Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I wanted to make one statement that I think is worthy of much thought by us all and might just fit in with this thread in some way.
I have been impressed in recent years that even the very "spiritual" discussions that Paul had that are so often used as the core of LRC teaching, inner-life teaching, and even a lot of the "belief is everything" kind of emphasis of evangelicalism in general were not about being spiritual. They are mostly not about the spiritual things, but about the spiritual facts that free us to live, act, be, etc., in our lives the way that sons of God would be... everything about the Spirit is available to us. We have it at our disposal. Peter said we have what we need for life and Godliness. We don't need to dwell on the spiritual truths and do a lot of "spiritual" things before we live a "son of God" life. We just need to refocus our minds from the old thinking to the new. From worrying about OT laws to recognizing that on this side of crucifixion we don't have those issues.
To borrow from a post I just did in another thread, it is not about conjuring up enough spiritual effort to eventually act like a son of God. It is realizing that I am a son of God and just need to act as if it is true.
The Spirit is very important in all of that. But we don't get the Spirit by thinking about all the spiritual things or psyching ourselves up for the task. The Spirit is there.
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I see the opposite of your point, which I agree is "worthy of much thought", in Lee's expositions building on Paul. Lee took a half-dozen supposedly key verses, framed up his "God's economy" template, and then coerced conformity upon the rest of the Bible, and that portion of the Christian flock under his tutelage. Lee arguably turned Paul's "Spirit of Christ" into dogma for us, the new and shiny equivalent of OT law.
Now, am I doing the same thing, on this thread, using Exodus 25:9, John 1:51, and Revelations 1:4? Probably... see how easy it is? We just get "impressed" with a few verses, get a "vision" from them, and superimpose that over the whole shebang. Line everything up with your vision, ignore everything that doesn't conform, label everyone as "dark" who doesn't hang with your vision, and you are off and running.
Which is where the
ekklesia comes in, or should come in. It's always good to have a few people around who are not bowled over by the magnificence of your exalted view of the divine and unseen realm. We should rather be bowled over by Jesus, and not by Lee or aron or OBW, who are thinking and writing about Jesus. These are not the same things.