Once on an outing while strolling around the place, from the small culvert I wished to move to the other side. I was drawn to see a duck in the silent waters. The duck seemed calm and cool on the surface of the water, but, inside the waters it was peddling to keep floating! My thoughts ran deep! Such is the struggle within. Outside we all look good and serene, try to put up a brimming outlook! The reality of life is not what one sees with naked eyes! … Whoever we might turn out to be whether big celebrity, or a poor person, each has its own struggles to survive, to perform, to make ends meet. We are actors performing different roles sometimes as hero/heroine, villain, side hero, comedians, CID, police, etc., wherever we are in whatever outfits. All of us are fighting our own inner battles, our own inner struggles! And we don’t always know the details of people’s inner struggles.
The only people who truly understand them are those who are fighting the battles themselves. The flesh is always at war as we are found struggling with our body, mind and soul and in particular with the things of the flesh.
St Paul’s struggle in Romans 7 was a struggle against the sin that dwells within the body. He said, “For sin, seizing the opportunity…deceived me…killed me…I am.. .sold under sin…It is no longer I that work it out, but sin that dwells in me” (vv. 11, 14, 17, 20). When we are still fleshly, we are usually overcome by the sin dwelling within, so that we have many battles and we commit sins.
The flesh has many outlets. On God’s side, we have seen how it is at enmity with God and how it cannot possibly please Him. Nevertheless, unless it is revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, neither the believer nor the sinner can know that the flesh is so worthless, so hateful, and so defiled in the eyes of God. It is only when God, by His Spirit, reveals the true condition of the flesh to man that man can deal with the flesh according to God’s view.
On man’s side, the manifestations of the flesh are known by all. If one is not self-justifying and does not fulfill “the lusts of our flesh” (Eph. 2:3), he will surely see how defiled the manifestations of the flesh are on man’s side.
In Galatians 5:19-21 the sins of the flesh are compiled in a list so that there is no possibility for anyone to misunderstand. “And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are such things as fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, and jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects, envying, and bouts of drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”
We take a long list of sins to confession or ask for grace to over-come our sins, but NEVER seek the cause for our sins. There’s a need that we find our “Basic – Root Sin” which is the cause for this list of sins. Let’s be aware of our “Root – Sin”, accept the weakest spot and this acceptance will begin the transformation and shut the door to temptation.
