We have an epidemic in our churches that is ravaging us like a violent disease but making us dangerously numb to what is happening in the process. The problem dates back to being as old as the New Testament church itself and stands as an issue that aroused the apostle Paul like nothing else we ever saw him write about. The problem? Flesh powered, performance focused, eye pleasing religion.
Whether you attend Lakewood Church with pastor Joel Osteen or the strictest of fundamental Baptist churches, the problem is here and Paul told us how to spot it. First, you have to understand how the real spiritual walk operates. The first step is salvation by grace through faith. Next, growth and spiritual maturity comes through a purification process called sanctification which is performed by grace through faith just like salvation. The product of this process is holiness which is defined as "purity of heart and motive." This is where many of the early, New Testament Christians who were converted out of the Jewish religion really missed it and inspired a host of others to miss it, too. They believed that you could take a list of rules and regulations and, with the power of human flesh, accomplish spirituality. Just like many believe that salvation consists of nothing more than a simple decision with no draw from Jehovah and no convincing from the Holy Spirit, many also believe that the workings of God are not necessary for sanctification and holiness. Removing the grace of God from sanctification leads to an outward focused performance of the flesh that is designed to bring man glory. Remember, whatever authored your spirituality will always get the glory for it.
Peter showed us in his first epistle that true holiness always produces unfeigned love of the brethren. Paul, with the help of the Holy Ghost, revealed the fruit of the Spirit to us in Galatians five to even further show us the peaceful, loving nature of a spiritual man. In the same chapter where the fruit of the Spirit is listed in conjunction with faith based spirituality a list is also given that reveals the works of the flesh in conjunction with flesh powered spirituality. This list was given in the context that if you rely on the flesh to power your spirituality that these are the sorts of things you can expect to find IN YOUR CHURCH. This is not a list that our elite group of Christians are free from but rather this is the list of symptoms that, once analyzed, diagnose us as a very sick group of individuals in need of the purging fires of revival. Let's break down the list found in Galatians 5:19-21.
1. Adultery and Fornication. God recognizes these as two separate sins but they represent the same heart problem. We all know a preacher or a missionary or a Sunday school teacher or an upstanding church member that has fallen prey to these physical sins and many kept right on preaching, teaching, and singing with the same charisma and people skills as they always had without ever missing a beat until they got caught. The reason? Because the only spirituality they had to begin with was flesh powered and sin has never stopped the flesh from being a top performer. These sins can be active in the mind as well even if the body isn't acting on them. If you are a Christian man accessing the internet to read this blog post statistics are staggering that you have accessed pornography intentionally sometime in the last six months. How interested are you in honesty?
2. Uncleanness and Lasciviousness. These words mean luxurious, wasteful, and indulgent with unrestrained carnal desires. It means that while the world hurts we spend ungodly amounts of money on comfort and ease and entertainment. It means that we host revival meetings at our church multiple times every year while consistently ignoring the community. It means that we have preachers, pastors, and singers that actually use ministry as a means to live lavish and lazy. It means that once a week we sooth our conscience with "soul winning" activities while extinguishing our burden with selfishness the other six days a week. It means we can't afford missions giving because our Netflix account might have to be cut back. It means that we live our lives without any real burden because the flesh is only interested in the work that others can see or read about on Facebook.
3. Idolatry. This is the simple adoration of anything that fills that place of passion in our lives where God belongs. This manifests itself before church starts and after it closes when all we can talk to our brothers about is Friday night's ball game or Saturday's hunting adventure. In a more complicated light, this also includes the manufacturing of a version of Jesus that is contrary to who He is in scripture and a commitment to that version of Him rather than to the real One. This fruit of the flesh is evident when we use our religion to pin medals on our chests and forge crowns of glory for our heads while pretending to do it all for Jesus. Idolatry shows itself when we serve God with our form and show disregard for anyone who may shed light on how our form is wrong. Worship of the true Jesus is hungry for truth while worship of ourself and our religion will avoid it because flesh is in the drivers seat and it doesn't want out.
4. Witchcraft. This comes from a greek word pronounced pharmakeia which is where we get our word pharmacy or pharmaceuticals from and is defined by the use of and administering of drugs. Whether its sleeping meds, pain killers or unrealistic amounts of caffeine that is being abused to obtain our ups and downs it is proof that flesh is what we are leaning on. (Note: I am talking about chemical abuse and not medication that you actually need.)
