural condition of unbelief to
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  the spirit created condition of new creature. In Christ. They are spiritual in
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  the sense that they were created by the Holy Spirit and are indwelt and formed
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  by the Holy Spirit. So you can see that, if I'm right,
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  Paul's use of the term spiritual gets its meaning mainly from God's Spirit, not
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  my spirit. Paul doesn't call somebody spiritual because their spirit is especially active or
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  because they have an unusual preoccupation with mystical things. Spiritual things. Now,
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  the most important text for seeing these things is First Corinthians, Chapter two,
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  verses twelve and following. So let me read a couple of verses. Now
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  we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is
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  from God, that we might understand things freely given to us by God.
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  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by
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  the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. Now, who
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  are they? Those who are spiritual? So we've received the Spirit. We're
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  imparting things from the spirit by words taught by the spirit. But we can
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  only do that to those who are spiritual. Who are they? That's what
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  Paul turns to. They're the only ones to whom Paul can successfully transmit spiritual
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  truths. So Paul explains why that is and who they are in verse thirteen
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  The Knicks verse the natural person. Now, that's the unregenerate, unsaved person
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  without the Holy Spirit. Contrasted with the spiritual person. The natural person does
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  not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are follied to
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  him, and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually assessed.
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  Spiritually assessed, that is, in the sense that the indwelling Holy Spirit enables
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  a person to assess them rightly. They're not foolishness, but they're true and
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  beautiful. And he goes on verse fifteen. The spiritual person. He's contrasting
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  that with the natural person, the unregenerate person. The spiritual person assesses all
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  things, but is himself assessed by no one, for who has understood the
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  mind of the Lord so as to instruct him. But we have the mind
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  of Christ, that is, we have the Holy Spirit shaping the way our
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  mind assesses things, so that we don't call wisdom stupid or foolishness. Instead,
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  we assess things in the true light of Christ. But natural people can't
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  make that act. They can't do that because it's not real to them.
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  It's just foolishness to them. So my conclusion from this passage is that Paul's
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  most basic use of the term spiritual is to refer to true Christians who have
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  the Holy Spirit and therefore are no longer merely natural people, but supernatural people
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  who have been born again by the Spirit, and whose minds are therefore able
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  to see in the Gospel the beauty of Christ and the wisdom of God.
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  So all true Christians are spiritual in that fundamental sense, and that's his most
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  basic sense. Now, I think there are two other uses of the term
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  in Paul, and both of them are adaptations of this meaning, not contradictions
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  of it. So the first is that Paul can use the term spiritual for
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  Christians who are more mature in their experience of this newness of their spirituality.
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  First grinstance, Chapter three, verse one. But I brothers could not address
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  you as spiritual people, which is different than saying that they're not spiritual people.
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  I couldn't address you as spiritual people, but as infants in Christ.
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  I don't think that means I used to think this, But I don't think
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  that means that they're not spiritual in the first sense. But they weren't acting
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  like it. Strife and jealousy was all over the church, and so Paul
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  treats them as babies. Here's another example of this use of the more mature
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  Christian as spiritual and Galatian six one brother as if anyone is caught in a
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  transgression, you who are spiritual, should restore him. Now he's a Christian,
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  and yet he's calling these folks spiritual to go restore him in a spirit
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  of gentleness, those who are walking in the more mature influence of the spirit,
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  the spirit's fruit like meekness. He refers to you, go restore that
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  one back. Well, that's my second use of the word, a more
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  mature experience of that spirituality. The other use of the term spiritual is ironic.
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  In First Corinthians fourteen thirty seven goes like this, if anyone thinks that
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  he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing
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  to you are a command of the Lord. So ironically, there are those
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  who have spiritual gifts, and they really do like I think our friend's mother
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  is thinking. They have spiritual gifts, and they claim therefore to be spiritual.
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  But Paul says, now here's the real test. You people who are
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  speaking in tongues and experiencing healings and exorcisms. Here's the real test of being
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  spiritual. It's not gifts, but submission to the Apostolic word. Do you
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  acknowledge that our word is from the Lord? So my counsel to our friend
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  who sent this question is that she will, with all humility, in the
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  pursuit of all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not be shamed by her
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  mother's misunderstanding. Don't don't let her words shame you. She should realize that
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  having spiritual gifts does not make a person spiritual. That was the problem at
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  current. It's having the Holy Spirit that makes one spiritual and being formed into
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  the image of Christ by his fruit. That's mature spirituality. Thank you,
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  Pastor John for that definition and that mention of First Corinthians fourteen thirty seven.
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  Here in this episode reminds me of one of my all time favorite APJ episodes.
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  We titled it should We Listen for the Audible Voice of God? Should
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  We Listen for the Audible Voice of God? That's APJ one sixty seven and
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  oldie, but a classic, a classic to me at least when I found
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  helpful for Scrinthias fourteen thirty seven pops up there too in that episode. Find
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  APJ one sixty seven at Ask pastor John dot com. In fact, all
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  of our episodes are housed and searchable there. All the audio and the transcripts
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  are all there fully available for you free of charge. Check it out Ask
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  pastor John dot com. I'm your host, Tony Rankie, and we will
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  see you back here on Monday. See then,