Surrender to the Spirit of Christ or to Fear

     In submitting to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ, we must be careful not to engage with or re-engage with fear, aggression, or bodily cravings, but fear especially. Re-engagement with fear disengages us from the Spirit of Christ because we have voluntarily surrendered ourselves to our own devices, our own malfunctioning, neurologically based survival responses. This is why it is so important to let go of any attachment which can trigger a fear or aggression response, and the aggression response is itself a fear response. Where bodily cravings are concerned, the trigger stems from the subconscious fear that the body's needs or wants won't be met.
     Consider everything in our world which is practically designed to trigger the fear response in some way. Most of the time it is a fear response when the ego is threatened in some way, that is, when some component of our own self-identity is threatened, such as a belief, foundational or otherwise, or a relationship which we consider to be core to who we see ourselves as. Of course there are also more practical fear responses such as job loss, threats of bodily harm either imminent or imagined, environmental threats, and so on. But the fear responses by which we surrender ourselves most to our own malfunctioning neurology are those centered around who we believe ourselves to be, and what ideas, beliefs, and positions which we consider to be core or foundational to that self-identity.
     This is the purpose for the conditions of discipleship which stipulate that one must let go of anything and anyone which could come between the disciple and Jesus Christ such as possessions, relationships, and one's own self-identity. While all will trigger the fear response and the test or temptation to surrender oneself to that fear response, the biggest one is the fear which surrounds the ego and any threats to the ego. (And as one author wrote, the ego is fear. That is, it is an illusion composed entirely of fear, but I digress.) This is why Jesus was explicit that anyone who didn't "pick up their crosses," "destroy their psyches," or generally as Paul described it, die or be crucified together with Christ, couldn't be His disciples. It wasn't a matter of exclusivity, it was that the protection of one's ego or psyche literally interferes and obstructs being a disciple of the Way, because the Way requires surrendering to and cooperating with the Spirit of Christ rather than one's own malfunctioning psyche.
     As John writes, "Fear doesn't exist in love, but love brought to completion throws fear out." Consider also that the Apostle wrote, "The person not demonstrating love doesn't know God, because God is love." Those who are in submission to and in cooperation with the Spirit of Christ are not in submission to fear but the God who is love is manifested within and through them, but likewise those who are in submission to their own fear and other survival responses are not in submission to the Spirit of Christ and it is their own fear, aggression, and bodily cravings which are manifested as Paul described the difference between the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit." You are either in submission to one or the other, but not both at the same time. This is impossible. No one can serve two masters. To be in submission to the Spirit of Christ is to let go of fear, and to be in submission to your own fear is to let go of the Spirit of Christ.
     As we live our lives, with nearly every interaction, experience, and decision point, we are presented with these two options, surrender to the Spirit of Christ, or surrender to our own fear. The Way of Jesus Christ is to learn to consistently and always take the path of surrender to the Spirit of Christ.