We may not only trace our failings and sins as children of God to our lack of spiritual-minded-ness, but we may be sure that the work of the Lord would prosper more with us if we were more spiritual. Nothing can compensate for a lack of it; and everything falls into its fitting place and season when we are spiritual. Individual and collective relationships and duties are then readily taken up as unto the Lord, for the heart is set on honoring Him.
Being spiritual is used in scripture in contrast with being carnal. To be spiritual we must be abiding in Christ; in no other way can we walk as He walked. To be carnal is to walk as men. They each describe a state in which a Christian may be. We cannot be spiritual in fits and starts. Apart from occupation with the Lord where He is—beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord—and taken up with His perfections and love, how can we be spiritual? Does not the Holy Spirit direct us to Him there? We see Him there crowned with glory and honor. We there behold the Son of man glorified. The Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. He makes us know that we are in Him, that “as he is, so are we in this world.” Thus we dwell in love and dwell in God, and God in us Marvelous blessing!
While the Spirit also shows us what man is in the rejection of Christ, He also blessedly shows us that we have died with Him, and that Christ in the glory is our life. A spiritually-minded Christian is led and taught of the Spirit of God, walks in the Spirit, and knows that he is an object of Christ’s continual care and blessing. He also knows that Christ is all—that all his springs, strength, and blessings are in Him; so that he estimates himself as “having nothing, and yet possessing all things” in Christ. The eye of his heart is on Christ, he glories in Him, finds satisfaction nowhere but in His presence, and knows that all other springs are dry, that He is the Fountain of living waters to his soul. He is thus constrained to take up various duties, relationships and necessary employments day by day as unto Him, and he proves that His gracious blessing is with Him; he is consciously dependent on the Holy Ghost for power and guidance to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to walk as an obedient child in subjection to the word of God, so that whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he may do it all to the glory of God.
The natural intellect may be taken up with the letter of scripture so as to accumulate a considerable store of bible knowledge, and such may outwardly go through the accustomed routine of meetings, and be zealous in the promotion of much that is kind and charitable to others; but to be taken up with Him of whom the scriptures testify, to be associated with others according to His word with an eye to His glory, and to have an exercised conscience before Him, and abiding confidence in His love, are very different matters. There are few things, perhaps, we have more to watch against than taking up divine truth with mere natural intellect, for it is a deadly enemy to spiritual-mindedness. Such persons can give utterance to some of the most profound truths of scripture with such levity as to often astonish those who hear them. Learning the truth, and holding the truth in communion with Him who is “the truth/’ is surely the way of the Spirit of God. The flesh and the Spirit always act in opposition, and cannot be commingled; though those who have begun in the Spirit may so drift away as to try to be made perfect in the flesh. Those who were once spiritual may now need to be aroused from a dead and drowsy state, and turned to Christ for light and blessing. We cannot be spiritual only on certain occasions. It is a state of soul resulting from intercourse and occupation with the Lord by His word and Spirit. Those who are thus living before Him, and walking habitually in His ways will know His mind.
All saints are not spiritual. The best in these days are feeble; but we may be feeble without being carnal. The unspiritual state of many is often painfully evident. It was so in the apostles days. Paul could speak of the Corinthian saints as “the temple of the Holy Ghost” and yet wrote that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. (1 Cor. 3:11And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1).) How very solemn!
We shall find in scripture three blessed effects of being spiritual; though no doubt there are many more: 1. Discernment— “he that is spiritual judgeth [or discerns] all things.” (1 Cor. 2:1515But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. (1 Corinthians 2:15).) No one has such ability to examine, and distinguish between things that differ, and to discern the working and power of Satan, or of the flesh, or of the spirit of the world, as those who are spiritually-minded. This is no doubt why, when evil is decidedly judged by some, others fail to perceive anything very grave in it. These Corinthian saints, for instance, had both moral and doctrinal evils among them, and had apparently no exercise of conscience before the Lord about them. Afterward, when they got before the Lord about them, what deep exercise of soul they passed through, and what care, what indignation, what zeal, what clearing of themselves, and what avenging they manifested! We must not then be surprised if saints, who instead of being spiritual, are fleshly in their habits and pursuits (not to say covetous and worldly), should fail to discern the holiness of the path marked out by the Spirit of God for the members of the body of Christ.
2. Those only who are spiritual will be in a state to receive the teaching God is ready to impart. The Corinthian saints were not fit to receive what the apostle so desired to communicate for their souls’ profit. He says, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (1 Cor. 3:22I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. (1 Corinthians 3:2).) In what other way can we account for Christians, of intelligent minds in ordinary matters, being privileged to hear some of the most precious lines of divine truth ministered, and apparently with no result? Is it not clear that there must be the spiritual state in the hearer as well as the speaker for lasting spiritual blessing to be effected? Few things, we believe, are more important at this time. If hearers are so carnal as to listen to spiritual teaching just as they would to a lecture on Astronomy, is it any wonder that there are not more blessed results? There must be capacity in the hearer to receive what is ministered. Do speakers and hearers think sufficiently of this? Meat may be of the best quality, but the person ministered to being only a babe there is not capacity of reception, and it is rejected, while milk is eagerly fed upon. But why are they so long babes?
3. A spiritual Christian is in a state to set others right: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an hope.” It is a mistake to suppose that because I am a child of God I can therefore set right those who have gone wrong. It is the spiritual who are enjoined to labor in this way. Such will not be hard and legal, and self-confident in their ways. No; they will show meekness in such service; they will be humble and dependent on the Lord, and not act in haste and willfulness; but knowing full well not only that there is in themselves the same tendency to evil, but that they would fall into the same fault, and commit the same trespass, unless kept by the power of God; therefore they act according to that word, “considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” (Gal. 6:11Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. (Galatians 6:1).)
May we have grace to hearken to His voice who says, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:1616This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16).) Where this is lacking, how can there be spiritual-mindedness?