Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly
lusts which wage war against the soul.
1 Peter 2:11
Paradox is
defined as a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd
but in reality expresses a possible truth.
If you want to understand the Bible you must understand paradox. Some examples:
Do you want to be first?
Be last.
Do you want to be the greatest? Be least.
Do you want to find life? Lose the one you have.
Have you wondered why people in the church fight over the “conflicting”
ideas of election and free will? Because
evidence for both is in the Bible.
These are all examples of paradox. There is also paradox in the fact that we
cannot earn God’s favor or our salvation with our good behavior or service to
the Kingdom of God, but that as recipients of God’s grace we are expected to
behave in accordance with God’s commands and serve His Kingdom.
One of the major themes of Peter’s letter is the alien
status of believers (addressed in the previous post, found here). In this verse, which was just a sentence in
the original letter without a chapter and verse to identify it, Peter is
setting up an entire section on how we are to live in an environment hostile to the
faith. Here he reminds his readers that
since we are only here for a short time, we should abstain from temporary sinful pleasures in expectation of something much greater.
What are fleshly lusts? Read Galatians 5:19-21.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger,
disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things
like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
We know from the whole of Scripture that when Paul writes “those
who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” he does not
mean that if you do these things you will not be saved or if you do not do
any of these things you will be saved.
No, he is merely giving a list of the characteristics common to those
who do not believe in Jesus, whose hearts are not being transformed by the Holy
Spirit and conformed to the likeness of Christ.
There are many people who do not display any of these characteristics
who will still not see Heaven because they have never known Jesus.
Now contrast the above list with what Paul wrote in the next
three verses of Galatians 5:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is
no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires.
This does not mean that Christians never sin or will always
display the fruit of the Spirit. In
Romans 7 Paul detailed his ongoing battle between his old sin nature and new
Christ nature. The life of a believer
should, however, be characterized by movement away from sinful desires towards
the character of Christ, who was without sin; had compassion on the poor, the
sick, etc.; and ultimately sacrificed His life for the church in submission to
the will of the Father.
In the verse from 1 Peter, Peter urges believers to abstain
from fleshly lusts. He would not have
written those words if he assumed that no Christians would sin. He is reminding his readers that we are in a
battle. Followers of Christ are playing
a part in the ultimate battle between good and evil with nothing less than the
salvation of people’s eternal souls at stake.
In the midst of the battle we all face an internal battle with sin in
our own lives that affects our role in the larger battle.
I’ll examine both of those battles in upcoming posts, but
today I want to leave you with some questions:
Which of the two lists
above (the deeds of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit) is more
characteristic of your life?
Do you see a
progression in your life being less like the first list and more like the
second?
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