“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 45
The most persistent heresy that the Church has had to deal with, over the course of our centuries, is the heresy of Gnosticism. In countless ways, Christians drift into the dangerous assumption that spiritual means immaterial and that unspiritual means earthy. This presents an immediate problem when a person is keeping track of inventory all day, or grinding beans to make coffee, or handling legal briefs. An easy assumption to make is that this activity is somehow inherently unspiritual because it pertains to things of this world. But the world belongs to Jesus Christ, and our bodies are to be a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2). This includes everything that our bodies do, and this amounts, St. Paul says, to spiritual worship.
The devil is a spirit in one sense but he is unspiritual in another sense. Jesus was a physical man and yet He was entirely spiritual. So when spiritual is used in the Bible as a term of praise, it does not mean airy-fairy stuff. Being spiritual means being obedient, body, soul, and spirit, and being unspiritual means being disobedient, whether in body, soul or spirit.
Therefore, it is not oxymoronic to speak of a spiritual businessman. And if the businessman pays close attention to his stock, his accounts receivable, his customer base, he may do this in a spiritual way or in an unspiritual way. But it is never unspiritual because it is here. This is where God wants us. It would be unspiritual to leave.