Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and exiles, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1 Peter 2:11

War – What is your strategy against sin? Before you answer that question, consider this: the Greek word strateuomai is the basis of our English word “strategy”. It’s the word Peter uses to describe the war against us. So, let’s ask the question more insightfully: Are you using the same war-waging methods to overcome sin that sin is using to overcome you? Do you employ the same strateuomai that is being used against you? If you do, how foolish is that? How will you defeat yourself?

Overwhelming desires of the body wage war against you. The enemy within is crafty, powerful and well-informed about your defenses and weaknesses. You have spied on yourself. You are a traitor to yourself. So, if you think you can employ the same tactics and battle plan to rid yourself of that inner enemy, you are in for a big shock. The only human way out of that fight is suicide and even then the enemy wins. The enemy’s object is always the same: to destroy God’s image in you. Since most of us do not choose self-termination, we spend a lot of life either pretending we are not at war or throwing up our hands and giving in to the pressure.

But God has another way.

God wins through weakness.

If you want to fight a battle with the world’s strategy, you amass arms, fortify strongholds, gather provisions, plan tactics and prepare for attack. You’ll read the books, attend the seminars, go to therapy, subscribe to self-improvement newsletters. You might even join a support group. But if you want victory God’s way, you will lay down your arms, give up your strongholds, release your provisions and surrender. Why would you do these crazy things in the face of such a formidable foe? Because God knows you cannot fight yourself and win. You must surrender yourself as hopelessly defeated, not to the enemy, but to the Lord of life. When you fight, you guarantee defeat. But when you surrender to the sovereign Lord, you place yourself under His banner. There is only one tactic that brings victory in the battle against your own body: dying to yourself by casting all that you are on the mercy of God. Even that will take everything you’ve got left. Victory is nothing more than the moment-by-moment surrender of my fighting psychosis. Victory comes only when I give up to Him.

Fighting, I was defeated. Surrendering, He carried the battle for me.
Are you fighting today?

Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and exiles, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1 Peter 2:11

Lusts – The Greeks knew the underlying essence of lust. Lust is what makes you boil over. Lust is that force that grips you with its power and causes you to explode. Lust is passion unbridled. In fact, the Greek word itself shows us this background. Epi and thumos combine to mean “out of violent movement of the mind”. Lust is the volcanic reaction that occurs when your mind says, “I’ve got to have that now!” It isn’t accidental that the word thumos is also associated with wrath and anger. Lust drives us insane.

Every addict knows the power of epithumia. The addictive force that refuses to be denied, that will not be satiated, that has a mind of its own. That’s why addicts often refer to themselves as two people; one who is rational and under control and the other who is a slave to the addiction. Every addict also knows that there is no hope of gaining freedom by just deciding to change. An addict is at war with himself.

The tragedy is that all the rest of us, the ones who think we aren’t addicted, are just as hopeless under the skin. We might not be hooked on drugs or alcohol or sex, but we find other mood changers to numb our fears and escape reality. We eat. We shop. We gamble. We change partners. We move away. We get angry. Without God at the constantly-renewed center, epithumia will drag us into the hellholes of life and take great pleasure in doing so.

Peter points us toward the body lusts, but there are many others just as deadly. Power, money, status, fame, prestige and more. Wherever we seek anesthetizing moods, we are playing with lust. And lust kills. Lust is one of the most powerful weapons of the Prince of this world. It is prison disguised as pleasure.

The First Step in the 12 Steps is the most important. “We admitted we were powerless”. How frightening is that admission. But without it, life remains a see-saw between lust and guilt. Of all people, Christians should know this truth, for James tells us that lust is the instigator of sin (James 1:14). Christians know without any doubt that they are powerless, once held captive in the grip of lust, until a day of freedom arrived – a day when Jesus said, “Lay your burdens on me and I will give you rest.”

What boils inside you? What bloodies your soul? The battle is hopeless. To win you must defeat yourself. There is only one way to victory over such an enemy. Give up! Admit your defeat. And lay that inner horror at the feet of Jesus. He is the only one who can bind the strongman and set you free.

Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and exiles, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1 Peter 2:11

Fleshly – “I can’t get no satisfaction” cried the Rolling Stones nearly 40 years ago. Things haven’t changed much for creatures who listen to body talk. Peter knew the truth about the matter almost 2000 years before the Stones. Human agony just keeps on repeating itself.

Our word here is sarkikos. It is derived from sarx, the Greek word for “flesh”. It’s not the same word that the Greeks used for “body” (soma) but it is related in its appeal and appetites. So, we should probably understand this word along the lines of something subject to the transitory influences of satisfying yourself with pleasures. But there is a hidden tragedy in this pursuit. “I can’t get no satisfaction”. No matter how much we chase the life of bodily desires, it is never quite enough. The world simply is not designed to fill all of our needs. And the tragedy is this: the more we pursue, the less satisfaction we find, the more we think we must have more. Around and around it goes. Sarkikos behavior is addictive.

