"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires."
I have always loved the phrase, "make no provision for the flesh". It brings to my mind the idea of gaining the
higher ground in a battle, keeping your enemy at a disadvantage. Another example would be mice. If you
don't want an infestation, you don't keep your food out uncovered, and you keep your house clean. If you fail
to do those kinds of things in your spiritual life, the "mice" will move in and start claiming more and more
space, and you will lose ground fast. That is the way the devil works. He gets you to start making tiny
compromises, things that seem of little consequence, but it always escalates. One thing leads to another, and
before you know it, you've done things that you would have never imagined doing before.
I have deliberately focused on the latter part of this verse in order to now say that we cannot accomplish this
unless we first "put on the Lord Jesus Christ". We must trust in Christ for our strength, for we are weak, and our
flesh is bent toward sin. We must go to Christ in prayer, confessing our sins and embracing Him as savior. We
must meditate on His word with fear and trembling, and we must keep this in the forefront of our minds every
day:
don't want an infestation, you don't keep your food out uncovered, and you keep your house clean. If you fail
to do those kinds of things in your spiritual life, the "mice" will move in and start claiming more and more
space, and you will lose ground fast. That is the way the devil works. He gets you to start making tiny
compromises, things that seem of little consequence, but it always escalates. One thing leads to another, and
before you know it, you've done things that you would have never imagined doing before.
I have deliberately focused on the latter part of this verse in order to now say that we cannot accomplish this
unless we first "put on the Lord Jesus Christ". We must trust in Christ for our strength, for we are weak, and our
flesh is bent toward sin. We must go to Christ in prayer, confessing our sins and embracing Him as savior. We
must meditate on His word with fear and trembling, and we must keep this in the forefront of our minds every
day:
"Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know
how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles
who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter,
because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards
not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you." - 1 Thess. 4:1-8
FYI, starting next week, I will be moving my weekly expository post to Monday. Why, you ask? Sundays are
usually pretty demanding anyway, but especially so when we record, and I think I'll be able to post more
promptly if I wait 'till Monday. I know, it doesn't make an aliteration, but it rhymes with Sunday, so there
ya go.
Here is our latest song:
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