The Right fight

John Owen wrote that he knew of no other scripture that best defined the Christian than   Gal. 5:17.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  ESV

This is so contrary to our experience today.  We are called victors, more than conquerors.  We are told we are free men and women.  We are told we are priests and princes.  And in all this we are so apt to forget that we are, while we remain here, soldiers, warriors engaged in an incredibly intimate and personal battle - with ourselves - our desires.

Today we are more often than not enjoined to battle that which is without allowing the flesh not only to hold the ground it has but to advance however small the gains.  Pogo was quite right, "We have met the enemy and they is us!"

Paul writes at length of the hardships he faced in his ministry.  We too, as we serve the Master will face hindrances, distractions and bold opposition.  But this is not our fight.  Our fight is within.

Rom 7:15-21

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

ESV

Here dearest brother and sister is our battlefield.  We cannot fight well anywhere else until we fight here.  To ignore this fight through intent is to raise questions concerning our actual state.  To ignore this fight through inattention brought by external distractions is to be deceived and weakened.

We have three forces seeking to destroy our faithfulness.  The world, the flesh and the devil.  But we are not to engage all three in combat.  Rather we are to refuse the world ( be not conformed), resist the devil and fight the flesh.  To engage in a war on two fronts is foolishness. To do so on three is insanity.

Jam 4:1-2

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  ESV

Why is there such division within the Body of Christ?  Because there is a war within us in which we fail to engage the enemy.  Our passions - but not just any passion.  The word here is hedone a Greek word meaning - pleasure, typically but not exclusively sensual.

How on the mark!  In a world obsessed with looking young, dressing young, being accepted, having all the right toys and of curse having a good self-image - "feeling good" - regardless the area or cause is the be all and end all of worldly efforts.  We want to "feel good" and so we invest precious time and effort (life) into those things we are convinced will make us "feel  good."

Let us consider the god of a good self-image.  I ask you plainly, "Who determines whether your image is good or not?"  Have you actually sat down with pen in hand and written down what is required for you to have a good self-image?  Or, have you simply accepted what friends, family, culture and TV has said you need? 

Is your image - your self- image- determined by your dress size, your job, your car, you house?  Does a "bad hair day" make a powerful difference?  Does acceptance or rejection by a certain groups have an impact?  Why?  Is it not your flesh that yearns for all this, good hair, acceptance, etc.?

What do you wish for?  What is it that if you possessed it would make everything good?  What are you, "If only?"  If only this......if only that.......if only this other.... then all would be well.  And, on those occasions when an "if only" has materialized did it make everything OK?  Did that "if only" actually produce what you expected or did it simply lead to another "if only?"

This is the war in which we are engaged.  It is a war of definition.  What defines you?  What gives your life meaning and value"  Is it the things of this world or is it the grace of God that makes you his?  Oh how hard we must fight to hold the center, to raise the truth above all the claims and expectations of the world as they assault the flesh!

Brothers and sisters we, individually and collectively must fight the flesh. The world, right now, has its prince the devil.  We have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He is ours and by His grace we are His - what value do we place on that?  Would we, do we, like Paul count all things as dung compared to knowing Christ and being His?  Ah, yes, it's a hard fight but a worthy one.

But we find it easier and more convenient to fight those battles that are not ours than to fight the one we are called to.  It is much easier to picket an abortion clinic, attend a political rally, even home school instead of fighting the battle within. We are not called or commissioned to redeem of change the world but rather to be unmistakably His in it.  To be salt and light not pepper and fire. 

It is a simple thought that belief follows behavior.  Can what you believe be discerned by how you behave?  Do your priorities reflect your faith?  Do your yearnings, your passions demonstrate whose you are? 

That is not "a" point, it is THE point.

We are not called to let our anger show, to demonstrate our disgust or to seek to regulate the lives of the unredeemed.  We are called to let our light shine and that light is Christ.  It is He who is the light, it merely shines in and through us - or does it?

