Distinguishing Between The Natural and The Spiritual

Without a God-given vision of His work, we will know each other “after the flesh”* (2 Corinthians 5:16)—evaluating and receiving or not receiving each other according to some other criteria than spiritual discernment of the reality of a divinely-wrought work in the heart.

The story is told of a brother who became increasingly irritated by a sister’s profession of salvation. This sister lived in the same congregation, and the brother felt there was something wrong with her. Inwardly, he criticized her testimony and got to the place that he resented her professing to be saved. He felt she ought to be quiet, felt she really didn’t have anything, probably wasn’t even really saved. He said nothing, however, to anyone, and the sister was unaware of his feelings. This brother was a minister and trusted God to supply his needs. One night, he received a long-distance call to come and pray for someone who was sick. He went to the train station, but he had no money to buy his ticket. This was not particularly unusual with him, and he trusted the Lord to somehow make a way for him to go. Shortly before midnight, the door to the waiting room was opened by this sister, who came directly to him, thrust a sum of money into his hands, and stated that the Lord had told her to give this to him. Then she left. The brother proceeded on his trip with considerable food for thought. He testified later that he concluded that if this sister was spiritual enough for God to wake her up in the middle of the night and send her to the train station to give a minister money, that he had better accept her.

As we can readily see, it takes God to elevate our relationships above the merely human, so that with the apostle, we can say that “henceforth know we no man after the flesh.”* (2 Corinthians 5:16) Peter and Cornelius come to mind. “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”* (Acts 10:15)

The importance of this cannot be overstated. Human reasoning might argue: Of course we should receive anyone unless we have reason not to (innocent until proven guilty); or it might argue: We cannot receive anyone unless we have compelling reasons to do so (guilty until proven innocent). But God actually knows. “What God hath cleansed…” “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear…. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”* (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2)

We quote here from The Last Reformation, by F. G. Smith:

We have pointed out the divine element in the true church—the element that particularly distinguished it as the church of God, but the bringing together of many individuals in one assembly involved also a social element and required the principle of recognition.

[Frederick G. Smith; The Last Reformation, “The Local Church”]

The ability to distinguish between him who serveth God, and him who serveth him not; the ability to “take forth the precious from the vile”* (Jeremiah 15:19)—all these needful things involve this principle of spiritual recognition. And exercising this spiritual discernment and stance requires good spiritual senses, especially spiritual eyesight, i.e., vision. Accordingly, with the congregation at Laodicea, we are exhorted to “anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”* (Revelation 3:18) Furthermore, we are warned, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”* (Proverbs 29:18) It is a solemn thought: whether it is my fault or not that I have no vision, if I have none, the inevitable result is that I perish! How needful it is to live in a clear place, spiritually speaking, and have the full use of my spiritual eyesight! O Lord, give us evermore of this eyesalve!

You may be able to live a good moral life; you might have an exterior life good enough to hold the confidence of man, but holy living comes from the living Word of God hidden in the heart. Holy living is not only the refraining from doing the wrong and the doing of the right, but it is the refraining from doing the wrong from an inward principle of holy hatred of the wrong inwrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and a doing of the right in the life and holiness of God. It is more than the good deeds done by human life; it is good deeds done by the life of God in the human life. There is a vast difference. There is danger, great danger, in holiness professors attending to the outward life to the neglect of the inward life. So long as they do not do anything wrong, and so long as they do things that are right, they think themselves safe. We can live good lives and, like the church at Ephesus, lose the love of God out of the soul. Right living may be only man in action; holy living is God in action.

[Charles E. Orr; Helps to Holy Living, “Meditating on God and His Word”]

If we receive the testimony of those who are living with less than a “refraining from doing the wrong from an inward principle of holy hatred of the wrong inwrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit and a doing of the right by the life and holiness of God,” we will lose our ability to distinguish the difference between right and wrong. And without this vision (a clear understanding God in action versus man in action), we perish; we began to look to something besides God. As Brother Orr assures us, “There is danger, great danger,” and this danger is not only in living this way ourselves, but in receiving those who live this way.

This failure to clearly distinguish between that which is of God and that which is only of man lays the groundwork for apostasy. Again we quote from A True Story in Allegory:

(Now this great camp had once been pitched on the top of a mountain called Inspiration Mount. But of late years it had been gradually moved downward toward a valley called the valley of Morality. This was done not through any bad motive, but a man called Mr Worldly-Wise had made it his business to inform some of the Shepherds that if they would pitch the camp in a lower altitude, they would be able to bring in many who were too sickly or lame or lazy to climb the steep mountain; as it was ascended by a steep and narrow pathway which meant a laying aside of all luggage and much weariness to the flesh. So they, without consulting the King, had taken his advice, thinking that when they had got their new converts strengthened to a certain degree, they could get them to move upward.)

[Lottie L. Jarvis; A True Story in Allegory, “Return to the Mount of Inspiration”]

This is how it starts. Good motives, good vision. “Thinking that when they had got their new converts strengthened to a certain degree, they could get them to move upward.” But, as is always true when we attempt the work of the Lord in our own strength, it does not go as we plan and there are unexpected results.

