SPIRITUAL Blessings vs. MATERIAL Blessings
Observe what the apostle Paul said about “spiritual blessings”:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
“Spiritual blessing” suggests immaterial blessing in contrast to physical blessings, as distinguished in these two verses:
They were pleased to do it,* and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
* This refers to believers in Macedonia and Achaia giving a financial offering to the poor in Jerusalem.
If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
With this understanding, what are some examples of spiritual blessings? James cites an obvious one in his epistle:
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
James 1:17-18
Verse 18 shows that spiritual regeneration is a gift from above, from our Heavenly Father. It is through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit that we obtain eternal life and have salvation from eternal death (John3:3, 3:6, 3:36, Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 1:23 & Romans 6:23).
Spiritual rebirth and the corresponding eternal salvation pave the way for other immaterial blessings, like:
- Day-to-day relationship with the LORD by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:17 & Hebrews 8:11),
- Access to forgiveness of sin (1 John 1:8-9),
- Faith for a healing (Mark 5:34 & Mark 10:52),
- Spiritual gifts, including glossolalia, and…
- Victory over the defeated Enemy in Christ (Colossians 2:15).
Returning to our main text:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Some suggest that “every spiritual blessing in Christ” is not limited to immaterial blessings on the grounds that the source of all blessing is Father God in the spiritual realm Heaven. “God is Spirit,” they argue (John 4:24), and dwells in the heavenly domain from which all blessings originate. In fact, literally everything in the physical realm originally sprang from the spiritual realm (Hebrews 11:3). Thus it could be argued that any blessing — whether immaterial or material — is a spiritual blessing. And particularly any physical blessing provided “in Christ,” aka in covenant with the LORD through Jesus Christ.
Examples of such physical blessings would include needed finances, any material answer to prayer, shelter, clothing, food, potable water, reliable transportation, healthy bodies, the right mate and so on.
Environmental context and God’s assignment for the individual in question determine the specifics of the physical blessing. For instance, Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house and a prisoner in Egypt, but the Bible says that he prospered in both contexts despite the obvious limitations thereof (Genesis 39:2-6 & 39:20-23). While Joseph indeed prospered in these challenging environments, it would certainly be a different kind of prosperity than that of living on Mulholland Drive in the modern day.
Speaking of physical prosperity, let’s consider how…
Spiritual Riches Are Superior to Material Wealth
Here’s what the resurrected Lord had to say to the historical assembly in Laodicea, which was located in what is today southwestern Turkey:
16“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
19“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
Revelation 3:16-19
Christ rebuked these believers for being “lukewarm” and threatened to spit the whole fellowship out of his mouth if they didn’t repent, meaning he would “pull the plug” on them and they’d be a church in name only.
The Lord desired that they were cold or hot rather than lukewarm. This was an allusion to nearby cold and hot springs. The cold springs were useful for refreshing while the hot springs were useful for bathing, but lukewarm water was useless. Thus this assembly was useless to the Lord.
What was their core problem? They made something other than Christ Lord of their lives; and verse 17 reveals that this ‘thing’ was material wealth. I want to stress that it’s okay to have physical wealth, but it’s not okay for physical wealth to have the person wherein it basically becomes their ‘god’ (Luke 12:15). As Jesus put it, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Simply put, physical riches replaced Christ’s Lordship in the lives of these believers in Laodicea, which can be observed in their boasting of their great wealth and the brazen claim that they had need of nothing. So the Lord gives them a rude awakening by informing them that they were, in reality, “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” and needed to repent (verses 17 & 19).
Think about it: As materially wealthy as they were, Jesus blatantly calls them “poor” and “pitiful”! He was speaking of poverty in a spiritual sense. While they claimed to be Christians and therefore supposedly followed Christ, the Lord wasn’t even in their fellowship, which can be observed in the follow-up verse:
20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. ”
Revelation 3:20
The Messiah was outside the assembly politely asking them to let him in while threatening to spit them out of his mouth if they foolishly refused.
This shows that material blessings — viewed from a fleshly perspective — can fuel arrogance and render people spiritually poor and blind. Needless to say, let’s not be like that.
Let’s close with this insight on spiritual blessings from Peter’s second epistle:
3His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 1:3-4
If this wets your appetite, see our linking article The Seven Keys to SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
Related Topics:
What Goes On “Behind the Scenes” in the Spirit?
Spiritual Warfare — The Basics
How to Keep Yourself BLAMELESS (while Not Being SINLESS)
comments powered by Disqus