Fleshly Lusts War Against the Soul
Introduction. Whenever our nose begins to run or our throat gets a little scratchy, we begin to suspect we might be getting sick. We may start drinking more fluids or try getting more sleep. We recognize the body is fighting something and we want to give it all the tools we can. Most illnesses result from a battle going on within the body. When a dangerous pathogen (virus, bacteria, protozoa, parasite, or fungus) enters our body, its goal is to reproduce, using our body as its new home. Some are so dangerous if we do not kill them, they can kill us.
In the same manner that pathogens attack our body, fleshly lusts attack our eternal soul. This makes them like a parable to help us better understand the terrible dangers lusts create for us. Fleshly lusts compete with our eternal soul for life. They make war against our soul just like pathogens do when they enter the body. “Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul” (1Pet. 2:11).
In order to fight off and destroy fleshly lusts we must understand exactly what happens when a lust invades our mind. As we learn how germs enter the body, we design strategies like washing hands to minimize the danger. Learning how lusts enter our soul can give us the same advantages. The Holy Spirit breaks down our battle against lusts into distinct stages: “each one is tempted (1) when he is drawn away (2) by his own desires (lusts) (3) and enticed (4). 15 Then, when desire has conceived, (5) it gives birth to sin (6); and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (7).” (Jas. 1:14-15)
The first stage of the invasion occurs when there is a lust and an enticement. They enter our soul in two distinct ways and by varying their approach they seek to deceive us. Sometimes as is described above, the lust enters first and then seeks to find or create the enticement. When we feel the desire, and begin thinking about an enticement, the war has begun. Yet there are also times when the enticement comes first, creating the lust. David was not seeking an enticement as he walked to the roof of his house, but seeing Bathsheba bathing created a lust so powerful that before it finished its attack, this lust and enticement led him to the temptation of coveting his neighbor’s wife, committing adultery with her, and murdering her husband. This is how swift and terrible a lust joined with an enticement can attack and bring forth death.
Regardless of the order, once enticement and lust enter our heart, there is an interim period where it is ONLY temptation. Just like the runny nose, the first stirring of the feeling of temptation is our clear indication that the war has begun. Temptation is the moment where as the battle rages victory can still be won. Since Jesus was “tempted as we are yet without sin,” the time of temptation IS the war! (Heb. 4:15). Thus the struggle with temptation begins when a lust is seeking an enticement or an enticement is creating lust. If we are to win the battle, we must see the grave danger and mortal peril we are facing when that temptation enters our heart. Those lusts, whatever they are, seek life and impel us to give in to them and give them control. If we do not exercise self-control at that moment, lust and enticement creating the temptation will give birth to sin and the war is lost. The moment a sin is born and begins its life within our soul, immediate death is always the result. “For the wages of” a single “sin is death.” (Jas. 1:14-15; Rom. 6:23).
Knowing the battle begins with temptation, we can win decisively if we escape it. Fighting the battle on this level keeps us from sin and the death it always brings. This is exactly how the Holy Spirit revealed God can help us: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1Cor. 10:13). Temptation is “enticement” and “desire.” Before they come together there is no war and after they give birth to sin the battle is lost. We must “abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul.”
Paul described the moment of his first lust, enticement, temptation, and sin: “I was alive once apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” Thus Paul’s war centered on the commandment sin used to make war on his soul. He continued: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.” (Rom. 7:9-11). This is the final step in the war. When temptation “gives birth to sin,” “sin comes alive” and we die (are killed). Since the commandment is the crux of the battle, that is where our focus must be. God has identified these fleshly lusts and given commands against them: Rom. 1:24-32; 1Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 4:17-32; Col. 3:1-11. He has also strongly warned: “those who practice such things are worthy of death,” “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” “because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
When fleshly lusts stir and temptations are felt, we must arrange all our forces to win. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God.” (2Cor. 10:4). The word of God contains and reveals these weapons. Thus, finding our lusts in these lists will reveal the wars we are fighting. Each of us, like Paul, was alive apart from the law until the commandment came. By learning which commands we allowed sin to come alive through, we can forge our defensive weapons. When Paul warned Timothy to “Flee also youthful lusts,” (2Tim. 2:22), he wanted Timothy to assess the lusts that were created in his youth. Once identified, the next step is to learn everything God has said about them so we know our enemy.
