Sinful Desires

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul." 1 Peter 2:11

Abstaining is not a popular subject. Everybody wants to get some, have theirs, be free and not be prohibited. Prohibition is a bad idea, right? We are free. Free to choose, free to learn from our own mistakes, free to experiment. Come on now, just a little. A little never hurt anybody. Everybody does it. The rationalizing seems endless. We are inclined to trust ourselves with more than we can handle. Whether it is potato chips or video games, just one or just one more minute is our cry. But, it doesn't stop there. We have to say no to more things than we do. We may not like it, but it is true.

Peter sees it as a matter of urgency. He urges us to not give into the desires that come from this world. He knows we are strangers in a strange land and we are aliens on a planet that tempts us without ceasing. So what are we to do? Do we hide in a fortress or refuse to go out in public? Do we forbid all forms of entertainment? Do we boycott sports? Do we put ourselves on the shortest chain possible? Good questions Pastor Fred.

I love that Peter calls us friends in his letter. He knows of what he speaks my friends. If something, someone or somewhere puts you in any position of compromise, you should not get it started in the first place. Oh how many times in retrospect do we wish we would not have given in to the first temptation. The one that had us go somewhere we didn't need to be, with someone we shouldn't be with, to do something we should not do. I think we are more likely to cut ourselves enough slack to hang ourselves than we are to shorten our chain so much we feel totally immobilized. It is much easier to resist if you realize you are a stranger. Maybe we should not be so familiar with this world. After all, it is at war with us more often than we want to admit. Maybe if our inhibitions were raised a little the prohibitions would not seem so hard. Just a thought. Think about it before you act on it.

In Him,
Pastor Fred

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