Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 2:11

1Pe 2:11  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

In this verse, Peter begins to guide us in the living out of the proclamation of His excellencies.  It all starts with Him but we are next.

But be warned !!!!!  You can only do this as you - - well as you draw close to and depend upon Him.  I have to struggle to keep in mind that my need for Him is the complete opposite of His need for me.  Perhaps memorizing the following verse will benefit us all:

Joh 15:3-5  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.  (4)  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  (5)  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

God isn’t silly.  He does not expect us to go out and show Him what we can do.  He knows us much better than we do.  He knows what we don’t know – about us.  He has commissioned us to be His in this world, to proclaim His excellencies in a world that hates Him and His.

He does not send us on our own.  We may charge out without taking Him with us – but even as we crash and burn He is with us.  God does not need us to prove He made the right choice!

But, like a loving Father and a masterful tutor, He provides us with guidance in His Word and through His Spirit so we may be prepared for Him to work in and through us.  Here in verse 11 we have the start of our tutelage – our discipleship.

First, we must accept that here we are: sojourners and exiles.  We are aliens in a foreign land, separated (somewhat) from our King and country.  As such, we need to:

Abstain:  To hold back oneself from.

Friends, it is just NOT our party!  We’re here, but we are only passing through.  While we’re here we just can’t party with everyone else.  Even though everyone seems to be having a great time, we know better.  Read Daniel – wow – what an example of this truth!!!!!!!!

But, Peter gets specific when he refers to our lusts – fleshly (as opposed to spiritual) lusts.  Lust is a strong desire, a longing.  Lust can be directed by and towards something good (righteousness) or something bad (the flesh) – I can “lust” over God’s pleasure or my own selfish pleasure.  It isn’t the “lust” that’s the problem, it’s the what or who – the object of the lust!!!

We are to hold ourselves off from OUR fleshly lusts.  Come on guys, we all want to be liked, we all want to be popular, we all want to be considered a success – nothing wrong there until we step our of His sheep-pen and wander our own way.

God knows we have lusts (desires) but He wants us to trust Him for meeting those desires.  So, we need to look for His provision.  We are clearly told:

Psa 37:3-5  Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.  (4)  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  (5)  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.

Like Daniel and the gleesome threesome, we are exiles in a foreign land under a corrupt, unbelieving “system.”  But we must abstain, hold off from all the answers to our desires that this corrupt system offers us. 

We cannot forget that the prince of this age is the Serpent – and he’s no slouch.  Like the Inland Taipan snake which: “has the most toxic venom of any land snake in the world. The maximum yield recorded for one bite is 110mg, enough to kill about 100 humans,”  Satan’s bite is deadly.  Even the smallest amount is death.  It is nothing to play with!

But let us not forget that it is the passions/desires/lust of OUR flesh that we must hold back from.  Again, OUR flesh! (SEE Romans 7&8 PLEASE!!)

We need to examine what we seek and who we seek meet our needs and provide our pleasures .  We live in a world with a frightening number of offerings to meet our needs and pleasures.  So let me ask, What makes you feel secure? What makes you happy?  What makes you afraid?  What makes you laugh?

For me it had a great deal to do with what makes me laugh.  I discovered that what was making me laugh was not spiritually beneficial – and it soon became unfunny.  I also discovered what I feared and that taught me a lot about why I sought out certain things and struggled so in prayer and other duties to my Master.

I’ve found that the following verse helps me discern what to hold back from.  I pray this often.

Php 4:8  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.