Flesh is the Bible’s word for unperfected human nature. Leaving off the h and spelling it in reverse we have the world self. Flesh is the self-life: it is what we are when we are left to our own devices.
~Billy Graham (1918- )
Oh beloved, that old flesh, that self that is inherent in us, because it is still with us even after being made new – will sometimes absolutely SCREAM for attention. And the culture in which we live does its very best to feed that flesh. Money, bodies, colors, sounds, smells, tastes and things to feel abound all about us.
This writer lives a fairly ascetic life. He works full-time as a teacher, but he doesn’t have a car. He doesn’t smoke or drink or chew or use. He does not watch TV, go to movies, listen to secular radio, read the newspaper, etc (read ‘puritan mystic’ here, and you are getting close… guilty as charged. Actually life is pretty fun under a lapis blue sky, looking through the eternal lens of a separated life). He spends many times a day in devotions and prayer. Yet, even with His online search modes set ‘strict’ and ‘safe’ images to feed his lusts can pour through his screen as he attempts to communicate with family and friends. Even walking down the hallway at work can be a distraction.
And when these distractions happen (and they will!), we reach an eternal inflection point. Every moment of temptation has eternal consequence. Everything matters.
So, yeah the question is obvious.
What do we do when that temptation slaps us in the face (and it will!)? Could i be so bold as to say that the answer is exceedingly simple. We will go in the direction we are looking.
It seems clear that to set our minds on the things of the Spirit is to set our eyes on Jesus. That is, to look towards Him alone so as to RECEIVE His Grace and guidance and joy and power and purpose and peace and clarity and patience and righteousness and and and and, oh my the list does go gloriously on and on. And in looking towards Him, we do indeed receive all of these things in measures overflowing any proportion to the need. When we walk in this direction in His Spirit, we simply will not be going about the business of fulfilling the lusts of our flesh. And to walk this way, in His presence, is a joyful affair that only spirals in one direction – heavenward. In this walk we take on the bearing of the priests and kings we actually are.
However, there is (as is always true in the Gospel) the opposite of looking towards Him. There is no sliding scale between the two. Bob Dylan had it right when he said we were gonna serve somebody. But, he may have missed the point when he said it might be the devil or it might be the L_RD. Might i be so bold as to suggest – for Christians – that the devil in this case is not the fallen accuser of the brethren. The devil here is the brother each of us are. The devil is us. And “I” is a wretched slave driver.
So, when those temptations come (and they will!), and we look inside ourselves for some way to resist the temptation, we will fail. For, in our flesh, nothing good dwells. The only thing in that place is desire that will not and cannot be fulfilled. And if it is ever fed, it only and ever grows. We KNOW this to be true – even though that same flesh screams that it will be quiet if we just give it a little taste…
Where we gonna go? Are we gonna receive His power, or are we gonna look to our own power when the temptation comes (and it will!)? Life and peace – or a death spiral. The choice really is ours. But, there is no in-between. Each time is a Life or death decision.
