How Spiritual Are You?
by Steve Bastin
“How spiritual are you?” is a
question posed by the October 25, 2004 issue of “Time” magazine.
It was part of an article concerning the possible finding of a “God
gene.” Of course they also
enclosed a disclaimer, a quotation from a scientist who said, “If someone
comes to you and says, ‘We’ve found the gene for X, you can stop them before they get
to the end of the sentence.’” I
suppose he means that it is impossible to assign behavior to a single gene.
So much for the “God gene!”
John Calvin would have rejoiced to
hear the suggestion that there is a “God gene.”
He believed that certain people were chosen by God to believe and be
saved and others were left out. God’s
placing a “believing gene” in some and leaving it out in others would have
achieved his purpose very nicely.
Theologians with too much free
time on their hands have certainly come up with some wild ideas.
The world would have been better served if they had paid more attention
to the plain words of the Bible and spent less time on theological and
philosophical speculation.
Instead a great deal of time and
effort has been spent in trying to prove the Bible is wrong.
Usually their “proof” is to simply write it off rather than deal with
the internal evidence that it came from God!
Included in the “Time” article
was a survey that you could take to determine how spiritual you are.
The survey claimed to be “adapted from a personality inventory devised
by Washington University psychiatrist Robert Cloninger.”
The survey reveals more about its author than it does about the true
nature of spirituality.
For example, out of 20 questions
contained in the survey, 7 of them indicate a pantheistic bias of the
psychiatrist. A pantheist is one who
believes that God is everything and everything is God.
For example, a rock is god, a tree is god, a fish is god, etc.
The Bible presents a God who created.
The creation is separate from God. God
is everywhere present in his creation, but is Himself apart from the things
which He has created.
Because of this bias, there is a
warped view of what it means to be spiritual.
The author of the survey is looking for someone who agrees with him on
his belief in pantheism. Pantheism
becomes the standard of whether one is spiritual or not.
One of the survey questions was
“I have had moments of great joy in which I suddenly had a clear, deep feeling
of oneness with all that exists.” One
is supposed to answer true or false. A
true answer supposedly indicates a spiritual person.
If everything is god then we are one with all that exists.
If each part of the creation represents something separate that God has
created then we are not “one with all that exists” even if we “feel”
that we are. According to the author
of the survey then one is spiritual if one has a “feeling of oneness” in
spite of the reality that we are not “one with all that exists.”
Reality has no place in this understanding of spirituality.
Perhaps the most common answer for
most people taking the survey is to look at the questions and say, “What in
the world is he talking about?”
The Bible gives a quite different definition
of what it means to be spiritual from the Washington University psychiatrist.
The
New American Standard Version
records 29 instances of the word “spiritual” being used, most of them in
Paul’s letters to the Romans and 1 Corinthians.
The primary use of the word is in contrast to the word “flesh” or
“carnal” as it is translated in the King James Version.
Perhaps the fullest discussion of
what it means to be spiritual may be found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians,
chapter five, verses 16 to 26. In
chapter 6 he encourages those who are spiritual to help those who are “caught
in any trespass.” This points us
back to the discussion immediately preceding.
The spiritual person is one who follows the spirit instead of the flesh.
As Paul points out, the one who
follows the flesh will produce “fornication, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”
If any of these behaviors are a part of your life, then to that extent
you are not spiritual.
Paul follows that list with
another: “But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control.” These
are the characteristics of one who is spiritual (according to the Bible).
To the extent that these characteristics fill your life, you are a
spiritual person.
In the Bible,
being spiritual is not about how you feel, it is all about the kind of person
you are.
Others may be just as able to spot
spirituality in you as you are yourself. In
fact, others might even be better judges of your spiritual nature.
This is because they stand outside of you and may be more objective.
We sometimes gloss over our faults
(the deeds of the flesh) and magnify our goodness (the fruit of the spirit).
A friend or spouse or parent or child, might not be so apt to do that.
The good news from the Bible is
that you do not have to wait for some great feeling to come sweeping over you in
order to be spiritual. The passage
in Galatians, chapter five, provides you with sort of a check list.
On the one hand are things to purge from your life.
On the other are things to work at adding to your life.
Seeking God’s help in prayer is
a good way to begin. Go through the
two lists and make notes of things to which you need to give special attention.
Enlist a trusted friend to help you identify your weaknesses and your
strengths. You are truly blessed if
you have a spouse with whom you can share your concerns, a spouse who will be
honest with you and encourage you.
Become a part of a small group
Bible study. Seek out additional
information from God’s word that will help in your striving to be spiritual.
Become an encourager (not a criticizer) of others.
You will grow as you seek to help others to become more spiritual.
The Beatitudes of Jesus, found in
the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter 5, provide further information on what
it means to be spiritual. There is
also much helpful information in the rest of that sermon as it continues through
chapters 5, 6 and 7.
Ultimately, a spiritual person is
one who is like God. Since God made
us in His image it is imperative that we seek to reflect that image in our own
lives. God made us to be spiritual.
To be otherwise is to deny God and bring His wrath upon us.