This week I want to write about following our flesh as opposed to following the Spirit
First [Cityname] Church of the Flesh
While no one would really name their church, "Church of the Flesh," what we find in many churches are activities and ministries that are primarily driven by the flesh rather than the Spirit. I suppose I'll need to explain.
What is "the flesh?"
What does Paul mean by "the flesh" (Greek: σάρξ; sarx) when he says things like "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." (Galatians 5:13)
In the old NIV (© 1984), we find the term "the flesh" (NIV 2011) translated here as "the sinful nature." Is that right? I don't believe so. As I said last week, as Paul uses the story of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate his point, he describes the birth of Ishmael as "according to the flesh" (Galatians 4:23). In the story Abram takes Hagar as a wife in order for him and Sarai to have a family. The story as originally written and as recounted by Paul does not emphasize that this was sinful as much as it emphasizes how it was merely human. I believe this is what we find throughout Paul's epistles when He uses the term. Whether believers even have a "sinful nature" is very debatable, and I believe it would be difficult to defend Biblically (if our old nature is dead (Rom.6:6), how can it still be operating?), but we certainly have a tendency to do things out of our mere humanness. (I'm glad the new NIV has reverted to a more literal translation here.)
Acting out of the flesh is not necessarily to do something that is sinful in itself. We can even be doing something with the best of intentions. However, we're operating in the flesh, if we're doing it on our own, apart from God's help, direction and without a need for His presence--that is, out of our mere humanness. Our flesh wants to do what it wants, in the way it wants, when it wants, and all to make the flesh feel good about itself--whether doing "good" things or bad things.
So, if acting according to the flesh means to act out of our mere humanness--without a need for God's wisdom, power or presence--then we have a lot of Christians and a lot of churches who are ministering in the name of God, but out of the flesh.
Why is ministry so hard?
I heard someone with a healing ministry once say "Healing ministry is only hard, if you think you're the one doing the healing." What if we substituted "preaching ministry" for healing ministry, or "pastoral care," "administration," "leadership," etc.? What if all the ministry is supposed to be simply God working through us, instead of us trying to do it for Him?
It seems to me that a lot of ministry is actually done out of mere humanness. This is how I was trained: to excel in ministry competencies more than in prayer (particularly "listening prayer"). Great books are written on how to do the different aspects of ministry in ways that get results. My church's mailbox is often full of offers for programs that will reach the lost, feed the hungry, care for the sick, etc., etc. Few use as much ink telling us how to pray as they tell us what to do. In other words, they tell us how to be more effective in living out of our flesh. Is this why we're so burnt out, so depressed, why we see so little fruit, etc.?
A recipe for hypocrisy
Living by the law, by moral rules, by competence, by what has been proven to be effective elsewhere, are all recipes for hypocrisy. All of the above tell us that it's not what's in our hearts that really matters, what matters are behavior, numbers, outcomes, and so forth--what matters is what can be seen and is measurable. We will be quick to say that we really care about what's in our hearts, but over and over again we see outwardly successful ministries fall when the hypocrisy is exposed. Let's just admit it: we don't need to be transformed by the power of Jesus to build a big ministry, or a big church. Womanizers, control freaks, abusers, and sex addicts (among others) have been doing it in our day, and we never would have known, unless someone spoke out the ugly truths. How many more are out there?
There are many causes for such behavior among leaders, but one of the biggest contributing factors is that we're running our ministries out of our flesh--out of our mere humanness. And as long as it's looking good on the outside, we're happy, we're good with that.
By the way, it's not just non-charismatic or non-Pentecostal churches that minister out of the flesh. To my surprise, I have found many charismatics and Pentecostals have taken on ministry techniques and strategies that rely simply on our mere humanness (AKA the flesh). Such churches have a theology of empowerment, but a practice that doesn't rely on it. This itself speaks to the how we are attracted to living out of our flesh--doing it ourselves. At least this gives us the idea that we are in charge and in control.
