The Image Bearing Nature of Reality

A facebook friend posted this quote recently that I was not too enthralled with:

"The unbiblical idea of "spirituality" is that the truly "spiritual" man is the person who is sort of "non-physical," who doesn't get involved in "earthly" things, who doesn't work very much or think very hard, and who spends most of his time meditating about how he'd rather be in heaven. As long as he's on earth, though, he has one main duty in life: Get stepped on for Jesus. The "spiritual" man, in this view, is a wimp. A Loser. But at least he's a Good Loser." - David Chilton, Paradise Restored

Here is my response:


The spiritual man is heavenly minded as Colossians 3 teaches and many other places:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Colossians 3:1-6 ESV)

This heavenly-mindedness does not mean that the spiritual man does not see any worth in physical things, but he sees that physical things image heavenly realities. For example, the human body images God, earthly bread points to Christ as the bread from heaven, physical birth points to the new birth from above, earthly wealth points to heavenly wealth, etc.

It is precisely because of this image bearing nature of reality, that all things have meaning, including life on this earth lived between Christ's first and second comings. In fact, it is the lack of seeing the image-bearing quality of the world that has given us the secularism that sees meaning in nothing at all and leads to the despair, hopelessness, and utopia building we see in our culture.

Closely related to this heavenly-mindedness is suffering with Christ.  Because we live in a world that crucified the Lord of glory, we cannot expect such a world to love Christ's people.  Our heavenly-mindedness that flows from our being raised with Christ leads us to seek Christ and his heavenly kingdom above all else.  Because of our identification with Jesus we too will suffer with Christ for our testimony to Him, just as Christ was hated for his testimony of the Father.

So, overall, I would disagree with the quote above because of its mischaracterization of the the biblical position, which, indeed, calls for a true spiritual-mindedness or heavenly-mindedness, which also brings with it suffering for its testimony to Jesus.