Reasons To Abstain From Fleshly Lusts

REASONS TO ABSTAIN FROM FLESHLY LUSTS

I PETER 2:11-12

READING THE TEXT

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

INTRODUCTION

We live in a day when the flesh is exalted and lust is honored. A person’s esteem and worth and image are often determined...

· by how much of the world he possesses

· by how much money he has

· by how much power he has

· by how much worldly recreation and pleasure he is able to enjoy

· by how famous he becomes

· by how many people he conquers in face to face confrontations or in bed sexually

The flesh is exalted and lust is honored. But this is not the way of God and His Word. Scripture is clear: abstain from fleshly lusts.

MAJOR POINTS OF THE TEXT

1. Reason 1: you are strangers and pilgrims on earth (v.11).

2. Reason 2: lust wars against your soul (v.11).

3. Reason 3: unbelievers are watching (v.12).

REASON NUMBER ONE

Reason number one to: abstain from fleshly lusts is because you are strangers and pilgrims on earth. The word "stranger" (paroikoi) means someone who dwells alongside or is exiled, but his home is elsewhere. It is the picture of a foreigner who is in a country for a while, long enough to rent or lease a house, but he is not a permanent resident. He has no legal rights or status. He is a stranger, an exile who dwells in a strange land. What Peter is saying is this: the believer is a stranger, a foreigner, an exile on earth. He is a resident, but he is not a citizen of this earth. He has no legal status in the world. He is not to follow the standards and the ways of the world. He belongs to God and to heaven; therefore, his legal status is in heaven. He is to follow the standards and the ways of God. The believer’s laws are the laws of God, the highest and most moral and just laws in all the universe. The believer has no right to live by the standard and laws of the world, for they are far lower than the standards and laws of God. The believer is to live as a stranger on earth, as one whose heart and mind are upon a far greater home and world. The believer’s heart is to be upon perfection of life and morality and justice, a home and world where perfection is the rule and standard.

This does not mean that the believer does not obey the legal laws of a land. He does; all foreigners are to obey the laws of a land when they visit that land. In fact, believers will go far beyond obeying human laws and do much more when they obey God’s laws. God’s laws and standards stress perfect behavior plus love, and there is no greater law than love. Therefore, the believer is to abstain from fleshly lusts because such lusts are of the world, and he has no right to partake of those fleshly lusts. He is to obey the laws of God which forbid such sins and immoralities.

SCRIPTURES TO PONDER

"For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" (Phil. 3:20-21).

"And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the lamb’s book of life" (Rev. 21:27).

"For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding" (1 Chron. 29:15).

The word "pilgrim" (parepidçmos) has more of a temporary idea than stranger (paroikoi). Pilgrim has the idea of a visitor or sojourner, of a foreigner who may be visiting and staying for a while but not long enough to lease a house.

The point is this: the believer is only passing through the earth on his way home to heaven. Heaven is his home, and his heart and mind are at home. He lives in a consciousness of home and his thoughts are upon home. He lives and walks in the consciousness of being in heaven with God. This is his attitude, his thoughts as he walks through his pilgrimage upon earth. He travels through life often moving from city to city, but his mind and heart are always upon heaven which is his permanent home.