Feeding the hungry pleases our Lord and yet if you will but read Deut. 15 you will see that hunger is a permanent condition in this world.  Yet it is easier to scramble eggs at a shelter than to dig deeply into our hearts to grow in righteousness.  Clothing the naked is a good work but, do we do it with our cast offs and leavings, those articles that are out of fashion, which show too much wear for us to be seen in them?  Do we seek justice for its own sake or justice for our particular concerns?

Christian-doing is a lot easier and more pleasant that Christian-being.  I may hide the log in my eye with designer sun glasses but it is still there.  If frightens me when I am distracter from the battle, when I catch myself watching or experiencing something that serves not Him but the flesh.  I once had the flu – vary bad flu and I couldn’t seem to shake it.  My doctor and I were very frustrated.  Finally I went to see him and he said, “Shave!”  I said, “Huh?”  He told me to shave my mustache.  I did.  Within a few days I was much better.

We need to starve the flesh.  We need to keep from it that which it craves – even demands.  To give it the merest morsel is to give it renewed hope.  Even to keep it barely alive keeps it alive.  We like the Spirit must oppose the flesh!

No – don’t become some kind of belly-button watching mystical self depriver of anything fun or pleasant.  Don’t go live in a cave or on top of a pole.  We are to be “in” the world – just not of it.

Rather, consider what brings you pleasure and ask it would bring pleasure to Him.  Consider what makes you feel good about you and ask if it would make Him feel good about you.  Consider what it is you really feel you need and ask if He would agree.

Reflect upon your activities, conversations, leisure, hobbies, and enjoyments and ask, “Are they really as neutral as I think they are?”  “Do they hold the appropriate place in my life?”  “Do they bring honor and glory to Him as well as pleasure to me?”  “Do they result in both gratitude to Him and comfort to me?”

Gal. 5:17.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  ESV

I guess the killer question in this is “What are the things you want to do?”  Notice – and I’m no great exegete but at least in English there seems to be some hint at a double whammy here.

The Spirit keeps me from doing what I want to do that I shouldn’t want to do.

The Flesh keeps me from doing what I want to do that I should want to do.

Should want.                                     Shouldn’t want.

Have you made YOUR list?

Of course you’ve got to start with a list of “Do wants.”

Ahhhhh, there’s the trick part.

I want to see the movie, The Inglorious Bxxxxxxs.  I love shoot ‘em up movies and especially when it’s Nazi’s who are getting shot up.  The movie has been out for a while but I’ve never been able to bring myself to get it and watch it.  Why?

Here’s something I just learned.

Just to numb my brain I started reading some “action” novels.  Nothing too gross or nasty just “kind of” good guys and bad guys going at it.  After about the third one I started having nightmares.  Real, real bad nightmares.  They were violent and frightening and all that stuff.  Now I’m a fifty something ex-cop, a revolver master and a black belt – nightmares???????

Yep.

Then it hit me.  What I’d been reading (and I hadn’t read that type book in ages) was having a not so hot influence on me.  Incredible?  Well, dropped those books and started reading good stuff only – John Newton, John Owen, Richard Baxter, John Frame, ect.  I also started to re-read Dumas’ works on the Musketeers (classic).  Guess what.  No more nightmares.

OK, we all know I’m nutz so part of this experience is, well, me.  But I am convinced that those nightmares, at least in part if not in whole, were the Spirit dropping a not so subtle hint.  Now, where I wanted to read those thrillers I want to NOT read them although I want to read them.

There, in its simplicity is the battle.  Nothing against Jerry Seinfeld, but a steady diet of the judgmental, self-absorbed, snide, cutting and cynical offerings found on his show cannot be an aid to godliness.  And it is certainly NOT without its influence.  Think about it, is it really funny?  Should it be funny to us?  Mmmmmmmmmm………

Enough for now – maybe more later.  Please consider the fundamental battle in which we are and will be engaged!  I want to be active in that battle.  I don’t want to be distracted by fights that aren’t mine.  “I have met my enemy and he are me.”