A person can be a Christian, and not live by the Spirit.

Ah, but that’s not what our Lord intends.

The night before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples how they, and we, would live out the new life his death and resurrection would provide for us.

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:7, 13)

Later, the apostle Paul wrote:

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly – mere infants in Christ. (1 Cor 3:1)

Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? (Gal. 3:3 NET)

Be filled with the Spirit. (Eph. 5:18)
Keep on being filled with the Spirit. (CJV)

Live by the Spirit. (Gal. 5:16 NET)

Receiving what comes from God’s Spirit

So let’s explore a wonderful passage about the Spirit that often gets lost in translation.

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one (1 Cor. 2:9-15 ESV).

Teach us, Spirit of God. Guide us into the truth.

Holy Spirit and human spirit

This passage in 1 Corinthians 2 speaks about both:

→ The Holy Spirit. Christ in us, the Spirit reveals God to us.

All who receive Jesus as Lord receive the Holy Spirit. All who receive the Spirit can know him and understand him. Jesus said, “He will guide you into all the truth.” We cannot coax or wrestle or extract this truth by any amount of human effort. It comes only through the Spirit.¹

→ The human spirit. We have one!

Many church cultures ignore scriptural mentions of the human spirit. But they’re there, and they show us the wonderful way God designed “the spirit of a person” to relate to the Spirit of God.

Natural person and spiritual person

The scripture passage above also speaks of the “natural person” and the “spiritual person.” Guided by English translations, we may see Paul contrasting the Christian and the non-Christian. But is he?  

In these verses, Paul says of Christians what the New Testament repeatedly affirms:

→ All true Christ-followers have received the Spirit of God.

→ All true Christ-followers have the capacity to receive from the Spirit all that he wants to pour out.

Now we have received …
the Spirit who is from God …

that we might understand
the things freely given us by God. (v. 12)

And spiritual persons? The way the term is used here:

→ A spiritual person has received the Spirit of God.

→ A spiritual person readily receives “the things of the Spirit of God” (v. 14).

The difference is subtle, but crucial: All Christians have access to the things of the Spirit. A spiritual person is a Christ-follower who welcomes the things of the Spirit.

By this definition, the Christians in Corinth (to whom Paul was writing) were not spiritual – at least, not at the time Paul wrote.

They had received the Spirit of Christ, so they had the capacity to receive, and walk in, all that the Spirit had freely given them. Yet Paul told them: “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit.”

He spent his entire letter urging them to change that.

Human soul and human spirit

In the original language, the passage we’re exploring not only distinguishes between the natural person and the spiritual person. It also distinguishes between the human soul and the human spirit.

Consider the phrase in verse 14 translated “natural person” (ESV). That phrase, psuchikos anthroopos, might also be translated “soulish person,” or “human soul.”²

The soulish person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they seem foolish, and the soul is not able to understand them because they are discerned by the spirit. The human spirit judges all things …

The Message rendering of verses 14-16 paraphrases this Greek phrase this way: “the unspiritual self, just as it is by nature.”

The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature [i.e. the soul], can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness.

Spirit can be known only by spirit – God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.

Spirit can be known only by spirit

Ah, yes. A second picture is emerging. Christ’s Spirit within you communes with your human spirit. Spirit-to-spirit, you access stunning things you haven’t seen, heard or dreamed, things our Lord wants to show those he loves.

And this is key: Receiving what God the Spirit is releasing into your spirit requires humbling your soul.

A humbled soul, or a haughty one

A humbled soul knows what it cannot do.

Oh, it can feel. And it can think. And it can speak its piece, passionately at times: “Do you see what’s going on, God? This is how I feel! This is what I think! This is what it all makes me want to believe!”

Yet a humbled soul will not lean on its own understanding. Rather, it will trust the Lord, seek the Lord and yield to the Spirit-led spirit.

A soul not humbled thinks it knows best and chooses that way. It may reject Christ completely. But also, it may prompt us to try to live a Christian life through our own understanding and our own effort. All the while, it may assure us that we are being scriptural and spiritual.

Thus, a soulish person is characterized by a prideful focus on self. With our soul in the lead, we cannot rightly divide the Word of truth, but may believe we can. We may even believe we are Spirit-filled when, in fact, we are, quenching and grieving the Spirit.

The soul-spirit struggle

We all live with the soul-spirit struggle. In Scripture, it’s also called the struggle between the spirit and the flesh, because body and soul join together – to insist on getting their own way, to refuse to yield to the Spirit-led spirit.

