To have any success in Biblical thinking, we first must have a firm ontological footing.  That means we are to be aware of the nature of reality.  In the world of philosophy, you can get very deep in the weeds with ontology discussing the ground of being, the process of becoming, what is potential, the nature of time, the appearance of motion, contingency, the brain and the mind, the Ultimate reality or God and so on.  So cutting through the weeds, I am providing ontology for the Christian which many would disagree with just as they would also disagree with our religion or worldview.  The Apostle Paul faced this opposition from the hedonistic philosophers in Athens, so he addresses them in the Sermon on Mars Hill and gives a summary of Christian ontology:

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; ²⁶ and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,²⁷ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ ²⁹ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. ³⁰ Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, ³¹ because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

– Acts 17:24-31

This is important because we are going to build on it to understand our Identity in Christ and the nature, character and attributes of God in order to train our minds to know truth and more easily identify the subtle lies of the world, our flesh and the devil.  The more we train ourselves, the more we can avoid error, overcome fear, escape anxiety, hear the leading of His Spirit, make God honoring decisions, become spiritually mature and grow our faith to stand firm amidst any storm of life.  This process will also train us to point others to Jesus, whether that be in discipleship, evangelism, counseling, charity or any other way we can love people.  Loving God with our minds is instrumental to being a vessel of mercy by which God loves others through us.

In Acts 17 above, we see a foundational statement for Christian theism: God is our Creator, God is our Lord, God is separate from the world, God is active in the world as the giver and sustainer of life, God is sovereign placing each person in the nation He wanted them, God is accessible to every person, God is Spirit, God made us in His image, God is just and therefore will judge the world, God extends His loving kindness to us by making a way for us to escape His holy judgment which He must do to be true to His holy nature and God, being rich in mercy, knowing we walk by sight before we walk by faith performed the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead so that we could see the salvation He has provided.  In short, that is our worldview which we are going to connect to our theology and doctrines to demonstrate the cohesiveness and truth of reality.  So as we build on Paul’s declaration, we must now look at the make-up of man and the spiritual realities that exist.

Every Christian is made up of two men, either the outer man and the inner man or the outer woman and the inner man.  In our make-up, the outerman is the flesh and the inner man is the spirit, which will be sufficient for our purposes.  Whether man is dichotomous or trichotomous, whether the spirit and soul are distinct, whether the mind is distinct from the soul, and how all of these work together before and after regeneration, all fun conversations, but setting aside for now.  (Sidebar: this understanding will be woven throughout this series including a piece I am developing on Christian marriage).  It is our natural inclination to walk by sight and not by faith which is why it is also easy to tend to the needs of the outer man and neglect the needs of the inner man.  Because of this, we need to be mindful to nourish and strengthen the inner man throughout each day.  Consider the daily routine of the average person: awaken, stretch, relieve yourself in the bathroom, wash your face, make coffee, shower, get dressed, comb and style hair, perhaps shave or put on makeup, eat breakfast and tend to any other details before heading off to work.  Everything I just stated are things that must occur in order for us to acclimate to the day and be prepared to contribute to the well-being of ourselves and others.  However, everything that I just stated only tends to the outer man.  I contest that we must invest in the inner man, ideally first thing in the morning, with the same time and attention to detail if we are to attain the spiritual maturity that God desires for us.

“‘You have probably heard it said, “You are what you eat.”… If we have cultivated good eating habits, our bodies have benefited.  When it comes to our inner life, an echo of this insight is the idea that “we are what we think.”  The thoughts that we allow to make themselves at home in our hearts and minds shape our soul.”

– ‘An Unhurried Leader’ by Alan Fadling

I appreciate this insight a lot because it draws attention to a very real need in each of our lives.  We can look at our bodies and know what needs fixing, improving, firming up or strengthening, but how do we know when our soul is weak, out of shape, carrying around the weight of the world rather than well trained for The Purpose of godliness?  What I am about to share is not new, but perhaps it will be a source of encouragement to help you move to a place of spiritual strength in your walk with God.  Two important things to remember: 