5. Hatred, Variance, Wrath and Strife. These words all paint a grim picture of a people that have forsaken the biblical principles of loving their neighbor as themselves and are incapable of getting along with each other. The word religion is defined as "the outward practices" of your belief system. First, our flesh convinces itself that its own outward practices are superior to Christianity around it and then it uses that superiority complex as a license for condescension. We fight, argue, bicker, name call, and throw people and groups completely away all for the sake of exalting ourselves. True spirituality produces humility while flesh powered spirituality produces hypercritical arrogance. If we had half as much truth as we think we had we'd be in the ditches with our brothers, with tears in our eyes, trying to share it. You have to actually love people if you are going to help them, though, and the flesh is not capable of real love.
6. Emulation, Seditions, and Heresies. This word emulation is defined as what happens when people make spirituality into a competition. This word is defined, whether in Greek or English, as passion or zeal for a thing or cause that stands separate from the gospel. Whether it is one of the many Methodists that have ran me off of their front porches because I'm a baptist or whether it's the fist pumping fundamentalist in front of an ecumenical shouting about old time religion, this competitive, elitist, self absorbed mind set reveals a form of spirituality governed by the flesh and not the Holy Ghost of God. Seditions and Heresies further carry this same point when this word "heresies" is defined as people dividing into "sects" and causing unity to be destroyed over "differences of OPINION." It's one thing to break fellowship with a group of Mormons who do not believe Jesus is God but it is an entirely different problem when you cause discord and division over your personal, extra-biblical preferences.
7. Envyings and Murders. Envy is defined as that uneasiness we feel when we know we have been outdone or are in the presence of someone who we feel that we cannot outperform. The reason so many preacher's fellowships, camp meetings, and recreational conversations among Christians are filled with us overanalyzing the lives of others, making presumptuous assumptions, and judging motives of men and ministries is because our flesh is envious and insecure. Flesh powered spirituality cannot rest in who it is in Christ because it is not dependent on Christ to begin with therefor it MUST rely on lifting itself up and tearing others down. Murder is a literal, malicious killing of another human but Christ told us that if we allow things such as envy to lead us to things such as hatred that murder has already occurred in the heart. Holiness is purity of heart but the flesh isn't capable of such an innocence.
8. Drunkenness and Revellings. Intoxication with strong drink and the problems it brings is a serious issue that many church goers feel they are free of but drunkenness is painted all through scripture as rebellion and stubbornness toward God. When a man wanted to shut God out and numb himself from conviction alcohol was an easy way to accomplish that. Today our churches are inebriated with self. We are drunk on the books and teachings of men and whenever God attempts to change us we can't really even hear Him. Revelling is described in the Strong's Concordance as men who used drunkenness to honor a false diety. The flesh has its gods, the flesh is intoxicated with willing ignorance, and the flesh is revelling in its cause.
Why have we become so easily satisfied with facades? I believe at the heart of flesh powered religion is a desire for measurable spirituality. We want to be able to look at a person and somehow judge how far along they are while also being able to display our superior place of growth for all to see. The fact is, though, that spirituality cannot be measured. a rebellious, cold hearted Christian and a newly saved grown man that is spiritually that of a fumbling toddler may display some of the same outward characteristics. Two Christians that are both spiritually equivalent to a preschooler may have extremely diverse strengths and weaknesses that conclude nothing of where they are on the Christian walk. A Pharisee that isn't even walking with God may display all the outward signs of a seasoned, mature Christian while some men and women of great faith may not ever take on any religious facades that stand them out of the crowd for you to see. Ultimately, though, our carnal flesh loves externally focused spirituality that is powered by the flesh because it provides them with something to hide behind. If Christianity is satisfied with facades then a woman can lay around the house, neglect her husband, neglect her children, watch TV all day and read romance novels during the commercial breaks and, as long as she meets the outward criteria when she leaves the house, we are satisfied. A man can live carnal and selfish, waisting all the family's money on hobbies, but be bold at church with all of his learned, religious vernacular and we are pleased. The Bible tells us that God is no respecter of persons. The word person, as Ive stated before, means "a mask" and its where we get our word persona. Your persona may satisfy you and your church but God doesn't buy that version of you. Real spirituality comes from a heart of faith and doesn't always fit the cookie cutter holes we like to push it through. I've lived both lives. I've lived religiously busy for the purpose of showing some up while oppressing others. I know what its like to surf through a man's wife's Facebook pictures so I could try to judge her spirituality by what she wears. I know what its like to pick up my phone and call someone to gossip about what I've found to be questionable in the life of someone around me....all to the banner of "holiness." The ditches on both sides of the road are lined with people that have been hurt deeply by this lifestyle. It isn't doing anybody any good and it doesn't have to continue. Walking with God is a lot deeper than such a mindset as this and Paul paints it for us in the rest of chapter five. May God have mercy on us.
Galatians 5:22-26 (KJV) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. [26] Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another."
