Paul summarises a theme that runs through Philippians, when he says, "We worship God in the Spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh"
This statement
These questions are the most penetrating I could ask you. Your answers will reflect whether you are spiritually minded
To be spiritually minded is life
As Paul says, "If you live according to the flesh you must die, but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the (sinful) deeds of the body, you will live."
Let me outline for you, from Paul's letter to Philippi, what characterises spiritually minded people
Immature people think selfishly, in the sense that the whole universe revolves around self. But the mature think outwardly and their lives revolve
The Christian is always torn between a longing for heaven and a wish to be a useful servant in this world. Paul speaks of people who "set their mind on earthly things"
The statement Paul makes may be culturally unfamiliar to us, but it boils down to this: Paul was following a materialistic path in his career. Although it was a religious career, he was pursuing it in a carnal way. But a great change came over Paul. He became willing to lose that worldly status in order to know and
Paul counted all his previous material gain as loss and as rubbish, in order to
Surely to die is to lose all that one possesses! What sort of a value system sees it as a gain to die? The answer is that whilst earthly things are all lost, the things of surpassing value are brought nearer by death, and Christians value these eternal things as "very far better" than any temporal earthly possessions
They "shine as lights in the world". There are two mistakes
It is true that we cannot merit our salvation, and we rely upon the righteousness of Jesus who became the perfect sacrifice for us, and rose from the dead to empower us for eternal life
We must express our reliance upon Jesus by doing his will and shining. We could hardly express reliance upon Jesus appropriately by being "crooked and perverse" like the generation among whom we live. While our "shining as lights" will not, by itself, merit our salvation, it is certainly essential to it, and we must be among those who "work out their own salvation" or else we shall forfeit it
Keeping in mind the previous point, Christians do put their trust not in themselves, but in the
They try to transform their thinking into the mind of Christ, and reflect that thinking in living as Christ taught them to live, humbly, obediently, righteously,
They have much in their past to disappoint them. But if God is able to no longer remember their sins, people must rid themselves of their guilt,
The phrase, "Content in whatever state I am" is not least among the slogans which Christians
The spiritually minded are "not anxious about anything" but through prayer with thanksgiving they lay up treasures for the
1. None of the things on the following list are bad or sinful in their proper place. Which of these good things would you rate as "very far better"
2. What order of priority do you, personally, give to the items in the list above? (Not what you think you should give them, but what you do actually and honestly give them currently in your life, in terms of the time and attention
3. Which of the items would you value and desire so much that, in order to gain or keep it, you would be willing to forgo or lose any of the
4. One day you are going to die. What items on the list will be of