Life in the Spirit, Life in the Flesh
by James G. Johnston
General Conference 1990 Snowmass, Colorado
"Forewarn all believers regarding the fringe of conflict which must be traversed by all who pass from the life as it is lived in the flesh to the higher life as it is lived in the spirit. To those who live quite wholly within either realm, there is little conflict or confusion, but all are doomed to experience more or less uncertainty during the times of transition between the two levels of living." (*1766)
There is life in the flesh and there is life in the spirit. The first represents thoroughgoing selfishness, the second thoroughgoing unselfishness. Most people live somewhere between the two in the contentious arena of intellectual conflict, confusion, and moral quandary. There is complete intellectual stability in either of the two, but not both together. Purely selfish people have no difficulty making moral choices--they always choose what appears to be in their best interest. Thoroughly unselfish people have no conflict. They always choose what appears to be in the best interest of the people they love, and they love most people.
The distinction between life in the flesh and life in the spirit is one of the great distinctions of life, and yet most of us live with those distinctions continually blurred. We frequently live oblivious to the various selfish reaction-habits that have taken possession of our lives. Our lives are frequently used by the selfish reaction-patterns inherent in the electrochemical machines we call our bodies. The body is a finely tuned machine desperately concerned about its own survival. It is designed to belligerently protect "the self" and will take any position to do so, including lying, cheating, stealing, fleeing, fighting, or being noncommittal. Its first and foremost responsibility is "self" protection, and the material self protects itself assiduously. It is constantly on the alert for what appears to be its own best interest.
It is in this self-serving circumcincture, the life in the flesh, that we persons abide. Yet we are also free to choose the spirit-sponsored life. The distinctions between the life in the flesh and the life in the spirit are many, but a few can be briefly summarized. The material self or ego identity ("self") is me-oriented while the spiritual self or soul identity ("soul") is other-oriented. The self uses others while the soul is used for others. The self sees relationships as "me or you" while the soul sees relationships as "we." The ethic of the self is "do as much as you can get away with," while the ethic of the soul is love others with a God-like affection. The self is self-aggrandizing while the soul prefers to share. The self is selfish while the soul is unselfish.
Often our lives are insidiously pervaded by selfishness. As children, we knew that if we ate the whole pie without sharing, we were selfish. But selfishness as adults is far more subtle. Selfishness (self-centeredness) takes a host of forms that, on the surface, do not appear to be selfish. Equivocation is one of my favorites.
Equivocation, the inability or unwillingness to make a commitment, is fundamentally self-centered. It is self-centered because it keeps the self from being at risk. If there is no commitment, then there is no fear of being ridiculed, rejected, or bound to the commitment, and there is no need to take responsibility for anything other than one's own welfare.
Self-righteousness is another deceptively selfish habit. The self strives to be right, no matter what, even if it means that everyone else must be wrong. It is a form of pride that is characterized by closed-mindedness and self-justification, both of which are fundamentally self-centered.
Prejudice is also selfish. Prejudice denigrates anyone who doesn't meet a particular set of standards. Prejudice is simply another way that the self seeks to set itself apart as superior, stronger, smarter or better than other people. Prejudice places the self on the pedestal that automatically lowers the level of others. It is a habit born of a sense of inferiority rather than the more apparent pretense of superiority.
Intolerance, like prejudice, separates people by a wall of arrogance. Intolerance is fundamentally the inability or unwillingness to sympathize with another. Intolerance is safer and easier than tolerance, and it is fundamentally self-centered rather than other-centered. Tolerance requires work and leaves the self exposed and vulnerable.
Envy is a special form of selfishness. It is primarily a concern for one's own welfare. It is again born of the fear of being inferior in some respect and manifests itself as discontentment and a longing to have something, possessed by others, that may elevate the status, position, or social approval of oneself.
Slothfulness is a less covert form of selfishness. It is the avoidance of doing work or taking responsibility, taking the easier path of lesser resistance, for oneself.
Vanity, an excessive interest in looking good, is clearly self-centered.
Greed is an obvious form. It is an incessant, ongoing, self-aggrandizing commitment that is frequently blind to ethics, morality, or the needs of others.
Pride is perhaps the greatest obstacle to a spirit-dominated life. It is an all-pervasive, self-justifying mechanism that consistently isolates the self from others--protects the self from the vulnerability of being wrong. Pride denies truth, shrouds error, and avoids ridicule. When pride is chosen, a fog of confusion settles over the clarity of courageous honesty. Pride is obedient to the desire for approval and is the bond servant of self-doubt.
