（腓立比書 Philippians 3:17-21）
聖經常常用地上的事、世界的事，或情慾的事，來分別天上的事和屬靈的事。什麼是地上的事呢？地上的事跟天上的事應如何分別呢？
有人以為凡是屬於權力、名利、娛樂等東西就是屬世的。相反地，凡是教會的事，或傳福音佈道等，都是屬靈的事。其實這種劃分法不一定對的，也太簡化了實際的生活。固然在教會事奉神，做教會的事，或傳福音，或栽培信徒等，都是跟屬靈的事有關的，但也不能就確定這些事是屬靈的。尋求權力、追逐名利，或享受娛樂等，看來都是很世俗的，但也不一定跟屬靈的事全不相關。
其實，屬靈或屬世，不是事情本身，乃是做事的人的態度，和做事的目的。有人以做生意的才幹作為神賜給他的恩賜，以他的生意和其中的利潤來服事神。也有人為了天國的事工爭取一些權力，使工作能更有果效。另一方面，卻有人在教會中爭權奪利，以事奉佈道來滿足自己的名利慾。
那麼，是否屬地或屬天，應如何劃分呢？凡是為神做的，不是為了自己的，都是屬靈的。這是一種態度，不是所做的事的本身。這就是保羅前面說的，「活著就是基督」的意思。我們活著所做的任何事情，都是為了基督的，都是為了別人的得救或靈命成長的，不管我們是做生意賺錢，去教書或做研究，或與朋友消閒娛樂，都是屬靈的事，天上的事。
我們可以說，是屬靈的人把地上的事轉變成天上的事。保羅要求我們不要專注自己和自己的需要，要把頭抬起，把眼睛望向神，去做神喜歡的事，可以榮耀祂的事。
經文默想
請把這主日的經文重讀一遍，並檢查自己的生活是否太專注於地上的事呢？你如何才能把專注於地上的心態，轉成專注於天上的呢？
Earthly things, worldliness, or fleshly wishes are concepts that the Bible usually uses to separate from heavenly things or spiritual concerns. We may ask what exactly do those terms mean. What are the differences we can tell from these terms?
Some one may think that things that involve power, fame, money and pleasure are secular. On the other hand, whatever the church does is spiritual, especially if things are related to missions and evangelism. As a matter of fact, this division is not totally correct, and may oversimplify the case. Even though serving God in His church and doing ministry or sharing Jesus and training disciples are spiritual endeavors, they may not be spiritual to people with the wrong attitude. However, if we seek power, make money and participate in some entertainments for the Lord and His kingdom, they will not be as secular as they look.
In fact, things in themselves are neither secular nor spiritual; it is the attitude of Christians to make them one or the other. Some one uses his business skill as gift from the Lord to serve Him in business. Others use their power to make ministry effective. On the other hand, however, there are people that fight for power and privilege in the church, and use ministry as a way to gain their fame.
How should we distinguish spiritual from worldly? We should say that whatever people do for God and not for self is spiritual. It is a matter of attitude. It was what Paul had mentioned previously; the attitude of “to live is Christ.” It does not matter if we do business, or teach, or study, or even have fun with friends, they are all spiritual if we do it for the Lord and to lead people to Christ.
We believe that only spiritual people make things spiritual. Paul urged us to look upward not downward, to please and glorify God with things that we do. We should not focus so much on ourselves or our needs.
Meditation on the Scripture:
Please reread this Bible passage and reexamine our lives to see if we focus too much on the earthly things. How should we change our attention from the below to the above?