It is in the midst of this knowledge that our own strategy to win begins. When we see them clearly, we can begin to gather the mighty weapons of our warfare. Jesus was the Master at fighting and removing temptation. While Jesus “was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan,” He endured every enticement Satan could devise and was victorious: “when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Mk. 1:13; Lk. 4:13). This is how “he was tempted in all points like we.” As we explore the three temptations Satan used, we see they were based on the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life (1Jn. 2:15-17). Jesus fought back and won these battles decisively by quoting Scripture.
Jesus chose to see all the lusts Satan used as God revealed them to be (truth) and not as Satan sought to reinvent them (lies). When we compare Jesus’ victory to Eve’s failure, we see this clearly. Eve allowed Satan to move her mind away from the command “don’t eat” and from the results: “you will surely die.” All Eve saw was “it was good for food,” “a delight to the eyes” and “desirable to make one wise.” She did not fight back with the weapon of God’s word and sin came alive and she died. Thus the battle can only be won decisively if we can quote scripture and keep our mind focused on what we are really doing and not on the illusion the flesh seeks to create.
The term “war” the Holy Spirit chose was “stratueo” from which we get our word “strategy”. The commander in all battles was called the “strategos” because he devised the strategies to win the battle. All lusts have a strategy to win. We have mighty weapons to develop a counter-strategy. When a lust begins its operations, we must find the “spiritual antibodies” to destroy them. As we are learning which Scriptures to use, we also learn what enticements are used and remove them. Jesus advised us to “cut off” the hand or foot necessary to seek the enticement or “pluck out” the eye that is searching for it. (Mt. 18:8-9). Jesus was not speaking literally, but He was giving us a powerful weapon. There are many lusts that cannot be fulfilled without the enticement. If we cut that out of our live, even if it is as important as a hand, eye or foot, we must cut it off to win.
Conclusion. Since the battle centers on two different perspectives, we can win by keeping the right one. We must see Satan as a deadly serpent or roaring lion using this lust to kill us, and then quote all the scriptures that prove it. The strategy of the flesh is to paint it as enticing, but our counter-strategy is to see it as a deadly poison with a beautiful wrapper. When we see the death instead of the pleasure of sin, the battle becomes much easier to win. Never forget: “Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul” (1Pet. 2:11)
In the same manner that pathogens attack our body, fleshly lusts attack our eternal soul. This makes them like a parable to help us better understand the terrible dangers lusts create for us. Fleshly lusts compete with our eternal soul for life. They make war against our soul just like pathogens do when they enter the body. “Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul” (1Pet. 2:11).
In order to fight off and destroy fleshly lusts we must understand exactly what happens when a lust invades our mind. As we learn how germs enter the body, we design strategies like washing hands to minimize the danger. Learning how lusts enter our soul can give us the same advantages. The Holy Spirit breaks down our battle against lusts into distinct stages: “each one is tempted (1) when he is drawn away (2) by his own desires (lusts) (3) and enticed (4). 15 Then, when desire has conceived, (5) it gives birth to sin (6); and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (7).” (Jas. 1:14-15)
The first stage of the invasion occurs when there is a lust and an enticement. They enter our soul in two distinct ways and by varying their approach they seek to deceive us. Sometimes as is described above, the lust enters first and then seeks to find or create the enticement. When we feel the desire, and begin thinking about an enticement, the war has begun. Yet there are also times when the enticement comes first, creating the lust. David was not seeking an enticement as he walked to the roof of his house, but seeing Bathsheba bathing created a lust so powerful that before it finished its attack, this lust and enticement led him to the temptation of coveting his neighbor’s wife, committing adultery with her, and murdering her husband. This is how swift and terrible a lust joined with an enticement can attack and bring forth death.
