In today's lesson, Paul writes about spirit and flesh. What does it means to be alive in the spirit? What does it mean to be dead to the flesh? I think that sometimes we read into lessons like that that our bodies--physical things--are somehow bad and the only good things are those spiritual things beyond the physical.In church yesterday, we heard Paul in 1 Corinthians use the body as an illustration for what it means to be the people of God--what it means to be church. In Paul's image of all of us coming together to form the Body of Christ, he has an overwhelmingly positive view of the body. It is a marvelous, wondrous thing that allows us to do Christ's work in the world and live into the fullness of who we are. Through the body we can flourish and have joy-filled lives.
When Paul talks about "the flesh" I think he means those things which serve ourselves, whereas "the spirit" means those things that further God's plan. God's plan, seen throughout all of Holy Scripture, can be summarized into a world of abundance, peace, justice, and love.
Paul writes that "if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom 8:10). Sin, that which separates us from God, has a death-like effect on us. Jesus, however, through the Spirit, restores life by reuniting us to God. In other words, we who have strayed away from God's plan of abundance, peace, justice, and love are brought back into that reality through Jesus' faithfulness in the cross.
For those of us who profess the love of God and of Jesus, we have a duty to live into that vision and share it with the world. What would the world look like if we really lived as if Christ's life-giving Spirit dwelt within us? What are some concrete ways we could live this way?
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