Our sinful flesh causes many problems, but we might only be aware of the obvious areas, the “lusts of the flesh,” (over-eating and sins of lust.) I had not realized how many aspects of our lives are actually ruled by our flesh, until I struggled with my temper while dealing with inanimate objects. God showed me I was feeding my flesh when I let myself get angry with them (computer won’t cooperate; heavy book falls on my toe, etc.) God showed me this temper was wrong, even when it was not directed at people. God was gently nudging me and showing me other areas where I was also feeding my flesh.
God has been gentle to only reveal one sin or weakness in my nature at a time. I would have been crushed by how many areas needed work. I am a sinner, and every week or so God stretches me and causes me to grow. He is patient and only reveals as much as I can stand to see and work on. He stays with me as he reveals my sin and reminds me he still loves me, even though I was doing the wrong thing in that area. God did this with my flesh when he showed me that I was sinning by saying angry things to my computer or the heavy object that fell on my foot. The reason this is a sin (for me) is because that anger fed my flesh. I sometimes snapped at others, later in the same day, because I had allowed an angry mood to enter my heart. I thought that since the inanimate objects could not hear my angry words, I had not sinned. But the anger festered when I did that. I was not turning to Jesus for his peace and guidance. Instead I was fussing, and even though I did not use foul language (maybe I said, “You dumb, idiot computer,”) the words did not edify my heart. Plus, I was not thanking God for my computer which normally works well (or whatever inanimate object was giving me trouble.)
I had memorized verses about giving thanks and not grumbling. But I did not realize my angry words, towards these objects, was causing me to deny my thanks to God. I have been amazed by the peace I have had since working on this silly sin. I am reaping joy by giving up this sin. Have I mastered this victory? No! I do still fall for this temptation. But now I recognize this is a sin (for me—I do not expect others to feel this way, as it is my personal conviction between me and God.) Now I catch myself and if I do call an object a name (like “dumb computer,”) I tell the Lord I am sorry, and I do not stay in the anger.
After realizing that was an area where my flesh tricked me, I wondered if other areas exist where my flesh also hides. I realized they do! In the past, I have mentioned my tendency towards fear or timidity. I never thought of fear or timidity as a sin of my flesh. But now I can ask myself, “Does this fear or timidity cause me to do good things or bad things?” If this weakness causes me to do bad things or holds me back from doing good things, could this be my flesh acting up? I suspect my flesh is hiding in this fear. I know that in my fear of people, I have rushed around letting others push me beyond my boundaries and take too much from me or even encourage me to commit sin (especially when I was younger—via peer pressure.) I am now recognizing how sneaky the flesh really is. This fear has been a tool of my sinful nature. Even though it is not obvious like the sins of over-eating (sins of the flesh or lust,) fear becomes a sin for me when I act upon it instead of acting by faith in God. Fear itself is not a sin, because we need to fear genuine dangers so we can take cover. I refer to the “fear” that causes me to act in ways contrary to God’s will. When I was younger and followed others into sin, the fear of offending others was a sin my flesh acted upon. I sinned when I feared situations so much that I ruminated, over and over instead of admitting I was scared and calling out to God. Fear is a feeling that is not a sin, but the fearful rumination has been a sin for me. This fear is a weird sin of my flesh, since it does not offer a seemingly-nice reward (that is actually bad) like tempting me to eat too many sugar-free chocolates. The “nice reward” of over eating (or for some it is illicit sex) seems nice, but it is still no true reward. But fear does not offer any enticing reward. So it was easy for me to mistake my reaction to my fear for something other than the flesh.
Yet I am now realizing my flesh hides in so many ways, beyond the desire to over-eat or express unrighteous anger. The flesh hides in my fear, because my sinful flesh pushes me to overly fear situations (or people.) My behavior lets fear rule me and causes me to hurt others. I once was so afraid of a man who had been sexually harassing women in an office where I worked, I nearly knocked down an elderly man as I rushed away from the creepy guy. I let my fear control me. Even though that was decades ago, I still remember how sad I felt when I realized I had scared the sweet, old man I nearly bumped over. I did not “gain” anything from indulging that sin (the fleshly fear) the way the sin nature claims we will gain something from others sins (like too many chocolates, or a seductive person for those who are tempted in that way.) Because I did not see the “reward” that sin offers when I indulged in fear, I did not realize I was indulging my flesh.
Now that I recognize the source of this fear, I can more easily fight my flesh that was hiding in these actions. I can differentiate it from the reasonable fear I would feel when I get bad news or experience any other situation that initially scares me. Those initially fearful feelings are not sins. It is how I handle my fear that may causes me to fall into a trap of my sinful flesh. If I ruminate over the fear or step outside of my trust in the Lord I have fallen for this trick of my flesh. I am learning that the flesh wants to protect itself in a way that is false or selfish. Maybe the flesh wants to protect its pride or convenient way of life. I may want to stay home when I should go out and help someone. I may let my fear feed my pride in thinking I have to “stay safe,” but really I am just avoiding doing something difficult.
