Standing tall

The human sense of consciousness revolves around three spheres: the mind, the body and the soul. C S Lewis argued that the soul is not an entity but a state of being. Traditional bible views are that the soul is the seat of our emotions. I am assuming the latter although I also accept the former.

Thus, we have an intellectual, emotional and physical pillar.

The Law of Moses argued that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength (body). In our vernacular that implies intensity, the kind of intensity I would reserve for my wife or my children.

I can’t see how we can love anyone or anything that intensely. It would lead to an unhealthy obsession and other problems. I therefore submit that the intention related more to scope of redemption. Thus, God is redeeming all of my mind, my heart and my strength. His mercy reaches every sphere of my life.

Jesus added the heart to the three spheres already mentioned, but I will stick to three anyway as it works in other ways.

The USA is built on three pillars: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It traces back to three estates of France, namely: the nobles, the clergy and the peasants.  Britain has something similar in the Lords noble, Lords Clergy and the Commoners.

Those models have their roots in biblical models. Early Israel applied the three pillars of Judges, Prophets and Priests. Of course, once they opted for a Monarchy, the former became Kings.

Most democracies have what we call the fourth estate: the press, which is not a statutory power but is a vital part of ensuring accountable and transparent government. To me the biblical version of that was the prophet, a social commentator who provoked the conscience of leaders and of the people.

Anyway, we have three spheres in social order that reflect the three spheres of human consciousness.

My last post spoke about the challenges of harnessing the mind. All too often it is like the cart before the horse, with our minds dragging us down all kinds of roads and to all kinds of conclusions that can be somewhat bereft of spiritual reason.

The mind can actually exclude God and I have metaphorically described how the head is like a cave, where we retreat to rationalize life. What we really need is for the mind to be properly harnessed by the spirit of our inner man, so it can be made for us, rather than us for it.

That is as true of the emotions. A life led by fear or feelings is going to be really vulnerable to influence and misdirection. Yet most of our world substantially leans to such feelings and that inevitably comes at the expense of sound reason. Hence, some have said, “if it feels so good, can it be so bad”.

If it is a problem to be negatively driven by our fears, it is as much of a problem for our emotions to delude us and deny truth. We dare not allow our feelings to rule in isolation. Sure, we need to feel good and be motivated, but not in isolation of the mind, just as logic should not dominate feeling.

The third sphere is the body. It can be a powerful pillar of influence in us. After all hunger, sexuality, sleep, warmth and so much more, is rooted in our physical responses.

Sadly, so are negative impulses like substance abuse, sexual obsession and gluttony. We don’t want such excesses to so dominate that they subvert sound reason or dictate to our feelings. The Spirit needs to rule the body.

The problem, as we see in biblical Israel, was that whilst each sphere of influence, notably the judges, prophets and priests, ensured checks, balances and sound governance, if one of those faltered, it tended to corrupt all three.

We so readily criticize the biblical Jew, because the bible influences us to see them as God did, as a hard-necked, stubborn, wilful people. Sadly, though, those metaphorical pictures all point to us and condemn us for being just like them. Indeed, I think they learnt their lessons. We didn’t.

The only way the three spheres can ensure our spiritual stability and balance, is if they are ruled through the spirit by the purpose and design of God. We need to dethrone our selfness and enthrone the selflessness of Christ in our hearts or we will always have the tail wagging the dog.

Hence, as Paul taught in Ephesians 3:16: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 

(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com