First, building spiritual strength will not happen over night, so don’t be so hard on yourself.  Liken the development of spiritual strength to that of building physical strength.  You go to the gym, you do some reps, then next time you do the same reps with a little more weight, then you do a couple of more reps with that additional weight and so on.  The point is to constantly improve.  Growing spiritual strength works the same way.  You learn a bible verse, then another, then a passage, then you string together verses and passages that teach a virtue or principle that God wants manifest in our lives.  In this process, you sin, but you recall a verse and it grieves your heart.  Then next time, you recall the verse before you sin and are able to avoid the defilement of your self.  The next time, you elect not to put yourself in that position of having to avoid sin.  Then you grow to the next level of not having any desire to put yourself in that environment or situation.  The process that I just described is a discipline to develop.  One thing to be sure of, is that we change and with that change will come new sin opportunities, new temptations and the challenge of maintaining our priorities.  So as we move on to spiritual maturity, we know the process and we continue to practice the discipline against whatever temptation is presented.

Second, building spiritual strength is a marathon, not a sprint, so you need to be hard on yourself.  Hey, wait…you said…!  Okay, what I mean here is that you need to position your inner man to take the lead and not give in to every whim of the outer man.  This is obvious when it comes to sin, but as a discipline, you can deny your outer man’s requests as a way of building the spiritual fruit of self-control (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).  For example, you are out to dinner and at the end of the meal you have a desire for dessert, maybe cheesecake.  You finished your dinner, you are not on a diet, you have the money to buy the cheesecake, however you deny yourself as a matter of building discipline.  If you need to justify it in your mind, you might convince yourself that it has too much sugar or decide not to waste money on it or perhaps you consider that cheesecake will not bring glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31).  You may even do something more noble such as take the seven dollars you were going to spend on cheesecake and make a contribution to Samaritans Purse where $7 will feed a child for a week.  Whatever mental exercise you go through to get there, do not lose sight of the fact that you are taking this one baby step as a way of giving the inner man strength over the outer man.  I am not saying you will never eat cheesecake again, however we want to arrive at a place of self-awareness in which it becomes second nature for our inner man to become the primary decision maker in our lives.  As a person who has been born-again, we do carry a second nature, that by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16) gives us power over our sin nature by which, as we grow spiritually, we begin to see the world, not by the eyes in our head, but by the eyes of our heart.

Third, as spiritual beings, we must not be ignorant to the presence of spiritual adversaries and their influence and role in our lives.  In the letters of the underworld that fell into the hands of C.S. Lewis, one of the senior devils, Screwtape, states the advantages and disadvantages of humans being aware of the role devils play in our lives and summarizes that “some do not believe in us while others have an interest in us that the Enemy would consider unhealthy, but we can use both to our advantage.”  Later on he advises the younger devil that whenever a believer begins to seriously consider the schemes of the devil, conjure up in his mind a cartoon with a guy in red pajamas holding a pitchfork or get a friend to dismiss the idea of devils as silly.  Then we will regain our advantage of him being unaware of our presence.”  I am quite certain that is not an exact quote as I am writing from memory, but the message it carries is true.  We must be aware of the schemes of the devil in our lives, especially of the warning that spiritual adversaries often appear as an angel of light, and often demonize (no pun) the good that God has sent into our lives.  In biblical thinking, we must examine the source of many lies we believe as well as the half truths and any thought that distorts our view of God and His truth for us.  The devil is crafty and is constantly seeking to create separation between us and God, whether that be through distortions of biblical theology, promotion of pop-psychology, cultural pragmatism, distortions of views of ourselves that produce pride, shame, guilt, or a simple appeal to the comforts of our flesh.

So, in introducing Christian ontology into the conversation, it is not my intention to make a case for it, but rather a declaration.  One of the primary differences between Greek philosophy and Jewish philosophy is that the Greeks would philosophize about the existence of God and the nature of reality, but the Jewish people begin with the assumption that God exists and is active in His creation, so we take Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 as our starting point.  Since the Christian worldview is the only view that is completely true, can explain the nature of reality, can explain the condition of the world and can explain the transcendental aspects of life, we will naturally develop an apologetic for our faith as these series of writings unfold.  As I have roadmapped what this will become, the promotion and defense of truth is inherent in the conversation, therefore, for now, we begin with our declaration.

Additional Reading: John 16:8, Romans 8:15-16, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Ephesians 6:12, Luke 4:13, James 4:7-8