Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
In fact, no one has been able to explain what spirit is. Spirit seems to be even more elusive than mind which might be defined as the images that the brain makes. I ventured the definition that a spirit is a person without a body. But then it was pointed out that in I Corinthians 15 it talks about spiritual bodies.
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I know this is another topic, but I have been thinking over this for quite a while, since I tried to definite what spirit, spirituality, and spiritual life are.
BTW, there is a verse that distinguishes between the body, soul and spirit:
"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."(I Thess. 5:23)."
I can't explain what spirit is, either. Probably, it's elusive because it's invisible, not physical. I tried to find answers reading the EOC doctrines, got some insights, but I am still unable to give a clear definition. And I believe even if I could get a definite answer, I'd not be able to comprehend it, anyway. Nevertheless, I'll try to explain the term "spirit". But first of all, let's definite what body and soul are:
1. The body, “dust from the ground” (Gen. 2:7), is the physical or material aspect of man’s nature.
2. The soul is the life-force that vivifies and animates the body, causing it to be not just a lump of matter, but something that grows and moves, that feels and perceives. In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, the term 'soul' refers both to the spiritual (not physical) element in our existence and to life itself. Anything that has life is called a soul. The soul is the sign of life, but it is not the cause of life. It is the bearer of life. Animals also possess a soul, and so perhaps do plants. But in man’s case the soul is endowed with consciousness; it is a rational soul, possessing the capacity for abstract thought, and the ability to advance by discursive argument from premises to a conclusion. These powers are present in animals, if at all, only to a very limited degree.
In the New Testament, the soul appears also to be the bearer of eternal life, and therefore, the salvation of the soul is identified with the possibility of life which does not know corruption and death.
3. The spirit is that force which God breathed into man when He created him. Spirit, the “breath” from God (Gen. 2:7), is the highest aspect of the soul, which the animals lack. Animals have feelings and different character traits but they don't strive for God. The spirit represents man's active participation in God. It is important to distinguish “Spirit”, with an initial capital, from “spirit” with a small "s". The created spirit of man is not to be identified with the uncreated or Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity; yet the two are intimately connected, for it is through his spirit that man apprehends God and enters into communion with him.
With his soul (psyche) man engages in scientific or philosophical inquiry, analyzing the data of his sense-experience by means of the discursive reason. With his spirit (pneuma), which is sometimes termed nous or spiritual intellect, he understands eternal truth about God or about theology or inner essences of created things, not through deductive reasoning, but by direct apprehension or spiritual perception – by a kind of intuition that St Isaac the Syrian calls “simple cognition”. The spirit or spiritual intellect is thus distinct from man’s reasoning powers and his aesthetic emotions, and superior to both of them. (I mainly quoted Metropolitan Kallistos Ware's book 'The Orthodox Way').
Spirituality in the EOC means the everyday activity of life in communion with God. The term spirituality refers not merely to the activity of man's spirit alone, his mind, heart, and soul, but it refers as well to the whole of man's life as inspired and guided by the Spirit of God. Every act of a Christian must be a spiritual act. Everyday thought must be spiritual, every word, every deed, every activity of the body, every action of the person. This mean, that all that a person thinks, says and does must be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit so that the will of God the Father might be accomplished as revealed and taught by Jesus Christ the Son of God.
"…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Doing all things to the glory of God is the meaning and substance of life for a human being. This "doing" is what Christian spirituality is about. A person can abide in Christ, accomplish His commandments and be in communion with God the Father only by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in his life.
Spiritual life is life in and by the Holy Spirit.
I can't logically understand WL's words when he said that God doesn't need spiritual giants. Was it something Asian or was he just afraid of competition? In my culture, spiritual giants are those who bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Their life is the life in and by the Holy Spirit. The more spiritual giants, the better. But according to WL, God needs a different type of people. They don't need to be spiritual. They don't need to develop their personal relationship with God. They just need need to belong to the LRC, "exercise their spirit" by reading WL's books, and do all things to the glory of WL and his church. That's a spiritual life in the LRC.