All of Christ, For All of Life: The End of Over-Spiritualization

It happens all the time.

You will be relaying something to someone and simply make a pronouncement of “the Lord has blessed this tremendously” or “this is why I feel/think this way”. When the words leave your mouth, the cry of “Okay, let’s not over-spiritualize this.” falls from their lips.

This hasn’t happened to me a lot, but when it does, I inwardly cringe. I used to feel the same way, but as the years go by, and the more I grow in Christ, the more I realize that “over-spiritualization” isn’t biblical. Although, I think maybe sometimes people are using it as a synonym for “out of context”, which I will get to later in this article.

What does it mean to “over-spiritualize”?

The phrase “over-spiritualize” typically gets tossed around when someone is trying to apply Scripture or the gospel to something practical such as their life, an event or their thought process. It’s used as if looking through a gospel lens is “too much” for the scenario at hand. Usually, when someone says that something is over-spiritualized, they mean that someone is “making everything about God when it doesn’t need to be.”

However, for a believer, everything does connect back to God. Colossians 3:17 says this:

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Everything in a believer’s life should absolutely flow from a biblical worldview and the Lord should receive the first fruits of our praise for our various seasons!

You typically cannot over-spiritualize as a Christian

 There was a moment, a few years ago, where I was talking to a dear sister in Christ and I made the comment “I don’t mean to over spiritualize, but…”. She stopped me and asked, “Are we even able to do that when all in our life belongs to Christ?” I remember dwelling on that later in the evening and feeling convicted that I was inadvertently diminishing the testimony in which God had provided; I was softening the work in which He had done.

The Christian life is spiritual! Paul says that we are to “walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), so when I am applying the gospel, or recounting the mighty works of the Lord, that isn’t extra spiritual, but rather Christian faithfulness. What some may call “over-spiritualizing”, is just taking God at His word that all of life belongs to Him (Psalm 24:1). For the believer, we do not over-spiritualize when we view our vocations, marriage, homemaking or even suffering through a gospel lens, because that’s the lens in which we are called to look through.

In being charitable, I will say I am sure there are some who do not say it as a dismissal, but a warning of the danger in misusing the Word of God. It could be someone gently reminding the other person that we cannot force meanings into Scripture that aren’t there, although, personally, I haven’t heard someone use that phrase in defense of Scripture.

Just one example would be if a sister in Christ came up to me and said “Charlene! We bought a house, because after reading Isiah 54:2, we realized we needed a bigger place to live! The Lord had His hand on this blessing!”. However, that verse was God’s promise to Israel about her coming restoration and not permission for the modern-day Christian to go and buy a bigger house! So, yes, in that instance, she would be over spiritualizing something that was not appropriate. If she had come to me and told me that she had been asking the Lord for wisdom in buying a home, stewarding His resources well and thanking Him for the home, that would not “over-spiritualization”.

Honor the Lord in all that you say

As Christian women, it is important to remember that Christ is the source of all we do, and we should praise Him. The next time you recount all that the Lord has done, or is doing, be mindful of if you are inadvertently lowering your praise! Nothing in our lives is too small, too ordinary, to be shaped by His Word and proclaimed to all. In fact, the real danger isn’t that we will “over spiritualize”, but that we will under-spiritualize; that we will live as though God’s truth only applies to our life on Sunday instead of every day of the week. To see, and extol, all of life through the lens of the gospel is not excess; it is faithfulness.