Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Going natural
1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Going natural is the latest fad especially among black women. Going natural, of course, refers to how women carry their hair. Now, this is a very confusing thing. If you don’t know you’d assume that going natural means that chemicals and other additives were not being put into the hair. It was rather surprising therefore to hear women who have gone natural discussing their salon appointments and experiences.
Apparently, going natural, in the context of hair really means relaxer-free hair, which is totally different from chemical-free hair. Those who go natural still have to go the salon and add chemicals and do the treatments and all. Going natural is a journey that often involves struggles and pitfalls for many women. It would seem that, for some, going natural is not natural at all.
This is confusing because the natural hair always seeks to push itself out. Women, who are carrying chemically straightened hair have to go to their hairdresser routinely because the relaxers and straighteners only work on the exposed hair and only works for a short time. As the hair grows the new growth is natural.
What is inherent in us is natural and the moment we leave things alone the natural processes kick in. We have to work very hard at not being what I call, natural natural. We have to struggle with what is natural versus what we want.
Like the struggle with hair, the spiritual journey is one that requires desire, effort, investment, and constant care. If not, we resort to being natural natural.
The apostle Paul, in a discourse about wisdom in his first letter to the church at Corinth, was making the point that there are some things that don’t come naturally. The wisdom of God, he pointed out, was one of those things. Left to our natural selves we’d miss it. The key verse captures this succinctly, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14.
Operating spiritually doesn’t come naturally but operating naturally causes us to miss that which is spiritual. Jesus made clear to the Samaritan woman, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24. So, it is incumbent upon us that we go spiritual if we want a relationship with God.
This should not come as a surprise, you know from your life and experiences that there are somethings so deep, some feelings so personal, some experiences so intimate, some thoughts so private that only your spirit within you knows them.
According to Paul’s teaching in this passage, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, in the same way, the deep and intimate things of God are only known by His Spirit. Therefore, only His Spirit can really teach us about Him. And then that is a transfer that is spiritual. “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11.
In a verse, in the middle of Psalm 42, the psalmist writes “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; Psalm 42:7. It is often very natural to stay in the shallow places taking things at face value, but going deeper requires effort.
All of us know the natural man, the one that requires no effort to be. The natural man can easily live as though there is nothing beyond this physical life, no needs beyond physical and material needs, nothing more important than food, clothing, money, sex, and the like.
It is the Spirit of God Who makes us spiritual. Paul, in a discourse on this matter in the letter to the Romans, makes this very point. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5.
Paul as he was building the argument that to go natural was to totally miss the spiritual, quoted from the prophet Isaiah to show that only natural things could be perceived naturally and to perceive spiritual things we must operate spiritually. ““Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”” 1 Corinthians 2:9/Isaiah 64:4.
The Christian is privileged to have the Spirit of God to enable us to understand all the blessings bestowed on us by God through our belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Cross. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12
Without the Spirit, we just go natural, and while that may be good for hair these days it is bad for the soul. Many people have made a big deal out of this natural hair movement, and some have suffered some discrimination too. There have been reports of incidents where women have been discriminated against in the workplace because of wearing natural hairstyles. Some employers and managers judged these hairstyles to be unprofessional and unsuitable for the workplace. It has even been reported that natural hair has triggered relationship issues for some couples.
Natural hair is a matter of choice and personal taste, but living in the natural and not in the spiritual is to miss what God intended.
Think on these things:
- How do you handle arguments where the other person is arguing from the natural and you from the spiritual?
- How do we bridge the gap with persons who are operating in the natural only?
- What is the influence of science and technology, legal trends, and cultural and social activism on the tendency of people today to go natural rather than spiritual?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be equipped to better reach a generation that celebrates the natural above the spiritual.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
