Here are a few questions I answered for my Anglican Spirituality class.

1. How do you define spirituality?

The basis of spirituality is humility and submission to Christ and His Church. This means becoming obedient both internally and externally in a humble manner, for the love of God and man. It means becoming engrafted in both the first and second table of the Law through Christ. Christ summarizes obedience to His law by commanding us to love our neighbor.

Spirituality involves love; what love looks like; and how love actually takes form within us. But what this Trinitarian God of ours prompts us to is the law of God in its Christological ethic. Christian ethics is the very Law of God expounded upon through Christ’s practical application to our lives. Without practical application we have ambiguous thoughts of what we think is right and spiritual. And we know that the Bible warn us against leaving our thoughts to ourselves (Psalm 94:11).

To conclude, spirituality is the working of God within us, humbling us to become faithful to Him!

2. What is your understanding of spiritual discipline and of spiritual gifts?

In Galatians, Paul says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. This is where the discipline comes in. The war inside of man that Paul talks about in Romans 7 is more spiritually described in Galatians 5 where Paul speaks of putting away fleshly habits. We are to deny our fleshly habits by – as Dr. Piper says – believing that sin does not give reward and that obedience to the Spirit does. That is, turning away from sin brings us to the path of righteousness where all good things are found. I like what Augustine says: “Think God’s thoughts after Him.” Our thought life needs constant discipline so that – as St. Paul says – we encounter the renewing of the mind.

God helps us with spiritual disciplines by giving us spiritual gifts. This involves the empowerment that the Holy Spirit gives us through the sacraments, the Body (Church) and the Word itself. Christ tells us that He will send us the comforter, who is the Holy Spirit (John 16:7), to comfort and give us power.

This power can and does pan itself out into spiritual gifts such as those that St. Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12. These gifts unite the Body of Christ (v. 14) for the great commission of the New Covenant. But these gifts are mere tools and should not be viewed as litmus tests for spirituality. St. Paul says that although he may manifest all the greatest gifts, but does so without love, he works in vain (1 Cor. 13). Also, Christ says that even the heathen, at times, will manifest the spiritual gifts St. Paul speaks of (Matthew 7:22).

3. Who models true Christian spirituality for you (living or deceased)?

There are many living and deceased men who model true spirituality through what they teach in their writings, but the best source of learning spirituality is from life itself, following the examples of godly men in the local churches. I constantly look to various leaders in order to see how the Spirit guides them; and when they fail I try to also learn from that failure. I apply this same principle to corrupt leaders, watching them to see what becomes of their folly.