Daily Bread - Oct 31 2006

1 Peter 2:11 - "Beloved I exhort you as strangers and sojourners stay away from the lust of the flesh which war against the soul."

The lust of the flesh wars against the soul of the redeemed - it does not rule it. To believe that the lust of the flesh rules the soul is to be defeated before the battle begins. The lust of the flesh, which is the realm of the spirit of disobedience, wars against the soul of the redeemed to subvert and ultimately overthrow the faith of God's people (Ephesians 2:2-3). Satan and demon spirits lost their right to control and rule the appetites of the redeemed child of God. Yet they seek to regain control by tempting the sons and daughters of God even as they did Adam and Eve in the beginning (Genesis 3:1-6).

The noted scholars Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, explain this war as follows: "As Samson in the lap of Delilah, the believer, the moment that he gives way to fleshly lusts, has the locks of his strength shorn and ceases to maintain that spiritual separation from the world and the flesh of which the Nazarite vow was the type."

The believer must not allow himself to be lured into any form of subjugation to those things which we have been completely delivered from.

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org