"Spiritual Matters"

 "Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." (Hebrews 6:2 KJV)

  "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2 NLT)

 Before I get too deep into this, I have to think about why this verse is separated from verse one, as they both are shown to be the same sentence in the KJV. Having thought about it, somewhat without looking up any resources, I feel that the first verse is dealing with the faith we have with God, and how we must get right with Him; while the second portion deals with our spiritual matters, which actually means our spirit, or God's Spirit in us. 

 Hopefully you must all know by now that you have a spirit, at least you should! The basic principle is that we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Conventional teaching is that the soul is actually a spirit also, but the spirit is that part of man which died, when Adam sinned. Adam's spirit was alive and connected with God's Spirit; but sin caused a separation between man and God, the moment Adam ate of the forbidden fruit. 

 From that time on, mankind has had a void within them, which needed to be filled. Through the ages, God has put His Spirit upon certain people, from time to time, as a means for them to perform the work He had called them to do. But in the case of this illustration, the spirit that lives within the believer, since Christ died and rose again, is now that same Spirit that was alive in Adam before he sinned. 

 If that makes sense to you, then you should understand why baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, are all connected to spiritual matters. The transformation that Paul is talking about is a spiritual condition: We are made new because we now have God's Spirit living within us; therefore, it is important that we give our bodies to God, seeing that He now lives within us...     

"Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT)