Body and Spirit: War or Peace?

Forget everything you’ve learned from the misguided dualists who teach that the body, being material, is inferior to the spirit in your walk with Christ. 

In Jesus Christ, body and spirit are redeemed together. The spirit brings serenity to the body—a visceral peace that nothing outside of Christ can bring. On the other hand, the body informs the spirit with its needs for healthy sleep, nutrition, and exercise.  

Overly emphasizing either the body or the spirit is like saying your right leg is more important than your left leg, and then hopping on that leg for the rest of your life.

 When the apostle Paul speaks of a war between the flesh and the spirit, he doesn’t mean you should abandon bodily cares so that you can be a pure spirit. He means that bodily appetites have limited horizons. 

The goal of life is not contained in fancy clothes, prestigious quarters, or satiating the salivary glands. The goal is to develop a mindset based on trusting in the Lord’s help for physical provisions (home, food, clothing, education, health), while seeking above all else the Father’s will for you. When you seek the balance of bodily health and spiritual guidance, you’ll find they both contribute to a wholesome human nature.

Listen to Christ’s overview: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?...But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6: 25; 33).

By the same token, the body is a complex machine that needs quality care. Do you have a runaway compulsion for sweets, food, alcohol, smoking, drugs, or sex? If so, Christ doesn’t get on your case and carp at you to give these up, but sends the Holy Spirit to help you, like through a Twelve-Step group that specializes in breaking addictions. Thank God, you are not left alone to battle a force that is physically devastating and spiritually demoralizing.

Twelve-Step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous work wonders because they restore balance to the body and spirit. You gain a reprieve from out-of-control appetites by participating in a spiritual fellowship whose foundation is trust in God and service to others. Many of these meetings end by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

Your spirituality needs attention just like the body. Opening your spirit to God does not require being religious. It simply requires sincerity, transparency, and humility. You can ask God for these qualities and the Holy Spirit will make sure they become part of your individuality in Christ. Equally important are eating and drinking the Word of God, relating to others who know and love Christ, and helping people whenever you can. 

So there you have it, a short course in understanding Body and Spirit. Along with Mind and Heart (previous blog), these complimentary dimensions comprise human nature, providing you with a reliable set of checks and balances for cultivating your individuality in Christ.

 

Come Alive In Christ with Your Human Nature Compass

Unfortunately, Christian convention espouses a host of phrases that muddle our understanding of human nature. You hear about the flesh versus the spirit, the new man versus the old man, the spiritual nature versus the carnal nature, the unregenerate nature versus the regenerate nature, and what-have-you. But if you stick to the human nature compass, you’ll have a healthy working model based on Jesus Christ.

Jesus didn’t come to redeem you on the installment plan, part now and part when you’ve died and gone to heaven. He has redeemed your whole being now. In Christ your human nature is made trustworthy, but only if you ask the Holy Spirit to help keep you fit and balanced. Just like a car’s engine can get out of whack and need a good tune-up, you’ve got to take care of your human nature or it will break down.

 Mind and Heart

Put in proper perspective, the mind has to do with thinking, talking, reasoning, gathering facts, setting priorities, and estimating the consequences of choices. There is an age-old bias in many cultures and religions that men are somehow better at thinking and reasoning than women. Therefore, men are somehow closer to God. I feel furious when I hear this because it is so untrue. There is no male or female in Christ (Gal 3: 28). There are only individuals who can think effectively to the degree that they exercise this function. 

Sure, if you don’t use your brain, it will grow as rusty as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. You’ll lock your keys in the car, mess up your taxes, and make idiotic choices. This has nothing to do with genes or gender. It can be remedied by practice in putting on your thinking cap and reasoning things through.

Thinking is what you do in your head—literally, the frontal cortex of the brain. Feeling is something you do in your heart. People who think too much end up emotionally detached: islands unto themselves. People who feel too much are like roller coasters, reacting emotionally to every little thing.

Human Nature Compass

Christ was neither a talking head, like some verbose religious communicators, nor an emotional loose cannon, like some overly zealous followers. Jesus had equal trust in his mind and heart. He made thoughtful choices that were infused by real emotion. He was invested in his relationships, passionate in pursuing the Father’s will, and steadfast in his mission. You and I are called to develop this same inner dynamism.

While thinking helps you make wise choices, emotion is the energy of personality that brings a depth dimension to your behavior and relationships. If thinking is the melody in your life, then emotions are the chords, bass, and syncopation that lets your life swing. 

As an individual in Christ, you learn how to bring the aliveness of your thoughts and feelings into prayer conversations, sharing what’s on your mind and heart with God, and experiencing what Christ has to share with you conceptually and emotionally.  

Mind and Heart

I encourage you to pull out the stops when it comes to communion and communication with the Lord. Try talking out loud sometimes when you’re stuck in traffic or taking a walk. Of course, make sure no one hears or they’ll think you’re nuts. Some of my favorite prayer times are at the spa when Jesus and I are alone in the sauna. 

It is erroneous to suppose that God only wants to hear from you when you are calm and rational. I suppose we get this idea from prayers recited in public settings, where dignity and decorum are required. But one-on-one communion with the Lord is enriched by emotional transparency about your ups and downs, dreams and frustrations. Full-bodied communication stirs God’s heart. 

Kate and I have a longstanding policy of praying out loud for one another during times of need or stress. We don’t do this every day, but every once in a while we go through a “walking prayer.” This means that one of us will pace the floor, walking and talking to the Lord, until the real emotion behind the prayer begins to seep through. Then we will allow bodily gestures, vocal inflexions, and facial expressions to gain momentum until our whole human nature is engaged.

The responses we get from the Lord are as real as our prayers. Try it. You’ll find that your mind opens, your heart warms, your body melts, and your spirit is revived. 

What Constitutes Human Nature?

This question of what makes up human nature has baffled people for eons.

Books by theologians, philosophers, and psychologists abound with varying views about what comprises human nature. Most positions emphasize one facet of humanness as all-important. 

Rationalists teach that the mind is the key to understanding human nature. 

Romantics argue that the heart is the crucial thing. 

Hedonists say no, the body and its pleasures should prevail. 

And Gnostics say the spirit alone is real. 

But the Self Compass approach asks why not combine all the parts that God has made in us, so we can function with a complete package? As you might expect, the compass model presents the case for holistic human nature, suggesting that since Christ, the God-person, experienced and expressed his mind and heart, body and spirit, then perhaps you and I should, too.

The Human Nature Compass

                                                                          

The compass approach is intuitive. Common sense tells you that the mind is for thinking, the heart for feeling, the body for sensing, and the spirit for communing with God. Simple though it is, the Human Nature Compass combines the sophistication of a multifaceted model with the witness of Jesus Christ’s human nature as revealed in the Gospels.

Jesus affirmed our human natures as he affirmed his own, because Christ values the whole of our humanness. In fact, many Gospel stories reflect his complimentary use of a holistic human nature. 

Do you remember when he ran across a woman who was hemorrhaging from an embarrassing female disorder? Jesus sensed her touch of his robe, even though a crowd was pressing him from all sides, and in that touch she was healed. Turning to face her, he thought about how helping her would offend those religious folks who judged her as “unclean.” Nevertheless, he felt compassion for her twelve years of torment. With spiritual authority he extended kinship to her in the family of God: “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace” (Lk 8: 43-48). 

There is a message here. I think of it this way: when God created the cosmos, he paused to say, “It is very good.” Then, in the fullness of time, God sent his Son to become fully human. In taking human nature forever into the Godhead, Christ says to us: 

“You are my kin—

I’ve made your human nature very good, too.”

How To Trust God and Feel God's Love

Whatever chaos is in the world, whatever governments are in power, and whether Christianity is in or out of favor, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite you to walk and talk with them every single day.  

Your communication with the Trinity is not contingent upon external factors, but internal ones. Your whole personality and human nature are the means of communion with God, and that communication is a spontaneous ongoing interaction.

What a pleasure.

What a mystery.

What an adventure!

In developing your individuality in Christ, you speak your mind to God, disclose feelings of every sort, and surrender your life and body to his care. 

The Lord, in turn, may respond by composing sentences in your mind, hugging your heart with tender care, or imparting serenity to your body, a tangible peace that calms your nervous system and melts your muscles.

As in any close bond, conversation with God sometimes sings like poetry, and other times feels uncertain and awkward. If you come to a place where God seems distant and your burden heavy, get back to the basics. Kneel at your bedside for several nights, praying for the rejuvenation of a lively faith. 

The Lord is right there with you. He will help remove any obstacles and rouse your awareness of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence, for “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God,who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

There's more on how to trust God and feel his love consistently: 

Faith Beyond Church Walls: Finding Freedom in Christ.