One spirit with him
Joined to the Lord
Paul makes a claim about union with Christ so intimate it is almost startling: he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Not merely allied with the Lord, not merely following him, not merely loving him from a distance — one spirit. The deepest union the journey arrives at is a joining so complete that the boundary between the soul and Christ becomes a meeting rather than a wall.
Teresa reached for marriage as the only human picture large enough for this, and Paul does the same. The one-flesh union of husband and wife, he says, is a great mystery — and he is really speaking of Christ and his people. As two become one in marriage, so the soul joined to the Lord becomes, in a way beyond full explaining, one spirit with him. The wedding language of the deeper rooms is not exaggeration; it is the nearest words can come.
This is the astonishing destination of the inward journey. The God you began by seeking out there, the King you found dwelling at the center, draws you at last into a union so deep that his Spirit and your spirit are joined as one. You are not absorbed and erased — you remain yourself — but you are bound to Christ in a oneness more intimate than any other union in creation. Live, then, as one joined to the Lord, sharing his very Spirit.
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
— Paul, to the Corinthians — 1 Corinthians 6:17 (WEB)
Live as one joined to the Lord — one spirit with him — sharing his very Spirit at the center of your being, not merely connected to him from a distance.
“This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the assembly.”
We instinctively file our bond with Christ as a long-distance arrangement, two parties kept apart and connected only by faith, and so we live as hosts who now and then welcome a guest. The interior work is to let Paul's astonishing word overturn the whole picture: joined to the Lord, you are one spirit with him, his life fused to yours at the root — not a presence you receive but a presence you are inseparable from.
This week, live consciously as one joined to the Lord: in your choices, your body, your words, remember that his Spirit is united with yours, and act not as one who occasionally visits Christ but as one who shares his very life.
Familiarity keeps Christ at arm's length, a guest you welcome in religious moments rather than a life knit to yours, and so the union never reshapes how you actually live. Yet a soul that is one spirit with the Lord is bound to him at the root of its being, past any power that would pry the two apart.
We tend to picture our relationship with Christ as a connection between two separate parties — him over there, us over here, linked by faith and love but fundamentally apart. Paul's words press far deeper: joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with him. The union is not a bridge between two separate islands but a true joining, as intimate as marriage and as mysterious.
This changes how we live. If you are one spirit with Christ, then his presence is not a visitor you host but a life you share; his Spirit is joined to your spirit at the root of your being. The implications are staggering and dignifying — your body a temple, your choices his concern, your life no longer merely your own. Live this week not as one who occasionally visits Christ, but as one joined to him, sharing his very Spirit at the center of who you are.
- Do I picture Christ as separate from me, linked only at a distance?
- What does it mean that I am one spirit with him?
- How would I live differently as one truly joined to the Lord?
Lord, I picture you over there and me over here, connected but apart. Yet you say the one joined to you is one spirit with you. Let me live in that union — your Spirit joined to mine at the root of me — bound to you more intimately than any union in creation. Amen.