Our bodies and our carnal minds are so ferocious and yet we try our utmost to excuse them. There is no real struggle is we choose to live a lukewarm Christian life, but when we look to put the body under the battle is intense. It is important that we understand how it operates and that it is a body of death and can never be anything else. If we believe it to be any different we will continue to walk in circles with our understanding clouded. Give the carnal mind any latitude and watch it do the most amazing acrobatics. It will be such a show stopper that we may even find ourselves applauding.
Do we realize what it took Paul to make this statement; “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1Corinthians 9:27): - I cannot make a similar statement when I reflect on my life. However now that which is passed is conceded, I want by the grace of God to rectify my mistakes and press towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. I do not want to make the same mistakes!
What then did Paul have to endure, was it not a constant battle of the sinful nature, of the flesh looking to oppose the law of God. On what grounds can I make such a catastrophic statement? We are all sold under sin, there is none righteous no not one! Sin caused death to reign in our mortal bodies. It is when we begin to believe that once we have been saved that we somehow hope we are now nice people and no longer subject to the enslavement of sin, which is true! However it is not the flesh that now gives us power to overcome but God’s Spirit.
I understand that I may be repeating myself, but it is crucial we understand the fundamentals when it comes to the warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. Only of late have I been reminded of the pain we must suffer in the flesh when looking to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit.
To be a near perfect example as Paul seemed to be it will cost us our lives in the flesh, it will be a life full of tears and sorrow and yet hope will overshadow it all. This is what Paul went through; “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2Corinthians 11:23-28)
If we are serious about our great God’s call upon our lives it will cost us, yet it will be worth it all, do not let the acrobatics of your flesh, “lust and pride” win the day but rather cleave to the promises of God for they are sure and true!
Let us not be surprised with how we so often as Christians have the wrong thoughts or react in the wrong way, it will continue to happen until the day we die, we carry with us this body of death. It is what we now do with the evil it looks to generate that counts; “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:22-25)
We must always look to be doing the right thing according to God’s law as it is a delightful set of ordinances. Yet we will always have our carnal natures resisting God’s law and looking for an easy out. We must now flee to the living waters to find substance in time of need, we must learn to approach the throne room of Grace constantly, and that is 24/7 if we are to walk obediently before our righteous Father. Never think it strange when an unwelcomed thought seems to appear out of the blue, it will and must happen as we carry with us this body of death.
We all have the opportunity to put this body with all its sinful tendencies under, but there is no other way to achieve this, but by suffering; we must arm our minds with this truth; “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1Peter 4:1-2)
It is often the misunderstanding of this warfare between the flesh and the spirit which leads to us often stumbling.
Signing off
Tyrone
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