S136P6 – Pervasive sin: a relentless pursuit
Rom. 7:18-23
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
When he moved there to pursue his studies, he did not expect that there would be an entire community trying to distract him from his work. It began with the daily requests from his new classmates and friends to live a little and have some fun instead of studying so much. He also had many neighbors in his apartment building who wanted to do anything but study, and daily they would ask him to join them. Even the city itself offered many events and opportunities to stray from his work and spend time goofing off. He was there for a specific purpose, and he had to fight against all these opposing forces every day. Either he could be faithful to his studies or allow those forces to take him in another direction.
The sinful flesh that remains inside us after our justification will be relentless in its pursuit of dragging us back to sin. We still have to live in this world, and we still have to carry this flesh, but that does not mean that we must give in to the temptations we encounter. It will be difficult, and the difficulties will surface many times every day, and we must remain aware of that. Sin’s only purpose is to take us back from life to death. It desires nothing good for us, and that desire is strong. We can experience times of great victory over temptation, but that does not mean that this flesh has stopped pursuing us. As long a we live in this world in these bodies with this imperfection, our flesh will try to move us toward evil.
There is a great danger in thinking that we have reached a point of complete victory over sin and temptation. Even if one has experienced a run of success in saying no to the temptations that have come along, those temptations never stop in this order of things. Our flesh might try to lull us into a false sense of security, but it always returns to pursue its evil goal. Its return does not mean that we have failed or have not reached a level we should. The daily temptations of the flesh are to be expected by the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Father, make us wise to watch for the tactics of the flesh and to follow your instruction for defeating our temptations.