Did you notice something strange about this verse? Did you see that Peter implies that there are other kinds of lusts that are not associated with sarkikos? After all, if all lusts were simply “body talk”, then he would not have had to use the word sarkikos. He distinguishes the sarkikos lust from lust that is not sarkikos. When we see this distinction, then we can connect abstinence with bodily indulgence. Sarkikos finds its ultimate expression in the pursuit of bodily pleasures.

Wait! I know exactly what you’re thinking. It’s all about sex. Well, some of it is about sex, that is, the pursuit of sex for pleasure alone. But there is a lot more to body talk than just sexual pleasure. Sarkikos is a word that describes a life of “what makes you feel good”. So add fashion images, the preoccupation with style, the worship of sports, the adulation of movie idols. Add the pursuit of food and drink for pleasure, the quest for body performance above everything else, the desire to be the most desirable. It’s all body talk. How much of it are you letting into your life? American Idol, MTV, the Sports Network, Fashion Police and much, much more are all subtle seductions of sarkikos. Are you abstaining? Do you want to?

What’s waging war against your soul now?

Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and exiles, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1 Peter 2:11

Abstain – Sometimes you just can’t avoid grammar if you really want to understand the words. Of course, our society is not inclined to agree. We have devolved to functional literacy, a place where “I hope u ken reed dies” is considered good enough to pass. This will never do for Christians. Our beliefs require knowing the depth and preciseness of God’s word. We need to study to show ourselves approved. So today we have a little grammar lesson. Trust me, it will be worth it.

“Abstain” is the Greek word apechomai. It comes from a combination of the Greek verb echo (to have) and apo (from). The idea is to hold off from, like a ship held off from the shore. But the grammar adds something else, something important. This particular word is in the middle voice. English doesn’t have a middle voice. We have only the active voice (where I do something) and the passive voice (where something is done to me). But Greek has a place in between, a place where what I do is particularly and especially important and beneficial to me. I do it (active voice) but I do it for myself (middle voice). That’s what Peter is telling us here. Hold off lust, not because the rules tell you to but because it is in your best interest to do so. Keep yourself at a distance because it is important for your sake. Forget the rules. Do what’s good for you.

Of course, there are action implications in this word. First, you have to do something. You can’t rely on someone else to remove all of these damaging things from your life. In fact, you can’t even expect God to take care of this for you. You have to act! God won’t do what He knows you need to do. So cast away from the shore. Separate yourself from these sins. Don’t go near them.

Secondly, God doesn’t tell you to take this action just because He says so. He doesn’t send you a set of godly living rules to keep just because they are written in stone. God tells you to act, to push away from these things, because it’s in your best interest. Staying clear of sin isn’t punishment. It’s freedom. It’s the best thing for your life. The motivation to stay away is personal.

If you have been trying to live the godly life because someone gave you a rule book, you will fail. Rules aren’t motivating. But personal well-being is. Even better, when I make the choice to push away from the shore, I discover that God is right there with me, pulling up the anchor. He is ready to help as soon as I am ready to act. Why? Because He wants what’s best for me too.

If you’re struggling to overcome some inner battle with the pull of the world, you have to act. Cast yourself away. Don’t wait. Do it for yourself. And look for God to show up in the process.

Beloved, I exhort you as aliens and exiles, to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul 1 Peter 2:11

Aliens and Exiles – There is no doubt about what Peter had in mind. We just don’t seem to be listening.

In Greek, paroikos and parepidemos. Literally, “near the house” and “close to the people”. Both words carry the sense of temporary. They are descriptions of someone who does not belong, someone who is traveling through the land, someone who is a stranger to the customs, the language, the expectations. Both words give us a picture of someone who is outside the contemporary culture. They are among us, but not really part of us. They are in the population but not citizens. They are the strangers in a strange land.

You’ve heard this before, but have you ever asked why we are temporary strangers? It’s simple. We don’t have our hope fixed in this world. Our hope is rooted somewhere else.

Now I ask you: Are you a stranger in this land? Is your life detached from the influences, the goals, the expectations of this culture? Is your hope somewhere else. Or are you trying to find the answer here?

Jesus told us that salt without saltiness is worthless. A lamp under a basket is useless. And you can’t hide a city on a hill. If you aren’t different, what are you? If you don’t stand out as strange, are you just one more example of the world around you?

These two Greek words are penetrating. They are visible measures of my Christian commitment. They are mirrors for me to examine what I really look like. So hold them up and stare into the glass. What do you see?

Do you see a person who strives to fit in? Who buys the “image” pressure of the culture? Who works for gain? Do you see a person who talks like the culture, watches what the culture watches, mimics what the culture promotes in style, politics, education, values? Do you see someone who fits comfortably into the American version of religion, a place where personal success and affluence are equated with spirituality? Do you fight the same battles as the citizens of this world, wrestling with sex, power, money, prestige and accumulation? Is your life exhausting, joyless, without peace and deep satisfaction?

Or are you different? Not just better. Not just more moral. Are you really different? Do you march to a drum beat found only in heaven? Are your values determined by His word? Are your behaviors at odds with the pressure of the world?

We are called to be sojourners, temporary travelers through the land, calling into question the contemporary culture’s view of life by our very presence. Be like your father Abraham. Travel well.