Without a conscious commitment to a life in the spirit, selfishness is the default mechanism that unconsciously controls reaction-patterns. It is automatic--an addiction. The self is addicted to selfishness like an alcoholic to alcohol. Modern society is too frequently structured to keep the alcoholic self drunk with selfish pursuits.
If a person has no commitments to higher values, then money, power, and prestige--all fruits of life in the flesh, will be pursued pre-eminently. The pursuit of selfishness has many very powerful benefits. They are usually obvious.
For example, when you are selfish, you almost always can arrange to have things your way. Self-sacrifice need not even be considered. You also get to be right, even when you are dead wrong--pride and self-righteousness will see to that. You need not take responsibility for anything outside yourself. You can be as slothful as you like. You need not do the work required to be sympathetic. Selfishness is, in a word, easy. It comes "naturally" and seems, on the surface, to be the obvious choice.
What is much less obvious is that selfishness carries severe penalties. Selfishness, as a way of life, simply is not real. It has no foundation in the reality of the spirit "world." It comes as the inborn response of the material mechanism, from dust, and will someday return to dust. The selfish individual, in choosing that which is not real, is in danger of becoming unreal--dead.
Religion teaches that we are material and possess spirit. From the spiritual view, it would probably be more accurate to say that we are spirit and have bodies. The spirit is the central enduring reality, the body is simply a navigational device for living in a material hologram. The material world appears more solid, more real than the spiritual, but it always passes away. To identify with what is real, with what produces a peace that passes all understanding, one must grow the identity of the soul.
The costs of choosing what is unreal or selfish are manifold.
Friendships are lost out of selfishness. No real happiness occurs without relationships. Relationships are the only true end in life, everything else is a means. The unhappiness and sense of loneliness that comes from the loss of relationships is a deep enduring sadness.
Selfishness results in disappointment, sorrow and emotional suffering. Selfish behavior, not being real, cannot produce real joy. It produces instead a transitory pleasure or displeasure associated with the desire of the self.
Selfishness will also destroy families. Family life demands unselfish service. It is an intense experience in learning to serve and forgive others. A selfish parent, like an alcoholic parent, will debase and destroy the bonds of loyalty and love that are the outgrowth of service and forgiveness.
If allowed to run rampant, selfishness will destroy civilization. Modern day society is thoroughly dependent upon those who serve unselfishly.
The spiritual illumination of God is eclipsed by selfishness. A thoroughly selfish person simply cannot know God. One precludes the other. In eclipsing the light of God, the soul is made dark and dead, unresponsive to the constant promptings from the First Source of the universe, the presence of God. "The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, your eye is generous, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is selfish, the whole body will be filled with darkness. If the very light which is in you is turned to darkness, how great is that darkness!"
Friendship with God is not available to one who has chosen to place himself first. At the entry to a Boy Scout camp in southern Michigan, there is a sign that reads "Me Third." It is there to remind all who enter that their ideal commitment is to God first, others second, and themselves third. The ego-self would have that order reversed.
The self putting itself first is much like the story of the servant living in Persia. The story portrays a servant who, while walking through the courtyard of the home of his master, encounters "Death." The servant turns and runs in abject terror. He finds his master and begs him to loan him his best horse so that he may ride to Tehran to escape "Death." His master gladly grants his request, inviting him to take whatever he needs for the journey. Later, the master also walks through the courtyard and sees "Death." The master confronts him, "Why did you frighten my servant?" And "Death" responds, "I did not mean to frighten your servant. I was only surprised to see him here. I expected to see him tomorrow in Tehran."
The self is always looking for the fastest horse to Tehran. Like the servant, the self is pre-eminently concerned with its own survival, not knowing that seeking to save itself is the surest course to its own death. We all pass through the experience of mortal death, but abject selfishness is the surest course to real death--spiritual death. Truly, he who seeks to save his own life shall lose it.
To choose a spirit-led life, an unselfish life, is to choose the way of God. The fruits of the spirit are service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, fairness, honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, forgiving tolerance, goodness, and enduring peace.
Self-mastery is a matter of mastering a belligerent addiction to selfishness. One of the great paradoxes of human life is that we become who we are, not by what we get in life, but by what we give away.
This is the true joy in life -- being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no `brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
--George Bernard Shaw
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