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By Isaiah-Phillips Akintola

The Gift and Challenge of Subjective Spirituality

In today’s Christian context, we are confronted with a complex spiritual landscape shaped by a notable lack of biblical literacy. As believers from various backgrounds strive to comprehend and articulate their faith, an essential question arises: How can we honor personal spiritual experiences while staying grounded in the steadfast doctrinal truths of Scripture? In this article, I will explore a few key points to address this question. It is crucial to approach the issue of unity amidst diverse cultural identities with humility and wisdom during this season.

Think about it this way: personal spiritual experiences are like colors on an artist’s palette. Each culture, each individual believer, brings unique shades and hues to the canvas of faith. When a believer in rural China encounters Christ’s love through prayer, when an Ethiopian worshipper finds healing in community worship, or when a Nigerian Christian discovers God’s provision through trial, these experiences add depth and richness to our understanding of God’s character.

Scripture itself celebrates this kind of diversity. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Paul writes: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
Notice something important here: Paul acknowledges the “different kinds” while emphasizing the “same Spirit,” the “same Lord,” and the “same God.” This is the balance we’re looking for. Our personal expressions of faith can and should vary, but they must all flow from the same divine source.

This beautiful tapestry of faith expressions reflects God’s desire to dwell within our unique cultures and contexts. Christ, as King of all creation, seeks to redeem every corner of human experience (Colossians 1:15-20). When we allow our cultural identity to enhance rather than override our faith, we witness something remarkable: the richness of God’s kingdom manifested through human diversity.

The Growing Concern: When Subjectivity Becomes Subjective Truth
But here’s where things get concerning. We’re witnessing a troubling shift in modern Christianity. Many believers are beginning to elevate personal experience above biblical truth, essentially creating individualized versions of faith that bear little resemblance to what Jesus actually taught.

The apostle Paul ran into this exact problem in Galatia. His response was both loving and firm: “Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them” (Galatians 4:16-17).

Paul wasn’t trying to crush personal spiritual expression; he was fighting to preserve the gospel’s integrity. When he later warned, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:8), he was establishing something crucial: our subjective experiences must always be measured against objective biblical truth.

The Foundation That Cannot Be Moved
King David asked a penetrating question in Psalm 11:3: “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” This question resonates powerfully today as we watch core Christian principles being systematically questioned, reinterpreted, or abandoned.

But who exactly are “the righteous”? Scripture gives us a clear answer. In Romans 3:22, Paul explains that righteousness comes “through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” This righteousness isn’t based on our subjective feelings or cultural interpretations; it’s grounded in the objective work of Christ on the cross. The foundation of Christian faith rests on several non-negotiable truths:
The nature of Christ: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8)

The authority of Scripture: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16)
The gospel message: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

When these foundations remain solid, subjective spiritual experiences can flourish within proper boundaries. When they’re compromised, we drift into spiritual relativism where every personal interpretation becomes equally valid, and that’s a dangerous place to be.

The Dangerous Drift: “God Is Not a Christian”
Perhaps nothing illustrates this drift more clearly than the increasingly popular idea that “God is not a Christian.” This statement, while attempting to sound profound and inclusive, actually reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of both God’s nature and Christian identity.

Here’s the thing: Jesus Himself established what we now call Christianity. He gathered disciples, taught them specific truths, commissioned them to spread His message, and promised to build His church (Matthew 16:18). In Acts 11:26, we read that “the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch,” not as a human invention, but as a natural identification with their Master.

When people claim that God transcends Christianity, they usually mean well. They’re trying to emphasize God’s universal love and sovereignty. However, this reasoning inadvertently suggests that the specific revelation God gave through Christ and Scripture is somehow limiting or inadequate. It’s like saying Shakespeare transcends his own plays, missing the point that we know Shakespeare precisely through his works.

Biblical Spirituality: The Perfect Balance
True biblical spirituality embraces both subjective experience and objective truth in perfect harmony. Consider how Jesus Himself modeled this balance:
He honored personal experience: Jesus met individuals where they were. Take the woman at the well (John 4), Zacchaeus in the tree (Luke 19), or the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Each encounter was deeply personal and culturally specific.He anchored everything in objective truth: Yet Jesus consistently pointed people back to unchanging spiritual realities. “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) wasn’t a suggestion; it was an absolute statement about spiritual reality.

Paul demonstrated this same balance in his ministry. In 1 Corinthians 9:22, he wrote, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” This shows remarkable cultural sensitivity and personal adaptation. But he was equally firm about core truths: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Practical Steps for Balanced Spirituality
How can modern believers maintain this crucial balance? Here are several biblical principles:Peter warns that “ignorant and unstable people distort [Paul’s letters], as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). This isn’t about intellectual capacity; it’s about spiritual humility and the willingness to submit our understanding to God’s revealed truth

As followers of Christ, our primary calling isn’t to create comfortable, culturally acceptable versions of faith. Instead, we’re called to “be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

This means our subjective spiritual experiences should consistently drive us toward greater Christlikeness. When our personal spirituality aligns with the objective truth of Christ’s nature, His love, compassion, sacrifice, and teachings, we experience authentic transformation that draws others to Him.

The apostle John captures this beautifully: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Notice the balance: love is both a deeply personal experience (“let us love”) and an objective spiritual reality (“love comes from God”).

Moving Forward in Truth and Grace
The body of Christ is indeed experiencing significant upheaval in our generation. But rather than viewing this as purely negative, we can see it as an opportunity for purification and renewed commitment to biblical truth. Like Paul with the Galatians, we must speak truth with love—even when it’s uncomfortable. We must celebrate the beautiful diversity of Christian expression while firmly anchoring ourselves to the unchanging truths of Scripture.

Our goal isn’t to eliminate subjective spiritual experience but to ensure it remains rooted in objective biblical truth. When we achieve this balance, we discover that our personal spiritual journey becomes richer, not poorer. We find that submission to God’s revealed truth doesn’t limit our spiritual experience; it actually liberates us to experience God as He truly is, rather than as we might prefer Him to be.

In a world increasingly characterized by spiritual confusion and relativism, balanced biblical spirituality offers something rare and precious: the freedom to be authentically human while remaining anchored to eternal truth. This is the spirituality that transforms lives, builds authentic community, and truly reflects the heart of Christ to a watching world.

As we move forward, may we embrace both the subjective richness of personal spiritual experience and the objective security of biblical truth, finding in their union the path to authentic discipleship and spiritual maturity.

Test Every Experience Against Scripture
The Bereans provide our model: “They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Even apostolic teaching was measured against written revelation.

Proverbs 27:17 reminds us that “iron sharpens iron.” Our personal spiritual experiences benefit from the wisdom and perspective of mature believers who can help us distinguish between genuine spiritual insight and wishful thinking.

Prioritize Character Formation
Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:20). Any spiritual experience that doesn’t ultimately produce the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—should be questioned.