The flesh/body vs. spirit/soul dualism of the New Testament
is so profound that once we accept it everything about the radical nature of
Christianity falls into place. Paul
says, for instance, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14 ESV). This puts the body in its proper role as
serving the cause of God. If we are
called to work, marriage, or ministry, for instance, the body exists for the
benefit of others and of spiritual pursuits, not itself alone. We then care for and use the body only to
serve the higher purpose. That is what
Jesus did. He fulfilled his calling by
dying on the cross for our sins, sacrificing his body for us. The body is the instrument of “doing” so when
we pray for God’s will we are asking what God wants us to “do” with our
bodies. The body is the handmaid and
servant of the soul as the soul is filled with the word and Spirit of God. So Paul wrote, “I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1 ESV).
But what is the challenge of bringing the body under this rule?
If there were a clear contrast between body and soul then
our task would be easy. But the body
throws up defenses against this program; it hides behind strong allies in our
passions and desires, that is, emotions.
In the Bible passions and desires are attached directly to the body:
Put
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its
desires. –Romans 13:14
But
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the
Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you
from doing the things you want to do … those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. –Galatians 5:16 and 24
ESV
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. -Galatians 6:7-8 ESV
…
Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like
the rest of mankind. –Ephesians 2:3 ESV
Beloved,
I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against your soul. –1Peter 2:11
All
that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and
pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. –1 John 2:16 ESV
This is confirmed by medical science, which attributes
feelings to specific substances called hormones. Thoughts and prayers cannot be contained in a
test tube but feelings can in the sense of being identified with isolated and
chemically described physical substances that the body produces to materially protect
and replicate itself. The fight or
flight hormone, adrenaline, and those associated with sexual attraction, testosterone
and estrogen, for instance, are among the most powerful. Therefore, do not always believe the
feelings. They have a more ethereal
nature than the body but are not necessarily more spiritual.
Some attempt through various forms of religion to sanctify
or justify any and all emotions, even vile ones, but feelings, like actions of
the body, can be judged by content. Likewise, just as actions can be improved upon
so can feelings. This is done through
spiritual disciplines that address them.
The first step is to realize the morality of feelings. Feelings may be either sinful or
righteous. The Bible says, for instance,
that whoever loves God must hate evil.
Love and hate are strong emotions.
Aimed in the right direction, so to speak, with appropriate objects of
affection or repulsion they can be used in service of the good. But what if someone loved evil or hated
God? Yikes! In fact the Bible speaks of those that call
good evil and evil good. That kind of
twisted moral sense can be a sign of disturbed thought or trauma to the body
but it can also result from emotions all out of whack. Therapists are trained specifically to help
us with our emotions and a wise minister will pay attention to how we feel.
My point is that in the hierarchy of relative challenges to
spiritual formation the body is the most difficult and only a little less
difficult are the emotions, that is, because of their close association to the
body. That is why emotions are often
best experienced in more-or-less controlled environments, like marriage,
family, friendships, and churches. These
small groups and primary relationships are the incubators of the heart. Emotions are best experienced when subjected
to rational categories like social propriety within smaller, interpersonal
relationships. Yelling like a maniac for
your team at a ball game is fun, for instance, but it would be inappropriate at
a funeral. “Yay! Uncle Russ got to go to heaven!” Such an outburst or leakage of emotion is a
sign that work should be done on the emotions.
Our feelings can be trained to conform to expectations. In fact most human relationships are a matter
of managing emotions. The most popular
people (and some of the most evil) are the ones that can master emotional
connection with and appeal to others on the basis of their mutually felt needs
and desires. But above all these
considerations is the question of whether one has brought body and the soul
under the Lordship of Christ.
The goal in spiritual formation for the emotions is to love
what God loves and hate what he hates.
It is axiomatic for Christians, for instance, that God loves people and
hates what hurts or destroys us. As John
wrote:
If
anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does
not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And
this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his
brother. –1 John 4:20-21 ESV
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