Dear Readers and Writers,
To get a good idea of the concept of spirit, one should visit a morgue. Here one will find (usually) spiritless matter in the shape of bodies resembling those of humans. The word spiritless is easily understood to mean: lifeless.
That which animates you, which joins with your body to make you a living soul, is spirit, and if the spirit goes, life is gone. The idea of spirit is linked to breath, so that it is understood if a person gives his last breath, he leaves. The death of Jesus is described, "He bowed his head and gve up His spirit." The idea of the spirit returning to from where it came permeates all religious thought.
This means that SPIRIT=LIFE. One can only have a spiritual life.
However, with the development of religious thought and growth in understanding of the things of the spirit, the word spiritual has come to mean a lot more than being a simple adjective.
Being spiritual indicates, as has been pointed out by Eudaimonist, "having a concern for satisfying the needs of spirit." It is the spiritual being having been awakened to the fact that it is not its body, that its being is spirit; that the true reality (of life) is of a spiritual nature; and that this spiritual life may be nurtured and grown to a maturity or perfection. This latter endeavour is usually expressed via traditional religion and is variously referred to as the way, the path, the dao, the pilgramage, the journey---all indicating a destination to be reached spiritually. This is what spirituality is about.
It is in this context that some are considered to be spiritually dead. They have not yet been quickened and made alive, made aware, of their spiritual nature, one that requires a proper relationship to their fellow-spirits, and to the Spirit of God, according to order, and the laws that govern the spiritual realm.
Thus, when Jesus taught a new spiritual birth from "above," or from the Spirit, as a conditional requirement for entering and seeing the Realm or Reign of God, He was not expressing something that was meant exclusively for Jews and later Bible readers. It is the initiation of the spirit into an awareness of the things of God, Who is Spirit; an initial enlightenment that starts the spirit on its course to the attainment of the fullness of spiritual perfection.
This making alive (new birth) of the spirit brings those who were formally dead ("in their trespasses and sin") into a proper, true relationship of love and light with God (Truth, Love, and Light), through the forgiving, cleansing, loving-kindness of the Lord Who is the Spirit. A walking in the light is now possible.
One cannot be considered as spiritual unless a proper relationship of love to God and man is cultivated, nourished, and progressively deepened; and this can only be realized by being connected, filled, led, and taught by the Spirit of Truth, Who is the Spirit of Holiness.
The "level" of someone's spirituality may be discerned by the "measure" of truth and good, expressed in holiness, that has been wrought in that spirit's life, as a reflection of the Truth and Good of the Holy One, who says to all and every one of us:
"Be holy, for I AM holy."
Respectfully submitted out of reverence for Christ,
Learner.
