In
the ancient Church, especially where the Old Testament was concerned,
they held that there was a literal reading of the text and a
spiritual reading of the text. Between the two, the spiritual reading
was held to be the more important for the Church because this was the
reading which most applied to us. One way of looking at it would be
the literal “interpretation”, and the spiritual “application”.
One of the things which has always
stuck
with me after reading St. Augustine's Confessions is how much St.
Ambrose's “spiritual” interpretation of the Scriptures played a
part in converting Augustine
from Manichaeism, which supposedly only held the “literal”
interpretation to
be of any importance.
One of the
principle parts of the Old Testament which is referred to in the
writings of the ancient Church as an application for us in our
Christian lives is the invasion of Canaan by Israel, and the orders
by God to utterly destroy any idols, places of worship, altars, and
anything in general having to do with any other god besides Yahweh:
“These
are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in
the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to
possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall surely
destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess
served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under
every green tree. You shall break down their altars, and dash their
pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall
cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their
name out of that place. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.”
Deuteronomy
12:1-4
The analogy
used is that of our attachments to anything else besides God Himself.
Just as Israel was to utterly destroy any possibility of the worship
of foreign gods, so are we to utterly destroy and shed any
attachments to anything which could get in the way of our
relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and our progression
towards union with God through Jesus Christ. This is a constant
teaching within the Gospels and the epistles as well:
“If
your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away
from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members
should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. If
your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away
from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members
should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.”
Matthew
5:29-30
Jesus
became very specific in the parable of the sower where it comes to
certain attachments and how they affect the “fruitfulness” of a
believer:
“What
was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the
cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and
he becomes unfruitful.” Matthew
13:22
“That
which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as
they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and
pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” Luke 8:14
Attachments
to wealth and sensual pleasures are right at the top of the list of
those things which cause a believer to become unfruitful and which
stunt their progression towards union with God in Jesus Christ. These
kinds of things are compared to weeds which suck all the nutrients
and water out of the soil and keep the plant they surround from
producing fruit. These kinds of attachments are insidious as well,
because they can start innocently enough with just wanting to have
“enough” for yourself and your family. But what happens is that
the definition of “enough” changes, and
the line between “enough” and excess keeps getting pushed back.
And, in possessing “enough”, we
tend to rely on that “enough” and not on the God who gives it.
Possessions themselves are amoral, neither good nor bad, but it is
our own insecurity because of the sin disorder which makes us attach
to them and
which makes them so dangerous to us.
We become terrified of not having them because we place all of our
security in them and not in God. It is for this reason that Jesus
said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a sewing
needle than it was for a rich man to inherit the kingdom of God, and
why He told the rich man to sell everything he had, and give it to
the poor, and then follow Him. The disciples of Jesus understood this
teaching very well. It was for this reason that those who had
property within the Apostolic Church sold it and gave the proceeds to
the Church to distribute to everyone as needed. They understood very
well the dangers attachment to possessions could pose to their goal
of being like Christ.
“I am the
true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that
doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit,
he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already pruned clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I
in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself, unless it remains
in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the
vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the
same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man
doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is
withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they
are burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will
ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. In this is my
Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my
disciples.” John 15:1-8
It is a
known fact in gardening that if you want a plant to produce more
fruit, you have to cut away the dead branches and foliage. For the
follower of Jesus Christ, this means removing from one's life
anything which interferes with remaining in Him. Anything which could
draw you away from Him or which you place as more important than Him.
Jesus mentioned several things in His teachings: attachments to
personal possessions, attachments to family members, attachments to
worries and concerns for bodily needs, attachments to one's own
personal self and identity, even attachments to religious practices
if they were placed as more important than Him. All of these things
would need to be put to death and cut away in the pursuit of union
with God through Jesus Christ.
“However,
what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I
suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by
faith; that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and
the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death; if
by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that
I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on,
if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken
hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet
having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which
are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I
press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:7-14
In
order to move forward in our personal discipleship, we must learn to
recognize the attachments we have formed which come between ourselves
and our Lord because these are things which keep us from producing
fruit. These are the things which keep us from being like Christ. We
must also be prepared to cut these attachments away from ourselves
and let them go. If we don't allow ourselves to be pruned in this
way, we will continue to be filled with dead foliage until finally
the whole branch must be thrown out and burned on the fire.
Ultimately, we must keep our one goal of Jesus Christ in the
forefront of our minds and hearts and be prepared to do anything we
need to reach it.
(All
Scripture citations taken from the World English Bible which is in
the Public Domain)
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