Foolish Spiritual Words

When I Googled the word 'spiritual' I came up with just under a million links! That's right, a million. Large numbers of folks seem to be spiritual or interested in being spiritual or have advice about spiritual matters. There is, in fact, a directory that will link one to "all things spiritual".

Since I also claim to write about spiritual matters, it seems appropriate that I join with the crowd to say a few words—not that the crowd will listen.

Oh, one more thing before I go on. Two principles guide me in spiritual matters.

1) Formal principle - what guides me in everything, forms and shapes my belief system is the Bible. I'm convinced and prepared to demonstrate to anyone who asks that these are God's very words and that through them He continues to instruct, guide, strengthen, challenge and comfort all who will listen and believe.

2) Material principle - in the center of everything the Bible teaches is Jesus Christ, God's Word or Logos to us. He is the Son of God, not created, who came to rescue and redeem us by His all-atoning sacrifice upon the cross. So everything leads to Him and proceeds from Him.

So when I look to the Scriptures I find that human reason, the so-called inner voice, meditation, spirit guides and whatever or whoever people come up with will get me nowhere in spiritual matters. These sources may be spiritual in one sense, but they are not spiritual in the Biblical sense. That is to say, they may speak about matters related to the human spirit as opposed to material or physical things. They may talk about religion or religious beliefs as do, say Iran's spiritual leaders, but that does not make them spiritual in the Biblical sense. Allow me to explain.

My reference point is 1 Corinthians 2:9-16. Look at the entire chapter while you're at it.

The apostle starts with a quote from one of the major prophets of the Old Testament, Isaiah 64:4. That prophet says we cannot see with our eyes, hear with our ears or conceive in our minds what God has prepared for those who truly love him. We only learn about such matters when God's Spirit reveals them. The Apostle says that the Spirit alone inquires about and explores all things related to God, religion and spiritual matters. Just as no one really knows what you are thinking in your spirit or in your heart unless you tell him, so no one can know what God is thinking unless the Spirit of God reveals it.

Paul's source or 'formal principle,' is not the spirit of the world. That would be to follow the sinful desires of human hearts, human reason or the deceitful leading of the devil, the god of this world. He writes instead about what God's Spirit has revealed in wise words freely given to him. What he writes may then be called spiritual truths. His are spiritual words. These spiritual words are preserved in Holy Scripture.

In turn, the person who has not received the Spirit of God considers what Paul writes to be foolishness. His word for foolishness is the source of our word moron. So what I write, following the Apostle, is moronic, mere stupidity to anyone without God's Spirit.

So far with this brief discussion of the formal principle. I plan to take up a further discussion of the material principle another day.