When that happens, it is good if the resulting inner conflict propels us to the Lord, to ask him what’s wrong and why.

All too often, instead, we may press in to do what we have been taught:

• Seek spiritual truth via the “unspiritual self.”
• Latch onto what sounds religious, but does not breathe with God’s life.
• And believe, because we’re Christians, that we have spiritually discerned.

The tragedy multiplies when we teach this soul logic to others seeking spiritual truth.

Spirit-to-spirit communing

Now we have received
not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might understand
the things freely given us by God.

God’s Spirit and your spirit in open communion, you breathe in what he breathes out. Then you breathe out what he has breathed into you.

Or, put another way, your spirit moves with God’s Spirit, as one moves with a lead partner in a dance. Humbling your soul, you find yourself – spirit, soul and body – moving in intimate oneness with your Lord.

Just like every other aspect of living, it happens one breath at a time, one choice at a time, one step at a time.

It’s not about thinking, “I’m spiritual, and they’re not.” Or, “they’re spiritual, and I’m not.” Rather, any Christian at any time may be living as a natural person, or as a spiritual person. The difference lies in how we choose in that moment to respond to Spirit of God.

Spirit-to-spirit imparting

And we impart this in words
not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit,
interpreting spiritual truths
to those who are spiritual.

As we learn to live by the Spirit, the Lord connects us with others who are learning the same thing. For example, as you talk or act from your Spirit-led spirit and others respond in kind, what you send out and what they receive is Spirit and life.

In the same way, you are able to receive what God breathes, through someone else, into you. Thus, even when insight or understanding comes through a person, no one is settling for a second-hand word.

Just please remember! In the church Jesus is building, “imparting in words” does not flow one way only. It’s not a top-down thing.

Human church systems are built to foster one-up, one-down relationships between the “ministers” and the “ministered to,” between celebrities and fans. It’s understood that people “higher” in the system do the imparting – and those on a lower rung are to receive what is said as the word of the Lord.

Yet the same night Jesus promised to send the indwelling Spirit, he also called for his people to relate in a profoundly different way, a way possible only as we live by the Spirit. Jesus said: “Love one another” (John 13:34).

Loving one-anothering cannot, does not, flow from believer to believer in one direction only. It is mutual, reciprocal. It flows back-and-forth between.

Living by the Spirit, we speak to one another from the Spirit (see Ephesians 5:18-19). We impart to, and receive from, each other, in Christ’s love.

The blessing of intimate oneness with God

And when we do not live by the Spirit? Dear one, we do not look like Jesus. We cannot move as one with him.

Be blessed to receive the Spirit of God, fully, continually, in the same way you receive breath.

Be blessed to recognize when your “unspiritual self” is trying to do what only your spirit can. Cooperate with your Lord in humbling your soul, so Spirit-to-spirit communion can thrive.

Be blessed to see the extent to which you have been taught to believe, say and do what did not come from the Spirit, but from your soul. Keep looking when God shows you ways your church culture has twisted his Word and displaced his Spirit in people’s lives.

May the living Spirit, called in Hebrew Ruach HaKodesh, bless you with grace to separate out the precious from the worthless, the Spirit-led from the soulish. As the the Spirit of Christ shows you anything you have agreed with that is religious, but not God:

Be blessed with courage to stop, turn around and go a different way.

Be blessed with humility, discernment, grace, to receive what God has freely given you – including what he imparts to you through others.

Be blessed with breath to speak what he gives to you for others – in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit of God.

Spirit-to-spirit, may you move in intimate oneness with the Lord your God.

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I published the original version of this post on September 16, 2014, and titled it, “Living by the Spirit.” Now I’ve updated, retitled and reposted it.

Photo by Muhammet Raşit Kaplan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-pigeon-on-hand-against-sunlight-17021238/

More about living by the Spirit

• Weary one, can we talk about the spirit realm?
• Humble your soul, release your spirit
• Trauma and truth-seeking: Desperation, spirit, life
• Exhaling the life and breath of God, and other posts in the Life and Breath series
  
  
• Our Spirit-to-spirit birthright
• Mastering the language in which God speaks
• Code blue! God’s call to the breath-filled
• Weak but strong: Write and speak by the Spirit

Footnotes

1. See John 14:16-18; 16:12-16; Colossians 1:27. ↩︎
2. Psuchikos anthroopos, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Interlinear Transliterated Bible. ↩︎