Last week I wrote about band-aids as a tool to assist injury, but not a solution. I wrote about how we tend to miss this in the rest of our lives, looking at band-aids as solutions when the real problem is somewhere else, somewhere deeper.
It's interesting, then, that I came across this text in Galatians. Paul wrote, "The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal 6:8). ("Um ... okay, Stan. What does that have to do with band-aids?") As it turns out, this is exactly what I was referring to. In our world, the majority of people sow to the flesh. Their only resource is the flesh. Their only tool is the flesh. Their only answer is the flesh. So they pursue the flesh in order to solve their problems. That, the text says, obtains nothing but corruption, decay, ruin. It's a waste. This is why handing out clean needles to drug users is not a solution to drug use, or handing out condoms to teenagers is any kind of a solution to the problem of illicit sex. This is why "gender-affirming care" doesn't solve the problem of why some people born one biological sex end up seeing themselves as something wholly irrational -- the opposite sex. Just a few examples. "It will keep them safe," they say, but it doesn't. It allows them to continue "safely" in their degrading choices. Corruption. It's the outcome of all our solutions because it's our only option as humans.
The text offers an alternative. It is not the flesh. It is the Spirit. It doesn't count on solutions to our problems from the humans who cause them. It rests on the divine, on the Spirit. Putting our resources into the Spirit's work will result, it says, in eternal life. Counting on God's hand to work will produce positive outcomes beyond our capacity to provide. It will change lives, change worldviews, change directions. God is able to do "exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can ask or think" (Eph 3:20). We -- Christians -- sometimes (often?) lose sight of this. I hope, then, to remind you. Jesus is the solution and the Spirit is the answer to all of life's real problems. The flesh is not.
I concur! Just a small quibble: I believe that you meant to type "their" where you used "they're" three times in paragraph 2. Also, "ends up" should be "end up" in that same paragraph. (Maybe the heat in Phoenix is finally getting to you! :) Otherwise, a great read!
ReplyDelete~Lorna~
It's always good to remind ourselves as we look around at the decay of our culture and the decline of the church that we don't have the final say. If the flesh was the only meaningful authority, the church would have died centuries ago and we'd be much more decadent than we are now. It is only by the restraining and guiding hand of the Spirit that there will always be a Church and the world will not completely consume itself.
ReplyDeleteLorna, I don't see them. :)
ReplyDeleteDavid, I recently spoke to a programmer involved with AI that told me that this is the fundamental reason that AI will fail. Since the programmers have a faulty and purely materialistic perception of truth which, as we know, doesn't ultimately correspond to reality, AI will ultimately fail as it runs into reality. Another limitation by the Spirit? I wouldn't be surprised.
Interesting take on AI. It's almost like YHWH built a fail safe into the universe to prevent what so many fear.
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