Sometimes writing this blog is really frustrating. There are so many times I want to write but nothing good comes out, so the whole thing gets scrapped. Most of the time I wait for the Holy Spirit to move within me.
Well this is one of those times. I am reading through 1 Peter right now and I came across a verse and the wording hit me just right today. Let me give you a little bit of background first on how I got to this point. Currently I am taking Biblical Hermeneutics at LBC, that is the study of studying the Bible (there is a right and wrong way to do it believe it or not). In my studies we are learning that when we study the scriptures on our own it is a good idea to have several SCHOLARLY translations. Normally I use the ESV as my study bible, I really like the language. It's close to the original translations without losing the grammatical structure that would make it hard to understand. But I have also brought back my Amplified Bible, which is a literal word for word (and expansion on some words) translation and can, at times, be difficult to understand because the grammatical structure is different .
Anyway, I am reading 1 Peter in the Amp Bible and I cam across this verse that hit me and made me think. 1 Peter 2:11, "Beloved, I implore you as so-journers, strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges-the evil desires, the passions of the flesh [YOUR LOWER NATURE]- that wage war against your soul." emphasis mine
Now with the AMP Bible it sometimes will expound on certain words to make them more clear. I love how this verse expounds on the word flesh as "your lower nature."
In his book "Sex God" Rob Bell makes a very interesting point that most people, including Christians do not think about. He says that angles are spirit being, in other words, beings of the Spiritual world. Animals however are bodies without spirits, so they are merely of the physical world.
So where does that leave us as humans?
Are we merely physical bodies or are merely spiritual beings or.....are we both?
C.S. Lewis once said of humans, "You don't have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body." We, being created in God's image have the best of both worlds. We have physical bodies that live on the physical earth and we are souls, spiritual being who live with Jesus.
These words of Peter carry a little more weight to them now don't they? The two aspects of a human (flesh and soul) are constantly at war with each other. One is pulling toward God and the other is pulling away from God. This is the point that Bell makes in his book. We can choose to be like animals, totally subject to our physical bodies and the passions that drive it, which leads to destruction and death. Or we can choose to be like angels, totally subject to our spirit, which leads to an upright life in the most extreme sense. Some may label you a prude in this scenario.
Or, we can live as God created us....human....right in the middle. We have these passions of the flesh (animal) but when we do life right and keep things like that in check (spirit) we begin to live as God designed us to live. Evil desires, passions of the flesh are not from God, they are a result of sin. However aspects of our physical bodies (emotions, ability of love and sorrow) God did give us, so to go to one extreme or the other (animal or angel) is denying the other part of how God designed and created us.
Let me give you an example. In a physical relationship, our flesh would tell us to just do what feels good and satisfy the desire we have right now. Live on instinct, have relations with anything and everything and everyone. Our spirit would tells us quite the opposite.
But as a human, in the middle, we can do things right (the way God created us for). We have these desires but if we hold off the desires until the appropriate time (marriage) we can express them in a safe and ultimately satisfying situation.
So it is important to remember that we are split into the "lower nature" and "upper nature" and that they are at war with each other. This really can effect every aspect of our lives. When you get super angry about something, which is a physical emotion, you can be an animal and respond by punching a locker or another human being. Or you can take that physical emotion and apply your soul to it. Perhaps you are not angry for a physical emotion reason. Perhaps your anger is a deeper passion. You can use it for good, to make something in this world better. Let your physical emtion drive you to do a good work and make the world a better place.
Or maybe you are totally convicted by something. No matter what anyone says you believe this...let that beliefe reflect in your physical, bodily behavior so that others may catch your fire.
Keep in mind that it is a war, so you flesh will draw you away from God with these evil desires and fleshly passions. Peter says that we are so-journers, exiles, we don't belong here on earth. We are a soul with a body, we belong in heaven, we belong to God.
So let us as exiles and God's people do life right. Verse 12 says "Conduct yourself properly,".
Do life right!!
may our LORD be with you
Josh
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