Spirit Filled?

Once I drove past a church building with a sign posted in front proclaiming this to be a "Spirit-filled" church. Upon reading that sign I was unable to keep myself from wondering how full of the Spirit the people of that church were—one quarter, half, three-quarters or completely? I assume they wanted the rest of us to know that they were full up and overflowing with Christ's love for us all.

My strange thoughts continued. Did their sign imply that others who also have the Spirit of Christ living in them are only partially filled? Did they imply that we who do not classify ourselves as "spirit filled" are some kind of second rate or lower level Christian?

You can see where I'm going.

Let's look at the Apostle Paul for answers. For starters go to 1 Corinthians 3:1-21. There, instead of the image of filling a vessel (e.g. Spirit-filled) Paul speaks of Christians as a building, more specifically as God's temple. I'll try to relate the two images.

Paul starts by saying that he couldn't address the Corinthians as "spiritual people," yet he calls them brothers. He implies they were reborn members of God's family in Christ, but not yet "spiritual". What's he getting at? Throughout his writings spiritual people are led by the Holy Spirit, having gifts given by the Spirit. The source of their spirituality is ever the Holy Spirit who is revealing God's mercy and power in Jesus Christ.

The Corinthians were believers, but they were not always led by the Holy Spirit in their daily lives and in their relationships with one another. That's why he addressed them as infants, babies who had a lot of growing up to do. Babies are members of the family, but they are immature.

Perhaps the sign on that church was saying something like that. Perhaps that body of believers was telling us that they believed themselves to be mature and more fully developed, 'spirit-filled'. Perhaps they were inviting infant Christians to join their family so they may be cared for and nurtured through infancy and childhood and on to spiritual maturity. I like to think that was their intention rather than bragging about their spiritual maturity as if that were an one of their many accomplishments.

It was because the Corinthians were still babies that Paul says he had to feed them with baby food, with milk, while he was among them. They acted like babies. They were still 'of the flesh'. Paul addresses this issue in his letter to the Romans (Romans 7:4-23). There he admits that even he still struggled with his flesh, that nature inherited from his parents and ancestors. In his flesh he did not love God with his whole heart. In his flesh he allowed pride to fill his heart. This struggle between his flesh and his new spiritual life in Christ was an ongoing one with him, as it is with all of us.

It appears that congregations of believers must be cautious about what they proclaim themselves to be. Filled with the Spirit? Perhaps upon occasion some are, as were prophets and priests like Aaron and his sons (Exodus 28:1-4). But the sin-filled flesh remains with us and the daily temptation is to fall back into that mode of living and believing.

Being permanently filled with God's Spirit, a fully mature and completely spiritual person—that gift will be ours only after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 13:9-13).

More on this another day.