Striving or Abiding?
“...Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
How many of us have heard stories about the “self-made man”, or the “independent woman”? It’s as much a part of the American experience as apple pie or baseball. These are the stories of those who’ve come from relative obscurity, intense poverty, or severe persecution, only to persevere and become the top person in their field. Usually, as the story goes, we hear all about the people who stood in the way of these people becoming great. We hear about those who cheated them, those who took advantage of them, or maybe those who wouldn’t give them a chance because of some circumstance out of their control. But through grit and determination, those around them could no longer deny that this individual was special. And they eventually became so powerful that they were able to push out those who previously stood in their way.
What is seldom highlighted in these stories are the forgotten names of those who did take the time to help. And while the storytellers of these great lives don’t spend much time focusing on it, there were people along the way by whom, without their support, we would have never come to know these individuals. However, if you dig into the stories a little further, you’ll almost always find them.
In the same way, each one of you reading this has been affected in some way by the Spirit. He was instrumental in your calling to faith, He has sustained you as you’ve grown spiritually, and He has revealed Himself to you through Scripture and times of prayer. Conversely, you may be reading this as a person who has continually rejected the Spirit, and you’ve routinely ignored the Spirit’s call on your life to the point where you have become numb to it. You continue trying to figure out what this Christianity thing is all about and how it all fits together in order to make a logical assessment of its merits. I would like you to know that the only way it makes any sense is to listen to what the Spirit is saying to you and then respond in faith.
As Jeff Rybacki said on Sunday, we often neglect the Spirit to focus on the Word, or we neglect the Word to focus on the Spirit. It should not be so. The Word and the Spirit are not mutually exclusive, but rather quite the opposite. They cannot be fully understood without the other. To neglect either will rob a significant portion of the Christian life.
Collectively, I believe we lean toward the Word to the neglect of the Spirit. If that were not the case, why would the passages in 1 Corinthians, which we are currently studying, bring angst? Why would the Elders be praying harder than normal for Rob’s messages to be well-received? It’s because we’re comfortable with the Word, but we are less comfortable with what the Spirit may do. I’m not advocating that we change our name to “The Bridge Spirit Church,” but if we know that the Word and the Spirit are never at odds with one another, then we do not have a right to believe we can neglect one or the other.
Let's go back to our passage for the day: “...Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Are you being perfected by your works, are you being perfected by the work of the Spirit? Are you being perfected by your own day-to-day efforts, or, like me, are you finding those efforts failing? This question is really one of a few questions Paul is asking the churches in Galatia, and while they’re rhetorical questions, they are important to reflect upon. Do we believe that we can be perfected without the help of the Spirit? If we are not open to seeing what the Spirit will do, how will we be sanctified?
Benediction
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” - 2 Cor. 13:14
