What does it mean to be a truly spiritual Christian? At a time when there is no shortage of answers competing for our attention, how do we know what really is from God? This book looks for answers in the Bible, focusing on Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. The Corinthians really thought they had arrived. By contrast, Paul was unspiritual, ignorant, weak and foolish. Paul writes a strongly corrective letter, not simply to defend his reputation but to restore them to true Christian faith. He picks up the words that they themselves use and says, 'This knowledge, power and wisdom you claim to have are not the real thing. What you call spirituality is worldly. You are being directed by the mindset of the non-Christian world rather than by the Holy Spirit.' That challenge still applies. Paul's appeal is God's appeal to us. We too need to repent of inadequate understandings of what it means to live by the Spirit and instead embrace true spirituality.

Vaughan Roberts

True Spirituality

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A spiritual crisis

True spirituality: a contemporary issue

True spirituality: a Corinthian issue

A challenge for today

1. True Spirituality

Focuses on Christ’s cross, not on human wisdom

(1 Corinthians 1 – 2)

Longing for spiritual power

The world's rejection of the cross

Spiritual amnesia

Bible study (1 Corinthians 1 – 2)

2. True spirituality

Respects faithful leaders, not flashy ones

(1 Corinthians 3 – 4)

How do you spot a Christian leader?

'Why don't you treat us like adults?'

Personality cults

Bible study (1 Corinthians 3 – 4)

3. True spirituality

demands holiness, not moral permissiveness

(1 Corinthians 5 – 6)

A permissive society

A permissive church

True spirituality

Bible study (1 Corinthians 5 – 6)

4.True spirituality

Affirms both marriage and singleness, but not asceticism

(1 Corinthians 7)

Asceticism

The goodness of God's creation

Created as sexual beings

Is sex unspiritual?

Marriage is for life

Separation and divorce

Mixed marriages

Our identity in Christ

The Christian and singleness

Christians should marry only Christians

Both marriage and singleness are good

Bible study (1 Corinthians 7)

5. True spirituality

Promotes spiritual concern, not unfettered freedom

(1 Corinthians 8 – 10)

Multiple choice

God guides us through the Bible

Freedom

1. Love is more important than knowledge (1 Corinthians 8)

2. The gospel is more important than rights (1 Corinthians 9)

3. Spiritual health is more important than freedom (1 Corinthians 10)

Bible study (1 Corinthians 8–10)

6. True spirituality

affirms gender differences, but not social divisions

(1 Corinthians 11)

'Fellowship with the Spirit'

Gender differences (11:2–16)

Social division (11:17–34)

Bible study (1 Corinthians 11)

7. True spirituality

Prioritizes love, not spiritual gifts

(1 Corinthians 12 – 14)

Contemporary debates

These chapters are corrective

All Christians are spiritual

The unity of the Spirit

1. Unity in diversity (1 Corinthians 12)

2. Love is more important than gifts (1 Corinthians 13)

3. The way of love (1 Corinthians 14)

True spirituality submits to Scripture (14:36–40)

Bible study (1 Corinthians 12 – 14)

8. True spirituality

focuses on a physical future, not just the spiritual present

(1 Corinthians 15)

What happens when we die?

'No resurrection of the dead'?

A generation that lives for the moment

'If there is no resurrection of the dead...'

Firstfruits

New creation

Two ways to live

The resurrection body

A spiritual body

A defeated enemy

Stand firm!

Bible study (1 Corinthians 15)

Epilogue

Hearing the challenge

Does the Holy Spirit have me?

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

__What does it mean to be a truly spiritual Christian?__

At a time when there is no shortage of answers competing for our attention, how do we know what really is from God?

This book looks for answers in the Bible, focusing on Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. The Corinthians really thought they had arrived. By contrast, Paul was unspiritual, ignorant, weak and foolish.

Paul writes a strongly corrective letter, not simply to defend his reputation but to restore them to true Christian faith. He picks up the words that they themselves use and says, 'This knowledge, power and wisdom you claim to have are not the real thing. What you call spirituality is worldly. You are being directed by the mindset of the non-Christian world rather than by the Holy Spirit.'

That challenge still applies. Paul's appeal is God's appeal to us. We too need to repent of inadequate understandings of what it means to live by the Spirit and instead embrace true spirituality.

'Accessible though never superficial, challenging yet simultaneously encouraging.' - Steve Brady  
   
 'An excellent book.' - Andy Gemmill  
   
 'Vaughan has done us a great service by expounding the timeless truths of 1 Corinthians and showing us their contemporary application.' - Carrie Sandom

The Good Book Stall

This is a study of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians – a congregation that the author feels is very similar to the Western Church of today, weakened by insidious inroads of worldly thinking and attitudes. Vaughan Roberts points to the factionism between followers of prominent Christian teachers, the falling into secular ideas of success and sophistication and, worst of all, the dilution of the gospel to make it more palatable to a consumer society. He advocates a return to the central focus being on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, however unpopular that might prove. We are called, he says, to be faithful; ‘success’ – like salvation – belongs to our God. This is not a verse-by-verse exposition; the author draws on the main themes of 1Corinthians and discusses first how they applied to their original recipients and then how they apply to us today. He ends with a timely warning not to read the book with a spirit of smugness, thinking ‘this is just what those other churches need to hear!’ thus falling straight back into the faction trap. True Spirituality is a call for unity under the common banner of the risen Christ as much as it is a call to holiness.

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