Final Destination #3
Flesh and Blood
In the previous session, we saw in Revelation 21:1 how the old heaven and old earth will be made perfect as the New Heaven and New Earth. As such, this world is not just a temporary transit place but will actually be our eternal home when Christ comes again to judge the world.
But what about verses like Colossians 3:2 which exhort us to ‘set your minds on things above, not on earthly things’? Looking at the wider context of the passage, Paul elaborates on what he means by ‘the ‘things above’ in verses 12-17: ‘heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness… etc.’ Similarly, ‘earthly things’ are listed in verses 5-10 as ‘sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire… etc.’ Clearly, the ‘earthly things’ that Paul does not want us to set our minds on is not the physical things of this world per se, but sinful behaviour.
This is an important distinction: the existential goodness of the present world, and its ethical sin. This world God created is still good in and of itself. At the same time, this world is evil in the sense that sin causes us to abuse God’s good creation. Very often, the underlying message in churches is that this material world is bad because it distracts us from spiritual realities. But the real problem is sin, not stuff.
This skewed understanding about the material world can be traced back to the Gnostics, who were the early church’s greatest enemy. They believed that an evil spiritual being became dissatisfied with the spiritual realm and created the material world. This means that the material world is evil and inferior, and we are divine souls trapped within evil bodies. Most damaging to Christianity was their claim that Jesus was not truly human because the one, true God cannot become entangled with evil matter. They claimed that Jesus only seemed human, and that He came to earth to teach us the gnosis, the secret knowledge and path to spiritual liberation.
Gnostic thinking was so widespread in the early church that the apostles wrote many passages specifically refuting it. For instance, in Colossians 2: 4-23, Paul warns the Colossians not be ‘taken captive through philosophy and empty deceit’ that insist on ‘ascetic practices and worship of angels’ (because the Gnostics believed that the body was evil and had to be strictly controlled and disciplined). He also emphasizes the fullness of Christ’s bodily nature in verses 9-14.
Remnants of Gnostic philosophy can still be seen in the church today when pastors warn us against becoming too captivated by the charms of this seductive, material world, but to focus solely on saving souls and the spiritual realities of heaven. They quote Jesus in Matthew 26:41, ‘the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’, to give the impression that our spirits must constantly fight against the evil impulses of our physical bodies. Yes, the word ‘flesh’ can refer to (1) the physical body, but within Biblical contexts it can also mean (2) ‘unaided human effort, i.e. decisions (actions) that originate from self or are empowered by self’ —from HELPS Word-studies Greek lexicon. The first definition is neutral, only the second is bad. But note that the second definition does not single out our physical body as evil at all. In other words, our physical body is not the source of our sinful nature; rather, our entire being (body, mind, spirit, soul, heart etc.) is equally fallen and tainted by sin.
Hence, our flesh (i.e. our physical body) is not inherently bad. After all, Jesus Himself became flesh. He is the perfect human in that the more we become like Jesus, the more human we become. Our goal in life is not to rise above our humanity and join the angelic host, but to become fully human by living each day without sin. Every aspect of our humanity (including the physical) is something to be celebrated, not disdained, because celebrating the goodness of our existence gives glory to our Creator. At the same time, we rely on the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to resist the sin of our ethical failures (again, existential goodness versus ethical sin).
By extension, we are also free to celebrate the rest of God’s creation and enjoy it as is. Christians should be the fiercest protectors of nature, because it is the beautiful handiwork of Someone whom we love and have an intimate relationship with. We should affirm the functional goodness of worldly objects around us (e.g. chairs, pens, houses etc.) without feeling the need to trivialize their existence. We should also appreciate the arts as a celebration of God-given talents and abilities. Michael Wittmer in his book Heaven is a Place on Earth (which this series is based on) says, ‘Certainly we should avoid any music, movie, or visual art that stirs up sin, such as pride and lust. My point is only that we don’t need to stamp Christianity on something before we can enjoy it. In fact, our feeble attempts at baptizing creation tend to cheapen both it and the gospel.’
If we as Christians are to enjoy and indulge in the physical world, how are we any different from non-Christians? For one thing, we appreciate that all good things, secular or otherwise, are not accidents but blessings from God, and that should lead us to appreciate them all the more. And although we indulge in their existential goodness, we recognize that sinful people like us can and do use them for evil. Moreover, we have an incredible advantage in that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to resist the sinful abuse of God’s good creation.
In short, because Earth is our final destination, earthly living is here to stay. The present problem is sin, not stuff — God’s creation is good to be enjoyed as is. Our problem is sin, not our physical ‘flesh’ — the more we become like Jesus, the perfect (fleshly) human, the more human we become.