Beware of Non-Spiritual Christian Music

In Philippians 3, verses 10 and 11, Paul says that our body is made eligible for the first resurrection, and that this is the goal of his Christian life. This is what he says:

“That I may know Him, that is Jesus, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

The word used there means the *out*-resurrection. That is not the final, complete resurrection, but the resurrection which is only of true believers. I’m always impressed by the fact that Paul did not take it for granted. He said, my purpose is so to live that I may qualify for the first resurrection. I really do not believe we can take it for granted. It depends on how we live.

Now, what are the functions of these three elements? First of all, the spirit. The spirit is capable of direct communion with God and worship. It’s the part of man that originated from God and can return to God in fellowship and worship. This is stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 17, a very important verse:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

In my opinion, it would be completely incorrect to say ‘one soul.’ It is ‘one spirit.’ If you take that in the context, Paul is talking about a man being joined to a prostitute, and he says that’s a physical union. But what *he* is talking about is a spiritual union. If you take that picture, it becomes clear that it’s a very real union, but it’s only the spirit that can be united with God. The soul cannot, the body cannot.

Because of that, the spirit, and the spirit alone, I believe, is capable of true worship. In John 4, verses 23 and 24, Jesus says,

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”

That is, to me, a staggering statement. Almighty God, who created the universe, is looking for people who will worship Him. And then it says,

“God *is* Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The spirit is the element in us which is capable of worship. The soul is capable of praise and thanksgiving, but only the spirit, I believe, can offer to God the worship which is acceptable. What happens through the soul? The soul is the decision-making element, and through regeneration, the soul is able to make right decisions. David says in Psalm 103,

“Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

He was talking to his soul. What part of him was talking to his soul? His spirit. His spirit sensed the need to bless the Lord, but his spirit could not do it until his soul activated his body.

So the spirit, in this present creation, moves upon the body through the soul. We’ll come back to that in a moment, because the New Testament speaks about a soulish body and a spiritual body. To take a very crude example, I think the soul is like the gear lever in the car. You sit in the driver’s seat, switch on the engine, but to get the car moving, you have to use the gear lever. The gear lever is the soul. The spirit is there, but it cannot move the car without the soul.

My purpose in all of this is to come to the place where we can distinguish between the spirit and the soul. But that’s not easy. In fact, there’s only one way we can do it effectively, which we find in Hebrews 4:12:

“For the word of God *is* living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Notice the word ‘even.’ The Word of God is the only instrument which is sensitive enough and sharp enough to penetrate, to divide, between soul and spirit. In no other way can we understand the different functions of soul and spirit and the relationship between them, except by the Word of God. You cannot rely on your own understanding, your own feelings. They’re not reliable. The only reliable discerner is the Word of God.

But to use the Word of God as a discerner, two conditions are set. They are found in Hebrews 5:13 and 14, where the writer is talking about the difference between mature and immature Christians:

“For everyone who partakes *only* of milk *is* unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”

Those who can only feed on milk are still babies. Then he goes on to say,

“But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, *that is,* those who are mature,” that is, those who, by reason of use, but the margin says ‘practice,’ “have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

In other words, discernment is not something we can take for granted. It only comes by practice, and it only comes when we take in the whole counsel of God through His Word.