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polis, or he pasa polis "the whole city" and he polis pasa would have a slightly different
meaning--either "the city, all of it" or "the city in every part".
The church of the one body is blessed "with every blessing that is spiritual". This is
even wider in its scope than to say "all spiritual blessings", for if the number of the
blessings were but few--say four, they could be defined as "all spiritual", whereas the
mind reels as it endeavours to grasp the fact that there is no blessing that comes under the
category of "spiritual" that is omitted. It is highly improbable that while we are in this
life we shall be able to appreciate a tithe of what is here so freely bestowed.
We turn our attention from this vision of unspeakable glory to consider the nature of
the blessings thus bestowed. They are "spiritual", Greek pneumatikos. Pneuma "spirit"
is derived from the idea of "breath" and goes back to the equivalent terms that are found
in the Hebrew. It would be a mistake however just here and now to attempt a dissertation
on the origin and usage of pneuma, for that would take us so far afield that we should be
in danger of forgetting our immediate quest. First of all, we discover that pneumatikos
occurs three times in Ephesians:
"All spiritual blessings" (1: 3).
"Hymns and spiritual songs" (5: 19).
"Spiritual wickedness" (6: 12).
Without comparison or consideration we might have been tempted to think that
"spiritual" blessing must mean any blessing that comes from "God, that they must be
good, that they must refer to redemption and so on. But Eph. 6: 12 gives us pause, for
there we read of "spiritual WICKEDNESS". It is manifestly absurd to speak of "good"
"holy" or "Divine" wickedness, and therefore we realize that the word spiritual has other
and different connotations if it can be used in the same epistle of both "blessing" and
"wickedness". In Eph. 6: 12 "spiritual" wickedness is set over against "flesh and
blood". It is evident that the word "spiritual" is the opposite of the word "corporeal", and
this is what we find elsewhere. Paul, writing in the epistle to the Romans places the idea
of "spiritual" over against the "carnal", "for we know that the law is spiritual
(pneumatikos); but I am carnal (sarkikos)" (Rom. 7: 14). "For if the Gentiles have
been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in
carnal things" (Rom. 15: 27). In first Corinthians he not only contrasts spiritual with
carnal, but also with "natural".
"The natural man (psuchikos) . . . . . but he that is spiritual . . . . ." (I Cor. 2: 14, 15).
"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15: 44).
The "carnal" things of Rom. 15: 27 were good. We can learn from other passages
that the apostle was very earnest in his endeavour to fulfil the injunction received at
Jerusalem, that in the exercise of his ministry among the Gentiles he should remember
the poor saints at Jerusalem, and quite a large portion of the epistles to the Corinthians is
occupied with the "collection". These "carnal" things would include food, drink,