Smyrna times., 1963-07-25
WHAT Is
SPIRITUALITY?

Inc spiritual man, accord
ing to the Apostle Paul, is one
who is not controlled by heshly
lusts. (See Galatians 5:l6-2l.)
The word lust does not mean
always evil desires. The word
literally means strong desires.
Theses may be legitimate or
illegitmate.
Fleshly lusts or strong flesh
ly desires are anything good or
bad which ministers to the flesh
at the expense of the soul.
"Anything that steams the win
dows of the soul is fleshly
lust. "--Dr. ]. H. Jowett.
A Christian student, who de-
lighted In playing tennis, dis
covered that his thoughts were
more on tennis than upon the
Lord. He quit playing tennis
until tennis took its proper
place.
Two young people we're seek
ing the reality of Spirit-filled
life at an altar. Without either
one knowing 1t about the other,
God put His finger on their
attentions to one another, tell
ing them that each was thinking
more of one another than each
thought of Him. Their attent-
ions thereafter we're halloWed
by putting Christ first.
Absorption In legitimate ma
terial things becomes fleshly
lust. Our Lord while here on
earth paid very little attention
to the cut of the hair or the
clothing of the body, but He
was much concerned lest the
legitimate cares of life and
the deceitfulness of riches
choke out the precious spiritual
life. Our reading, our seeing,
our talking, and our thinking
soon become "fleshly lusts"
unless brought 'into captivity
to the obedience of Christ. !"
For the spiritually-minde
Christian all things, though law
full, are not expedient. Too much
of some lawful things can soon
become ''fleshly lusts."
Anything that makes Jesus
less real than He once was is a
fleshly lust. Christ must not
only be prominent in life, He
: must be pre-eminent. So the
spirimally-minded Christian
guards against -
Anything which blunts his
; moral perception;
Anything which makes 1t easy
to compromise;
, Anything which exalts the ego;
Anything or any person that
supplants God In the affections,
however good that person or
thing may be.
Now the works of the flesh.
are these. "--see Galatians S:
1921. These works are the re-
; suits of the perverted funct-
ioning of life's fundamental five
drives: food and drink drive,
ambition drive, sex drive, and
worship drive. In the nom
: spiritual man these drives find
e their qualification In the flesh,
producing the awful deeds en-
umerated In these verses.
In the spiritual man these
!, drives are cleansed by faith
through the blood of Christ and
are made to revert to their
original, God-designed func-
tioning, that is, to the glory
of God. And so the spiritual
individual eats and drinks to
Gods glory, his and her am
bitions are for the glory OF
God. The sex life is discip-
lined and made to glorify God.
Worship is In spirit and ir
truth and is not just an aes-
thetic admiration. The spiritual
man or woman is not controll-
ed by the prevented strong de-
sires of life.
What is spirituanty7" 1t Is
living out the God-ife within
where no fleshly strong desire
- supplants the supremacy o.
Christ. 1t is a life so 'hid
with Christ In God" that the
! five basic drives of life be.
4 come LIES royal highway to
the daily glorifying of our God
-