First [Cityname] Church of the Spirit
Paul gives us very clear instructions: "So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want." (Galatians 5:16–17). He's saying this in the context of showing why law-keeping is anti-Christian (cf. Galatians 5:4). He's not been talking about how to keep sin in check, but how law-keeping is trying to get right with God by means of the flesh (Galatians 3:3). Living by the law is quite the opposite of living licentiously, but it's still living by means of the flesh!
What Paul is saying here is much more than "if you're follow the Spirit, you won't sin so much." What he's telling us is that if we walk by the Spirit, we won't be walking by our flesh--we won't be doing it out of our mere humanness. He's telling us to live by the Spirit (NIV84), to go through our day-to-day lives, taking each step guided by, empowered by and accompanied by the Spirit.
The Dynamic of Divine Dialog
In the Church of the Spirit, all life and ministry are how that church is walking by the Spirit. Notice that I didn't say that their life and ministry are born out of that walk, but their life and ministry is that walk. We don't go to the Spirit for a while and then leave Him to go do what He told us to do. That would be returning to the flesh--doing it out of our mere humanness (even if He told us specifically what to do!), No. We must walk with the Spirit all the time, doing what He's telling us, in the empowerment He's giving us, and in His presence.
This doesn't happen by mere study of Scripture, though the Church of the Spirit had better be solidly in the Word! This happens in a dynamic relationship with God that includes listening prayer and hearing His voice. Is God calling us to help at the homeless shelter, or the food bank? How do we know? We have to ask Him.
Some church teachers will balk at this, saying it elevates experience over Scripture. This is actually just a cop-out. Scripture tells us to seek God and to seek His wisdom. The Old Testament is full of examples of kings and others seeking a word from God on how to proceed. This is a totally Biblical practice, even if it's not a practice in some Bible-thumping churches. The objection is that we might get it wrong. Let me just make this clear: we are likely to get it wrong (at least from time to time)! Seeking God's will for a specific ministry situation or opportunity, and getting it wrong, is no worse than not seeking His will at all!
If Paul is telling us to live by the Spirit (Rom. 8:5), and to be led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:18), and to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal, 5:25), what we can expect is a dynamic relationship characterized by dialog: a conversation that includes listening and speaking on both sides of the conversation.
Living Inside-Out
Living and walking by the Spirit also means that we are being transformed all the time. He is producing in us and among us the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 6:22-23). But the main point, the main ministry of the Spirit is not to fix people, but to restore their relationship with God. A by-product of people restored to God is that everything in us that needs fixing gets remade into something beautiful.
This means we live inside-out. Where the law only addresses what can be observed: externals, the Spirit addresses primarily what cannot be observed: the heart. When our inner life is transformed, what we do is a reflection of who we are, rather than what we wish we were, or are pretending to be. The one who loves, loves because he or she knows the loving of God (1John 4:7-8). In fact, Paul sums up what the Christian life is supposed to look like by reminding us that if we are loving people, we are doing what the law was all about anyway (Galatians 5:14).
The moment we begin living by our flesh--out of our mere humanness, the moment we rely more on our own experience, competence, judgment and abilities than on God, we are living in opposition to the Spirit (see Galatians 5:17). As we live led by the Spirit, we are not under any law (Galatians 5:18), because the Spirit will never lead us to a place that is illegal for us to go!
Living by the law means keeping our attention on the law. Living by the Spirit means keeping our attention on the Spirit.
Progress Report:
I admit, we're on our way. We're learning to be Church of the Spirit, and not Church of the Flesh. We're not perfect in it. We sometimes revert to the flesh (often disguised as "wisdom") to make our decisions. Sometimes we really don't trust the Spirit as much as He can be trusted - or maybe it's our ability to know what the Spirit wants that we don't trust. But we are on the way, we're on the journey, we're getting there, we're farther down the path than we were. What's more we are seeing evidence of just how great the Holy One is among us (cf. Isaiah 12:6).
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