In the Body

In The Body

The Physical and the Spiritual

We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:18

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  1 Corinthians 15:44

What is more real and permanent? The physical or the spiritual?  Yes.

In early church history, the philosopher Plato had great influence and still does to this day.  He philosophized a concept called the “Chain of Being”.  In this concept, there is a hierarchy of what is the most REAL reality.  Physical things like plants and minerals are at the bottom, then comes animals, then man.  The more you move up the ladder the more real it is.  But then it becomes more spiritual and unseen with angels, demons, spirits, and finally God.  So, according to this philosophy, the more spiritual and disconnected from physical something is, the more real it is.

Is Paul agreeing with Plato in 2 Corinthians 4:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:44?  Is our physical body not important or real?  Not at all the case!  Our western Plato-like thinking has wired us to assume that because something is spiritual it means that it is not physical.  When Paul speaks of “things unseen” and “eternal” they are not things that are unseen simply because they are spiritual, but are unseen because we don’t have them yet, but we one day will! 

In the same way, the spiritual body Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15:44 is also a real physical body.  The spiritual body, Paul says, is of the same (physical) kind that Christ has right now as mentioned earlier in chapter 15.  However, it will be different from our natural body now that is breaking down from the effects of sin and the fall.

So back to my original question.  What is more real and permanent?  The physical or the spiritual?  Answer:  they are not two separate beings to be compared.

Church, Christ did not die for some future or more real version of you!  He died for you and for who you are right now!  Don’t believe the lies that your physical self, though breaking down, is of little importance.  While it will one day perish, it is of eternal significance.  Let is rightly die to self now, that we might live our physical life now by faith in and through Jesus Christ. 

Thoughts for Consideration

What are other implications in your life knowing that something being spiritual does not mean that it is not physical?

Because our physical bodies matter, why is this verse from Romans 6 even more important? “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”?

What does this mean about heaven?  What does this mean about the work we continue to do on earth?

All Saints Contributor - David Gallagher