Jesus Christ is alive from the dead and teaches a life of devotion to God in spirit and truth. What is meant by ‘spirit and truth’? What is meant by ‘living by the spirit’?
Those sealed by the Holy Spirit are one body in Christ. There are two most important factors in this. Firstly it is true. If you are in the body of Christ because the Holy Spirit has sealed you, marked you, by manifesting miraculously in you, you are truly in the body of Christ. Live by this: It is truth. Secondly it is spirit. If you are in the body of Christ because the Holy Spirit has sealed you, marked you, by manifesting miraculously in you, you are united in spirit with Christ in the body of Christ. Live by this: It is spirit.
The unity you have with Christ is a true unity, if indeed you are actually united with him in believing in him, believing the veracity of his light-giving teachings, receiving the message of truth about him, and subsequently marked by God manifesting the Holy Spirit in you, sealing you in a way only heaven can do, as signs have shown is true in you. Living by truth, like this truth, is how Jesus Christ taught. Do not live a lie. Live according to what is true. This is his teaching.
The unity you have with Christ is a spirit unity, if indeed you are actually united with him, you have a spirit-level of unity with Christ. His spirit is there in your acceptance of his teachings, believing in his trustworthiness. The spirit of Jesus’ teachings and his veracity is united with your spirit in a bond, sealed by the Holy Spirit when the mark of this seal was manifested in you, if indeed it has been manifested in you. Apostle Paul, Christ’s apostle, taught about living by spirit. What you are in spirit is important. Your unity in flesh is sometimes important, such as the flesh level unity you mysteriously gain in marriage. They say “So-and-so and So-and-so, they are an item”. This is recognition of how a physical relationship results mysteriously in two becoming in a real sense one. Well there is also another level of unity people have: unity of spirit. Akin to unity of purpose. What drives the other, now drives you. What inspires and influences the other, now inspires and influences you. If you have such unity with Christ, it is important because it is spirit. Living by what is spirit is a life-giving wise way to live. It counters sin. It puts your life on a good path. It builds you up in a way that benefits you in many ways in your life. If you are united with Christ in spirit, let it be how you live.
How does it all work in practice? Truthful speech. If we are all each of the body of Christ, united spiritually with Christ, it extends into unity with each other. This makes truthful speech appropriate, and lying inappropriate. Why harm your extended body, extended in Christ? It makes no sense. To lie to each other makes no sense in two ways. Firstly, it is inappropriate to the truth, of unity. Secondly, it is contrary to the life of spirit. It puts flesh in priority over spirit, so it is damaging because it deprioritises living according to spirit. Likewise, the kinds of reasoning and wisdom applies to other key moral code principles, such as top priority teachings of Christ, namely the ten commandments. The commandment against killing applies in this body of Christ, spirit and truth, context, by restraint from harm when angry, since anger is a key driver of killing and murder. It applies in that living by truth and spirit now means self-restraint and anger management. The body of Christ warrants, in spirit and truth, measures to protect others from bad outcomes of our own anger. Settling anger within ourselves promptly is a way to prevent it getting harmfully into others’ lives. Another command: Adultery. Faithfulness in marriage is another important manifestation of applying spirit and truth. Avoidance of immorality is another. Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians covers all of these things. John chapter 8 covers them too.
