Throw Fists, Make War

“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Galatians 5:17

This verse sums up one immensely important truth. The Christian life is not a meteoric rise. It is not smooth sailing with Jesus. It is not about arriving at a moment in this life where sin is no longer a battle. This verse tells me that every day will be a battleground. Not necessarily with demons or other people, but with myself.

Are you a believer? Are you breathing? If you answered yes to both, then you have a flesh problem that arises every day. Now, before I go on, let me tell you a couple of things that I’m not saying.

• I’m not saying we can’t experience long-lasting or lifelong victories over particular sins.
• I’m not saying we won’t have occasional seasons of relative peace and calm.

The funny thing is, as I write this, I’m thinking over all of my personal failures to wage war. I can’t help it. I resonate with what the Apostle Paul wrote:

“21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” Romans 7:21

Did you catch that? Paul found it to be a law that every desire to do right is accompanied by an evil desire to do something wicked. That law is what I’m talking about. Let’s look closely at this. Paul wasn’t saying that every desire to do right is accompanied by a desire to do the opposite. It’s not necessarily some binary choice, on or off, left or right. At times, it might be, but most of the time, it’s more sinister, more cloaked than that.

Suppose you are at the gas pump, and you overhear the person at the neighboring pump fretting to themselves about how they’ll afford rent if they fill up their car. You feel the Holy Spirit nudge your heart to help. Of course, you can do the opposite and not help, disobeying the Spirit in that moment. I mean, after all, you have your own financial stresses, right? But that’s not the more sinister desire. Let’s say you obey the Spirit and buy a tank of gas for this person. They are grateful and tearfully thank you. There are multiple dangers lurking at hand in the aftermath of that obedience.

• You can pat yourself on the back and tell others about this act of kindness to get their kudos.
• You can go to the other extreme and think so lowly of yourself to deflect any thanks or gratitude and rob others of their blessing in thanking you.
• You can wrongly expect that the LORD will now owe you some extra favor for your obedience.

I hope it’s clear. There are many ways to lose a battle against the flesh, even if you did the right thing. The flesh can take good deeds and ruin them with all sorts of poor motives and beliefs. The deed itself isn’t ruined, but instead of building up the new self, the old self receives the nourishment.

The war is constant. Put to death the deeds of the flesh.

“12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:12-13

John Piper famously preached that he saw far more murmuring and complaining about sin than warfare against sin. It was so good that someone made this video and called it a “sermon jam,” and I watch it every now and then for a good reminder.

Why am I bringing this up? Mostly to preach to myself. Along with the Gospel, every day I need to remind myself to make war. Kill sin before it kills me. But, along with Piper, I, too, recognize that there’s much more trash-talking sin than killing sin happening around me. Maybe this is an overused trope, but the guy in the movie who doesn’t engage in verbal conflict but goes straight to fists is typically one not to be trifled with. Often, I’m afraid that you and I aren’t that guy with our sins. We spend more time trash-talking than throwing fists.

My reminder to myself and encouragement to you today is simple. Throw fists. Make war. Kill sin. Put to death the deeds of the flesh. Don’t let your enemy say a single word to you, lest his silver tongue deceive you.