Jesus told his disciples to "watch and pray," as he taught them to see spiritually and to maintain an openness to the voice and will of God. The realm of God is reality, and God is Spirit; therefore, spiritual reality should be the focus of our attention and our watchfulness, yet the external forms of the worldly realm hold captive the minds and hearts of man to such an extent that perceptual priorities are so distorted that what is spiritual is diminished while things of the world occupy a grossly exaggerated sense of importance. I call this phenonmenon the "Constantinian Effect" (which is not to say that for Christians, this actually originated with Constantine, but merely to acknowledge that the shift of focus from the spiritual to the external, worldly form was implicitly approved and immeasurably supported by the influence and generosity of the emperor, Constantine). Thus, although Jesus had brought completion and fulfillment to worldly forms in his heralding in of the spiritual realities, many in the "church" reverted back to worldly forms as they ignored or minimized the role of the Spirit and the spiritual realm ushered in by Christ.
The Constantinian Effect refers to the influence of imperial Rome through the Emperor Constantine's promotion of worldly forms to a prominence that inherently displaced their spiritual realities. These worldly forms more specifically include church buildings as temples, the precepts of man as Christian doctrines, and religious office or titles as Christian authority.
The fulfillment of Christ had brought an end to the temple in its worldly form, an end finalized with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and with the acknowledgement of the spiritual temple which is within. With the true temple, Jesus brought true worship, for to worship is to enter the presence of God and through the fulfillment of Christ, God now tabernacles with man...within the true holy of holies - within us. Constantine's generous funding of "church" buildings and offices promoted a distorted fixation on the external worldly forms of the institutional church, diverting focus and attention from the internal and spiritual realms of the true temple.
The Nicea Council supported by Constantine elevated to prominence the precepts and beliefs of man as Christian doctrines, usurping the role of the Spirit to teach us and lead us to all truth. Similarly, the "church" had increasingly organized itself in imitation of the hierarchical authority of the empire, ignoring the admonition of Christ not to exercise authority or yearn for hierarchical titles.
What was experienced was a subtle yet effective and constant erosion of our spiritual existence, and the reversion to (and substitution of) external, worldly forms. In essence, a denial or repudiation of the fulfillment works of Christ. This is the threat presented by the institutional church, even today. Christ brought completion to the worldly realm; he brought the end of the worldly age as he ushered in the spiritual age and the realm of eternal reality. This was accomplished at the cross and with the resurrection and ascension, then emphatically accentuated in the seige of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. The world was judged and the worldly realm was completed as Christ opened unto us the spiritual realm, the Promised Land.
We must realize and embrace the spirituality Christ brought us. I recall the words of Christ to Mary Magdalene following his resurrection when he said to her, "Do not cling to me..." Mary had apparently longed to cling to her worldly remembrance of Christ, a Christ who had not yet ascended to the Father in attainment of the fullness of His Spiritual being; it is to the ascended Christ that we must cling, for this is the realm of our true eternal existence.
It is doers of God's will who are welcomed into the eternal kingdom of God. One is unable to do God's will by the labor of human effort, but by the Spirit. Therefore, our embrace and attentiveness to the Spirit is the critical dimension of our true existence, not our preoccupation with the external, worldly forms. We must not refuse to enter and possess the Promised Land by lingering in attachments to the external forms of the worldly realm...we must enter the realm of the Spirit.