The Physical and the Spiritual

It's a statement that I hear from time to time.  It goes something like this.  "What I do with my body doesn't affect my soul/spirit."  You hear it from those who claim that such actions as sex are merely physical actions, with no effect whatsoever on their spirit or soul.  And yet, the sad thing is, they could not be more wrong.

God created us as both physical and spiritual creatures.  If you read Genesis chapter 2, you find that God formed the man out of the dust of the earth, but that didn't make him a living creature.  It wasn't until God breathed the breath/wind/spirit of life into him that he became a living creature.  (And yes, the Hebrew word used there has multiple meanings, which I believe God did intentionally!)  God's Spirit/breath gave the man life, and so we find that man has a physical and a spiritual nature.

That shows us that anything that happens to us involves both our physical and our spiritual natures.  If you stub your toe, your physical body hurts, and your spiritual nature gets angry at whatever you stubbed your toe on.  Think of it.  Your body doesn't get angry.  Your spirit is what gets angry.  And by that same token, when someone hurts you spiritually (a hurtful remark or the ending of a relationship), our bodies reflect the hurt that our soul has taken on.

That also means that, when it comes to disciplining ourselves, the connection between the physical and the spiritual remains.  For example, we can pray at any time and in any place.  But when we go down on our knees, bow our heads, and close our eyes, the posture affects the spiritual conversation with God.  Or, if we are physically exhausted, how easy is it to focus on our Bible reading for the day?

Over the next few days, we'll look a little more deeper at the inter-connection between our physical and our spiritual natures, and how discipline in both natures affect one another.