1 Peter 2:11-12 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;… That word "war" is full of meaning. It gives the idea of the march of an army against a city, as of the Greeks to surround and capture Troy — an assault which began with open war and ended by the stratagem of the wooden horse, from which the armed warriors descended into the heart of the city at dead of night. Of course we should all admit that excessive indulgence in any appetite injures the body, and especially the organs through which the sin against the whole fabric has been committed. But we may not all realise how destructive these fleshly lusts are to the inner life. They attack and conquer it, and lead it into captivity, impairing its energies, sullying its purity, lowering its tone, and cutting off the locks of moral strength. Remember, then, when tempted to yield to some unholy prompting, even though you only indulge the thought and wish, you are exposing yourself to a certain diminution of spiritual force, which will inevitably cripple your endeavours, and show itself in failure and defeat. No act of sensual indulgence is possible without inevitable injury to our true selves. It may be forgiven, and put away, through the forgiveness of God, by the blood of Jesus; but the soul can never be quite what it would have been had the temptation been overcome, and the grace of self-restraint exercised. How many there are around us, eminently fitted by their gifts, to lead the hosts of God, who, like Samson, grind in the prison house, making pastime for their foes, because they have been mastered by appetites which they should have controlled, as the horseman his fiery steed. Is there not a deep spiritual truth in the notion of the savage warrior, that the strength of a fallen foe enters the arm which has smitten him to the dust? Indulge the flesh, and you are weak, Curb it by self-restraint, and you are strong. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; |
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