Regardless of the order, once enticement and lust enter our heart, there is an interim period where it is ONLY temptation. Just like the runny nose, the first stirring of the feeling of temptation is our clear indication that the war has begun. Temptation is the moment where as the battle rages victory can still be won. Since Jesus was “tempted as we are yet without sin,” the time of temptation IS the war! (Heb. 4:15). Thus the struggle with temptation begins when a lust is seeking an enticement or an enticement is creating lust. If we are to win the battle, we must see the grave danger and mortal peril we are facing when that temptation enters our heart. Those lusts, whatever they are, seek life and impel us to give in to them and give them control. If we do not exercise self-control at that moment, lust and enticement creating the temptation will give birth to sin and the war is lost. The moment a sin is born and begins its life within our soul, immediate death is always the result. “For the wages of” a single “sin is death.” (Jas. 1:14-15; Rom. 6:23).
Knowing the battle begins with temptation, we can win decisively if we escape it. Fighting the battle on this level keeps us from sin and the death it always brings. This is exactly how the Holy Spirit revealed God can help us: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1Cor. 10:13). Temptation is “enticement” and “desire.” Before they come together there is no war and after they give birth to sin the battle is lost. We must “abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul.”
Paul described the moment of his first lust, enticement, temptation, and sin: “I was alive once apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” Thus Paul’s war centered on the commandment sin used to make war on his soul. He continued: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.” (Rom. 7:9-11). This is the final step in the war. When temptation “gives birth to sin,” “sin comes alive” and we die (are killed). Since the commandment is the crux of the battle, that is where our focus must be. God has identified these fleshly lusts and given commands against them: Rom. 1:24-32; 1Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 4:17-32; Col. 3:1-11. He has also strongly warned: “those who practice such things are worthy of death,” “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” “because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
When fleshly lusts stir and temptations are felt, we must arrange all our forces to win. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God.” (2Cor. 10:4). The word of God contains and reveals these weapons. Thus, finding our lusts in these lists will reveal the wars we are fighting. Each of us, like Paul, was alive apart from the law until the commandment came. By learning which commands we allowed sin to come alive through, we can forge our defensive weapons. When Paul warned Timothy to “Flee also youthful lusts,” (2Tim. 2:22), he wanted Timothy to assess the lusts that were created in his youth. Once identified, the next step is to learn everything God has said about them so we know our enemy.
It is in the midst of this knowledge that our own strategy to win begins. When we see them clearly, we can begin to gather the mighty weapons of our warfare. Jesus was the Master at fighting and removing temptation. While Jesus “was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan,” He endured every enticement Satan could devise and was victorious: “when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Mk. 1:13; Lk. 4:13). This is how “he was tempted in all points like we.” As we explore the three temptations Satan used, we see they were based on the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life (1Jn. 2:15-17). Jesus fought back and won these battles decisively by quoting Scripture.
Jesus chose to see all the lusts Satan used as God revealed them to be (truth) and not as Satan sought to reinvent them (lies). When we compare Jesus’ victory to Eve’s failure, we see this clearly. Eve allowed Satan to move her mind away from the command “don’t eat” and from the results: “you will surely die.” All Eve saw was “it was good for food,” “a delight to the eyes” and “desirable to make one wise.” She did not fight back with the weapon of God’s word and sin came alive and she died. Thus the battle can only be won decisively if we can quote scripture and keep our mind focused on what we are really doing and not on the illusion the flesh seeks to create.
The term “war” the Holy Spirit chose was “stratueo” from which we get our word “strategy”. The commander in all battles was called the “strategos” because he devised the strategies to win the battle. All lusts have a strategy to win. We have mighty weapons to develop a counter-strategy. When a lust begins its operations, we must find the “spiritual antibodies” to destroy them. As we are learning which Scriptures to use, we also learn what enticements are used and remove them. Jesus advised us to “cut off” the hand or foot necessary to seek the enticement or “pluck out” the eye that is searching for it. (Mt. 18:8-9). Jesus was not speaking literally, but He was giving us a powerful weapon. There are many lusts that cannot be fulfilled without the enticement. If we cut that out of our live, even if it is as important as a hand, eye or foot, we must cut it off to win.
Conclusion. Since the battle centers on two different perspectives, we can win by keeping the right one. We must see Satan as a deadly serpent or roaring lion using this lust to kill us, and then quote all the scriptures that prove it. The strategy of the flesh is to paint it as enticing, but our counter-strategy is to see it as a deadly poison with a beautiful wrapper. When we see the death instead of the pleasure of sin, the battle becomes much easier to win. Never forget: “Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul” (1Pet. 2:11)