Morality vs Spirituality

[shad]

I would like to hear from men and women on this subject, especially from those that have walked with God for some time. I personally see a vast difference between Morality and Spirituality and would like to share some thoughts on it.

Morality ~ There are those in this life that want nothing to do with Christ or Christianity yet live a moral life. They know that they are not perfect but the way that they live is right unto them and they are careful not to violate the law (common and traditional) and become a transgressor. They work hard, they are faithful to their spouse and family, they love life, they are honest in person and business practice, they are disciplined and help others when they can and they are opposed to all that represents evil in society that robs them of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet spiritually speaking they are dead and have not been cleansed, they do not have the Spirit nor the resurrection life of Christ dwelling within. They are good people but not godly people because they know not the goodness of God through Christ.

Spirituality ~ Then you have the believer that has trusted Christ for salvation and the forgiveness of sins and has been cleansed by the blood of Christ. They acknowledge their weakness, they fail in terms of morality yet God does not condemn them and gives them grace when they do not deserve it. They seem to recover from defeat and failure right in front of the eyes of the world. They learn to trust God and become dependant upon grace and put all their care upon the Lord. They seem to the outside world as weak people who can't do anything for themselves and become despised because of it. They don't trust in the arm of the flesh and put no confidence in man. They are often on their knees without hope only to receive mercy and strength from the Lord. They walk by faith and are led by the Spirit hoping to be led into the truth and this is spirituality. Jesus said it this way, The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit John 3:8 Amp.

Here the kicker. There are many believers, including me, that esteem morality and substitute it for spirituality. If we do all the right things and we are content with the results we determine that it must be of God. But, is that what spirituality is all about? There are many that live in unbelief in the world and they are doing that very thing but none of it is from God. All their righteousness (the things they do right) is but filthy rags before God. Spirituality has to be more then that. Jesus said that your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees or you will not enter the kingdom of heaven Mt 5:20. There are those that are ignorant of God's righteousness, going about establishing their own righteousness and not being submitted to the righteousness of God Rom 10:3. With them, there is a way that seems right unto man but the end thereof are the ways of death (destruction) Pro 14:12, 16:25. You take it from here and what say you?

 

[shad]

I hope that this is not a difficult subject to consider. I believe that much of how we judge each other is based upon morality and not spirituality. It seems that the discussions that interest people are those that involve the many aspects and standards of morality in what we should and should not do and what we should be like in this life. We seem to be occupied with issues in terms of right and wrong instead of life and death. Even the threads where their is much debate over the scriptures is connected to how we are to conduct ourselves in terms of morality. The scriptures refer to it in this manner: For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise 2Cor 10:12.

Spirituality for any believer is the ongoing relationship that we have with the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son. Our complete faith in God's word it what keeps us rightly related to God in our experience, and we live that out by walking and being lead of the Holy Spirit. If we are walking any other way, even if it seems right in our own understanding, it becomes a way of morality and self righteousness that leads to death instead of spirituality and God's righteousness that leads to life everlasting. Morality involves conducting our lives in relationship to the world but spirituality is how we conduct our lives before God. Morality requires no faith in a living God but spirituality in its essence requires that we walk by faith in the promises of God. Morality changes in every society and culture but spirituality never changes because it is based on the immutability of God's nature.

When believers strive to be moral they will fail again and again, getting discouraged and losing hope. They will always look within and blame themselves. When believers live by faith there is no striving or expectation from themselves because they are trusting God, leaning not on their own understanding, they are acknowledging God in all their ways and God is directing their steps. Their expectation is from God. Being double-minded is when we mix our own understanding of morality and what we think is right with God's understanding through His word that points to truth. Morality goes together with the carnal mind. To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. A believer who is seeking morality will never have peace and be able to live the life that God has promised. Morality is a relationship that we have with ourselves and the world but spirituality is our relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ and with those that belong to Him.

 

[MahogonySnail]

That's very good post. There is a theme in the bible of doing things that seem right to us in our own eyes.

Jdg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Pro 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.

There's another saying I've heard that there's a difference between being good and being Godly.

 

[pickles]

Wow shad, thankyou for this post. With all the requirements around this site lately I was doing just that. beating myself up in prayer for many nights now because I thought I was failing. When I was young I thought being good was all that faith was about. Jesus humbled me and showed me through his spirit that all I do is given and guided through faith in his spirit. I knew I could never be wise enough, good enough or knowladgable enough to be what Our Lord God asks us to be. I saw I was just to weak. Because of this I have lived with total faith in Jesus and his Holy Spirit to guide my every word and step. As I said before because of some statements I began to think I could be wrong. Last night in prayer, I was feeling so low and doubting myself, when Our Father reminded me that I cannot know what is rightious and good without him. You see the morality of the world is just that, of the world. I needed to remember what he had shown me through his Holy Spirit. That I have to in faith, with the help of his Holy Spirit learn all from him. What is good, what is faith, his love, his rightiousness. Untill we acknowladge that what we knew before him is all of the world, and that all we learn now is of him by the grace of Jesus, through the guidence of his holy spirit. By this all that we do, in word, in serving, in witnessing, all that we do becomes rightious. By faith we move towards Jesus, his Spirit grants us hope, and by this we will know the love to which God Our Father calls us.
Right now, along with confermation of word he is teaching me his courage.
In Jesus's name may God Our Father pour out his spirit apon all here who seek him. God bless, pickles

 

[shad]

Spirituality for the believer here on earth is an agreement between the Spirit, the water (God's word) and the blood (of Christ)1John 5:8. All three agree in one and as one. We are no longer of the flesh but we are of the Spirit, we have been born of the word and Spirit. The Spirit does not disagree with the word nor with the blood. The blood and what it has done and provided for man through redemption, does not contradict the work of the Spirit in the heart of man, to draw man to God and regenerate man through the eternal Spirit. The word commends the Spirit in man so that man can be guided into all truth and be covered by the blood of Christ so that sin cannot hinder the new man who has believed and is in Christ.

We walk in our fleshly bodies but do not have to live under the dictates and desires of the flesh. As unbelievers in the world, we walked according to the flesh because we had not the Spirit and had not been born of the incorruptible seed of the word and we had no covering of the blood of Christ. The best we can do is to live according to the dictates of our conscience and discipline our flesh in the standards of morality that is predicated on self righteousness and human goodness without God. This is unacceptable to God and rejected because it is of the flesh and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. To be a Spirit filled believer in our experience, we need the Spirit, the word and the blood all active through faith. Without these three being active in the believer the best they have to offer God is their own righteousness through human goodness.

If you remember, Cain's offering was rejected by God because he offered the best and most productive works of the flesh but his brother Abel's offering was accepted because is was offered through the shedding of blood. Cain got angry and slew his brother Abel. The scriptures say it this way, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Gal 5:17. Spirituality is when we offer to God the sacrifice of Christ and all that was accomplished through the cross and the shedding of blood for sin and the effects of sin even in our conscience. Morality is offering man's best production of the flesh and that will never past the test of what God accepts and puts His stamp of approval. Morality will never please God no matter how good it is, even if it feeds the poor and gives it's body to be burned as a sacrifice.