The experience of the departure of the wealthy young man, as related in Mark 10:17-27, is hard on the flesh of those who love the Lord. It is hard to watch good moral people back away from paying the price to really have a work of God within them. It is heart-breaking. It takes a real consecration, deep and unmovable convictions of the rightness and overwhelming importance of God’s standards, and a great flood of grace and consolation from the hand of God to not accept people whom we deeply love. This is especially true of our children if they do not choose to go all the way with the Lord. Quoting again from the article, Fellowship Is of the Spirit:

In this time of great deception, God’s children are so rejoiced over those who do acknowledge truth that they may overlook the great necessity of spiritual life and truth in the inward parts. If we do this, we are consenting to the same thing as the denominations— doctrinal fellowship— with this difference: the doctrine of Christ instead of men.

[Lottie L. Jarvis; Fellowship Is of the Spirit]

Here is the beginning of falling away—anytime we value anything at all above God’s way, we make an idol of that thing. If I value doctrinal fellowship with others above heart fellowship, I will sacrifice to maintain that unity. In paying that price in the name of loving them, maintaining influence with them, keeping a nominal unity for the sake of others, I will build a relationship that is separate and apart from the relationship that God builds by blood-washing every newly-added soul to His church and placing the members in the body as it pleases Him. Doctrinal fellowship instead of spiritual fellowship leads to the building of an idol—a sect.

This change of focus—from the great necessity of spiritual life and truth in the inward parts to settling for an acknowledgment of truth—is very deceptive. It seems promising, beneficial, and seems to offer potential. Those who acknowledge truth seem to be better off (though without a clear deliverance) than they were before. They are perhaps receptive to an extent. They are under the influence of spiritual lives, it is hoped. When they are strengthened, they can be helped to move higher.

How often have those who loved the Lord been fooled by this bit of worldly wisdom! Shall we not take heed? Can we not see, that if we do not go about things as the Lord directs, we will not get His results? The devil and the flesh are too strong and too clever for us unless we carefully follow the counsel of the mother of Jesus to those at the wedding: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”* (John 2:5) Or, “as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”* (Hebrews 8:5)

My heart is greatly grieved as these words are written. A failure to do as the Lord would guide us always cost us, and the heavy, heavy price of a failure to be lead by the Lord along these lines has been so horribly, unspeakably horrendous, so unbearably appalling, wreaking such spiritual havoc and desolation in time, that words simply fail, the emotions are overwhelmed, and the heart cries in agony to God for the necessary grace and strength to be true to Him. A great cry from the regions of the lost, a lament, a great groan of unbearable regret—the cry of those who were deceived who had once known the truth, who were once staunch for God. Those who knew their duty and had once rejoiced in the privilege of fulfilling it for love of Jesus and of other souls, but who lost the way and eventually became blind leaders of the blind. “You knew your duty, but you did it not.”

Surely the work of the ministry is the Lord’s work, that is, it belongs to Him; He owns it; it is not mine or yours or ours. What business do we have to second-guess the Lord?

As if to say, “Lord, that wealthy young man is a good man—see how he has kept the commandments from his youth. This is rare, and besides, Lord, look how fervently he realizes his need even to the extent that he has come running. Surely, Lord, if we could just keep him around us for a while, say a month or two at least, then he would be willing to meet Bible conditions.” The Lord doesn’t say anything, and then the gospel workers leave Jesus and chase down the young man and persuade him to linger around the work of the Lord awhile and hear the testimonies of those who are deemed to have forsaken all—they of course being alerted to the effort and persuaded that we must deal very wisely and carefully to win this promising young man. And after awhile, sure enough, the young man begins to show some signs of being affected—why, just last prayer meeting night, he testified that he realized that he was giving more than he had ever given or thought he would give in his life, and really wondered sometimes if maybe he wouldn’t be better off to just get rid of it all!

As Brother Orr states, there is a vast difference. “It is more than the good deeds done by human life; it is good deeds done by the life of God hidden in the heart.”

What do we recognize? When the lines between right and wrong, holy living from the heart, and attempts to live holy from human effort without a clear deliverance, are blurred; there is not a clear vision of right and wrong. The basis of the relationship of the people to each other begins to shift.

When an individual meets Bible conditions and is delivered from sin by the power of God, his name is written in the book of life in heaven and he is born from above by the wonderful power of God into the great family of God. He is added (by the great hand of God) to the church, that great multitude of redeemed on earth and in heaven, and is become a fellow-citizen with the saints and of the household of God. His changed heart, his new life from within with all it brings of peace, joy, love, and faith, are unmistakable signs that he is no longer as he was, but is a new creature (“creation”—margin) in Christ Jesus. This is the distinguishing characteristic—his valid mark of identification. And he, in the most natural way, begins to look at all around him from the simple standpoint: are you saved, or not?

This is the basis of the relationship of all the saved: a confidence that the same change of heart that God gave to me, He has also given to you. This confidence may be tried, tested. It may even be obscured for a time or veiled. I may not be sure and must wait until the Lord causes what is in the heart of someone to manifest itself. But the basis of acceptance is always the same—only those whom God has transformed and whom He keeps are members of the church of God. Are you saved? Do you have the experience? If not, we will pray for you to get it. If you do have the experience, you are my brother/sister in the great family of God.

“Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”* (1 Peter 2:10)