Life In The Spirit
A LINGUISTIC NOTE
Failure to recognize the central role of spirituality in Paul stems at least in part from the use of the English word “spiritual” to translate the adjective πνεματικός in the Pauline letters.1 This lower-case translation tends to obscure the fact that for Paul πνεματικός is primarily an adjective for the Spirit, referring to that which belongs to, or pertains to, the Spirit.2
Indeed, almost every non-Pauline understanding of the term “spiritual” can be traced to an inadequate English translation. Thus “spiritual” has been understood to mean religious (as over against either secular or mundane),3 non-material/corporeal,4 mystical,5 pertaining to the interior life of the believer,6 or, in its worst moments, elitist (a spiritual Christian over against an everyday or carnal one).7 But in fact not one of these meanings can be found either in Greek literature8 or in Paul. For Paul “spiritual” in every case has some reference to the Spirit of God. Thus, for example, in Rom 1:11 he wants to impart some “spiritual gift” (= “gift of the Spirit”); in Col 1:9 he prays that they will be filled with all “spiritual wisdom and insight” (= “wisdom and insight from the Spirit”); in Col 3:16/ Eph 5:19 the “spiritual songs” are “songs inspired by the Spirit”; and the “spiritual blessings” of Eph 1:3 are “blessings that come from life in the Spirit.”
Even more significant are those places where Paul refers to believers as πνευματικόι, where he clearly intends “people of the Spirit.” The key Pauline passage in this regard is 1 Cor 2:6-3:1, which has had an unfortunate history of misinterpretation in the church.9 Paul’s point in context is a clear one. He is in the middle of an argument over against the Corinthians, who are into “wisdom,” which they apparently consider to be their special gift of the Spirit, but which instead was full of all the overtones this word had in the Greek world. Against their “wisdom” Paul has argued in 1:18-2:5 that true wisdom, God’s wisdom, stands in radical contradiction to that of the world, since it takes the form of a crucified Messiah, abject foolishness and weakness to merely human wisdom.
In 2:6-16, and with biting irony for those who think of themselves as “πνευματικoἰ” (Spirit people), Paul argues that in their by-passing the cross for “wisdom” they have taken their place with the world, which in its wisdom “crucified the author of life” (!). With that he sets out in the starkest form possible the absolute contrast between believers and non-believers, those who have gone the way of God’s wisdom and those who have not. The key to all of this is the Spirit, whom believers — including the Corinthians — have received. That the “foolishness of the cross” is God’s wisdom has been revealed by the Spirit (v. 10); for only the Spirit of God knows the mind of God and has revealed it to us (v. 11). In receiving the Spirit, he goes on in v. 12, we did not receive that which makes us think like the world, but the Spirit of God himself, by whose presence in our lives we understand what God has graciously done in our behalf. Therefore (v. 13) what things we speak (about Christ crucified; cf. v. 2) are not in keeping with human wisdom but are taught us by the Spirit, which means that we explain “spiritual things” (i.e., “the things freely given us by the Spirit of God,” v. 12) by “spiritual means” (i.e., “by means of the words taught by the Spirit”).10
In contrast to us, who by the Spirit understand what God has been about in the cross, Paul continues in v. 14, there is the “ψυχικός person” (the person who is merely human, without the Spirit of God). Such a person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God — indeed, cannot know them — precisely because such things are discerned only by “spiritual” means (that is, by means of the Spirit). The one who is spiritual (the Spirit person), on the other hand, discerns all things (v. 15), precisely because by the Spirit we have received the mind of Christ (v. 16).
Then, with full irony, in 3:1-4 Paul presses his advantage. Even though they think of themselves — and in reality are — Spirit people, their thinking and behavior is that of non-Spirit people, so he has had to treat them accordingly — as mere babies. As long as there is quarreling and strife going on among them, Paul asks, are they not acting like mere human beings, that is, precisely like people who do not have the Spirit? The point of Paul’s argument, of course, is “Stop it.” My point is that for Paul what distinguishes believer from non-believer is the Spirit, pure and simple. God’s people have the Spirit, and are by that very fact “spiritual” (= Spirit people), while others are not, nor can they be “spiritual” in any meaningful (for Paul) sense of that word, precisely because they lack the one thing necessary for “spiritual” life, the Spirit of the living God.
Paul uses πνευματκoἰ similarly in Gal 6:1. In a long argument (5:13-6:10) that Spirit people behave differently from those who are either in the flesh or under law, Paul concedes that even people of the Spirit from time to time may be “overtaken in a transgression” (6:1). Therefore, the rest of the believing community, as Spirit people, should restore such a one with the gentleness/meekness that is theirs by the Spirit.11 All of this is to say, then, that for Paul “spirituality” is nothing more nor less than life in the Spirit, to which theme we now turn for a brief overview. Then we will look finally at what this meant for Paul’s “spiritual” life, as we most commonly use this term, to refer to the life of prayer and devotion.