There are so many ways my flesh acts up, and some of them are hidden, because their rewards (rewards that are truly bad—but they look like rewards) are not obvious. I have known my excess worry (where I ruminate on it and do not give it to God) is a sin. But I did not consider my flesh instigating that kind of worry. How like Satan to hide the source of some sins by making them look like something other than my sinful flesh. If I think my sins are generic, I might not realize how deeply seated they are. For the flesh is the first nature of every human. We are spiritually dead while we are alive in our sinful flesh. The flesh is our first nature until God quickens us with his Holy Spirit and makes us alive in Christ. Romans 8:5 warns us, “those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires, but those who live according to the Spirit have in mind what the Spirit desires.” We often recognize the blatantly obvious sins of the flesh, as described in Gals.5:19-21, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.” John expands on this list in 1John2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” John’s list includes anything that is prideful.
But how can fear be a sin of the flesh, when it is not listed in those other verses? This is how I missed fear’s relationship to my sinful flesh. Look at Ephesians 2:3b, “We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind.” Anything that feeds the sinful body and mind opposes the Lord and is of the flesh. Even fear can fall into this category when the fear is feeding the flesh. Sometimes the flesh wants to protect itself and does not submit to God’s will to trust him. At least this is what happened with me and my fear.
Another way I can learn to recognize an action as a bad fruit of my flesh is if I see the actions contradicting the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are listed in Gals.5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self control. Against these there is no law.” If my desire and the resulting action produce something that contradicts these fruits of the Spirit, I can suspect my flesh was behind those desires and actions.
After we became believers we had to battle our flesh, which still wants to reign in our hearts. We might miss the subtle battles and as a result, we might use the wrong strategy to fight them (like trying to be more cheerful or using human will power.) Paul gave us a strategy in Gals.5:24-25, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” So we have to realize when our flesh is acting up and not just assume this is a human weakness (like getting sleepy, which is a human weakness, but not a sin.) Trying harder, even when I might pray and say, “Jesus, help me try harder to over come my fear (or anger, or desire to over-eat, etc.)” is not working, because I would be asking Jesus to help ME try harder. I have to surrender my will, totally to the Spirit, and admit I cannot fight this battle on my own. At times I also may be very tired and need rest or even need to walk away from a situation that has upset me (so I don’t yell at the inanimate object—silly but I have been known to do that.)
I might have to tell the Lord, “Jesus, I cannot do this on my own. I might not even have the best strategy. Please show me how YOU want me to do this. How should I fight this battle?” Romans 13:14 says to “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires,” but I might have no idea how to do this. I may simply have to cry out for the Holy Spirit to guide me. We might even say, “Jesus answer the door to my heart, because my flesh and Satan are knocking, and I don’t know what to say or do.” I might have to hide my own sugar free chocolates if I am going through a phase where I am eating too many. Then when I want to eat just one or two, I can go to the cupboard where they are. But they are not on the table where I see them all the time and feel tempted to eat too many.
If my computer is not working well, I might need to do some other chore like washing the dishes. Just getting away for a little while often either gives the computer time to warm up and work better or it gives my mind time to cool off and I can figure out what is not working. Strong emotions, whether they are greed for too much food or anger about being held back by a slow computer can feed my sinful flesh. I don’t want to do that!
As for the fear, I may need to make plans. Is our income going to drop this year? I might look at our budget and consider ways I can spend less money. I might look at buying things in bulk, where they cost less or buying a different brand or making things instead of buying them ready-made. Or if I am worried about a busy day next week, I might plan to do that day’s chores the day before, so on the busy day I have less to do. Those are all small, practical ways to face my fears or tendencies to get grumpy, and these are only simple answers to the simpler problems. My first answer needs to be me calling out to Jesus. Then I need to do my own part in preparing for anything that might tempt me, whether it means I don’t want to over-eat, worry too much, get angry or express any other part of my sinful flesh. I am still amazed by how sneaky the sinful flesh is. It hides in what might seem like innocent, human weaknesses, but really it is a sin. I do not want to indulge in any kind of sin, and as I rely more and more on the Holy Spirit, he is alerting me to more ways that my sinful flesh was hiding in my actions and prompting me to sin. Has this ever happened to you? Please let me know, so I can pray for you too!
Thanks for joining us in this post. I hope we have encouraged you to know you are not alone as you battle your flesh. Jesus adores us and wants to help us starve that nasty sin-flesh and instead feed his spirit living in us. We can still be our unique self, but it will be the happy and peaceful version of us!