“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:17, ASV)
We are examining the characteristics of “the Spirit of the Lord” (Isa. 11:2), and trying to find out what are the distinctive functions of this first of the seven Spirits of God.
One of the most important Scriptures about the mystery of our link (as fleshly people) to the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3) is the Scripture of 1 Cor. 6:17 (ASV): “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” Ponder this immensely big mystery for a moment – one spirit with the Spirit of God. This does not mean that that born-again spirit of my inner man now IS, ipso facto, the Holy Spirit – there are still two entities: my spirit and the Holy Spirit, but it functions as one spirit. [In terms of an analogy one could for instance explain that my wife and I have one flesh, and one spirit, as Gen. 2:24 and Mal. 2:14-16 presents, but we still function as separate individuals.]
To understand this mystery, we can use the example of water. Water’s chemical symbol is H2O, which means that the substance of water consists of a fusion of two other, unrelated elements. There is hydrogen and there is oxygen, each separate entities, but when they are joined together in a specific relationship in specific quantities, they become a completely new entity, water! Something new, different, something of a completely different nature. Two gasses miraculously turn into a liquid, a completely other substance with a completely different nature. How amazing this is! When I drink water, I don’t “drink” hydrogen and oxygen – I drink a completely “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17, LITV).
Another example: 1 Cor. 12:12 notes: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” The one Body, which is the Bride of Christ, is for instance not the sum of the individual believers that would comprise it – it is a completely different entity with a completely unique nature. The sum is much more than its parts.
God uses this simple principle of joining to give substance to everything that exists in the physical reality – this is an awe-inspiring spiritual power.
It is important that we correctly understand the word joined, as it is used in the earlier Scripture. The meaning of the word in the original Greek, according to Thayer, is “to glue, to glue together, cement, fasten together”. In Hebrew the word Levi is the name of the priesthood of God, those who separated themselves unto God, and was joined with him, has the same meaning. Throughout the ages the characteristic of the priesthood of God has been that they are joined to the Bridegroom, thus this statement from Paul in 2 Cor. 11:2: “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
- Selah: Have you been set aside for the Bridegroom?
- Read: 13-15
- Memorise: 13:17
