Word & Spirit – false dichotomy.

The division between Spirit and Word is a false dichotomy of our time played out between conservatives and charismatics. Do I experience God through the Spirit’s leading in worship and seeing Him at work through the miraculous? or, Do I experience Him through seeing Him transform people from the inside out as they live in obedience to His Word? The answer must be a resounding YES to both.

We should learn from the mistakes of the great false dichotomy of the last century: The division between Love and Truth  played out between liberals and evangelicals. At its heart was the question of the modern age, ‘Who is right?’ In the battle between liberals and evangelicals when the love of God was pitted against the truth of God, those who loved separated themselves from truth.  They tried to be the source of love and spiritually died. Those who focused on Truth to the denial of love, lost the heart of Christ’s love becoming cold and hardened to people’s felt needs. The Church became weaker and to this day is suffering.

The tragedy of our church is the split between those who seek to control behaviour through the Word while ignoring the Spirit who makes the transformation possible. And those who want the power of the Spirit while ignoring the inconvenient truths of the One who sent Him. Without both our spirituality becomes self-centred.