• Oct. 19, 2009
Spiritual Neutrality?

I lay in bed last night thinking (I was wishing I was sleeping but, alas, sleep took it's time in coming.)  For some reason my mind kept turning to the topic of spiritual neutrality.  It probably came from a mix of the Bible Study I am a part of on Sunday nights and a book I have been reading.  I kept thinking of all the things we tend to think of as spiritually neutral.

As I thought about this topic my mind kept coming back to one constant refrain, "He who is not for me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."  (Mat. 12:30)  Spiritual neutrality is NOT a biblical concept!  As Christians we know that it is not possible to "ride the fence" spiritually.  You belong to your father and their are only two options: "If God were your father....or....You belong to your father, the devil." (John 8:42...44)  There is no spiritual orphanage that you get to hang out in until the decision is made who your father will be.  You belong to one or the other.

Sometimes we fail, however, to realize that there is nothing in life that is spiritually neutral.  There are so many things in our lives that we think fall into that non-existent, spiritually neutral category.  And those are precisely the areas that Satan gains entry into our lives.  From the way we spend our leisure time, to our time spent on the job, to education.  We can be tempted to see these areas as a-spiritual, as if God is not concerened with them.  But we must remember that there is no area of our lives where God is not concerned.

When we spend our leisure time watching a movie God is either glorified or mocked.  The content either causes us to think of things that are "true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy" (Phil. 4:8) or it causes us to think the opposite of those things.  That doesn't mean that every movie we watch must have a message of salvation in it.  There are many movies that may seem "spiritually neutral" because they don't have a blatant spiritual message.  But stories and themes in movies cause us to either be lifted up to the true, noble, right, pure, etc. or they cause us to be dragged down.  They do not leave us unchanged.

When we are at our job or at home cleaning the house we can bring God glory or bring him shame.  We may be convinced that if we are not a pastor or a missionary that God is unconcerned with how we do our daily work as long as we aren't hurting anyone else.  But that could not be further from the truth!  "Whatever you do, wether in word or deed, do it all for the glory of the Lord."  (Col. 3:17)

There are areas of education where it is obvious to us that education is not spiritually neutral.  For example, as Christians we know that God created the world and everything in it, so any teaching that rises up against that immediately raises red flags in us.  But there is no subject that escapes unscathed.  Even math (if anything seems intrinsically unspiritual it would be math!), but even math is something that God designed and is therefore not a-spiritual!  God is a God of order and he designed an orderly universe!  "For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace." (1 Cor. 14:33)  God has put together our world in such an amazing way that it boggles the mind.  Mathematical equations, believe it or not, are a reflection of that order.  But what happens when someone comes along and says in their heart, "there is no God"?  Well, then you get "New Math" and suddenly 2+2 can equal 5.  That thinking flies in the face of a God of order! 

Everyone has a worldview, a lens through which they filter everything.  Non of them are spiritually neutral.  Let us "be very careful then how we live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." (Eph. 5:15)

Shannon

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