Peter continues, he says, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who go after the flesh in its corrupt lust and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they blaspheme glorious ones, 11 whereas angels who are greater in strength and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.” (2 Peter 2:9-11).

He’s describing the false teachers. They are driven by their fleshly desire. They’re walking according to the flesh. This is alluding to what we read in 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” Don’t love the world, don’t love the things in the world. What is in the world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The lust of the flesh is simply bodily desire. It is the wants of our fallen flesh. Now some of those wants are good, aren’t they? It’s a desire when you are hungry. That is a fleshly desire, you’re hungry. And if you don’t eat, there will be negative consequences eventually. If you don’t eat, you’re going to have problems. There are other desires that we have, emotions, things that we feel. The desire itself may not be necessarily a wrong desire. Lust always seems to come with a negative connotation because of the way we use the term. But it simply means a desire of the body, and God built certain desires into the body so that we would survive. So that we would get hungry and eat, so that we would get thirsty and drink. There are desires that are natural, that are built into us, that on their own are not sinful desires.

But James tells us, where does the sin come from? “hen when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully matured, it brings forth death.” When we seek to fulfill that desire in an ungodly, unscriptural way, when we take it too far, or when the motive becomes skewed. When it becomes all about self -fulfillment. When it’s not just meeting a need, but when it is an addiction. Or something that consumes us. Or something that we run into and becomes an idol in our life.

So these bodily desires aren’t necessarily bad. But if left unchecked and if we absolutely just follow whatever our bodies want. That’s the flesh. The flesh has desires. Do we act on those desires? Do we give into those desires?

Then there is the lust of the eyes. This is covetousness, to see something and want it for myself, something that’s not mine, something that I shouldn’t have, something that belongs to somebody else, and to decide that I want it, and then to use ungodly, unbiblical, sinful means to get it.

And there is the pride of life. This is self-righteousness and a sense of entitlement. It refers to the defense of our reputation and glory. This is the foundation of the self -esteem movement, the pride of life. We want to make sure that we feel good about ourself and everything in our life. There are some things in our lives we should not feel good about. And when the Holy Spirit has built in that mechanism through our conscience, creating guilt, that should drive us to the cross.

But this is what it is to walk according to the flesh. This is where Satan tripped Adam and Eve up in the garden, isn’t it? This is exactly where he got them when he tempted Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis 3:6, “Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate.” When she saw that the tree was good for food, there’s the lust of the flesh. “Wow, that fruit looks yummy. I think that would be good for food.” That’s the lust of the flesh.

And that it was pleasant to the eyes. “Ooh, I want that. That looks good. That’s pretty.” And a tree desirable to make one wise. There’s the pride of life. Now what we have to understand when we look at the fall and we see what happened and we see that Eve was tempted and deceived, Adam was right there with her, heard it, didn’t do anything about it, and when she ate, then he ate. “Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

What we have to understand here is God just revealed to us every piece of bait that the devil can use against us. That is all of the devil’s tackle box. That’s all he can use to lure the flesh away. The lust of the flesh, the less of the eyes, and the pride of life. Don’t ever underestimate that because what he’s appealing to is what we want. And that’s James 1:14-15.The problem is not “The devil made me do it,” the problem is I desire it because I’m depraved, because I’m sinful, because I’m wicked. When the flesh then desires it and gets what it wants, sin is born.

Romans 8:5-11, Paul talking about the battle between the flesh and the spirit, he says, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is at enmity toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Have you heard somebody talk about the carnal Christian? Or somebody who’s in the flesh? Do we have a choice in the matter? Are we going to walk in the spirit, or are we going to walk in the flesh? People sin, and say horrible things, do horrible things, and the way that they would confess that, excuse that, was to say, “Oh, I was just in the flesh.” If you’re alive and breathing, you’re in the flesh. This is it. But what do you mean, “Don’t be a carnal Christian?”

When Paul uses the term carnal in Romans and in Corinthians, understand, he does not refer to Christians as being carnal. In fact, he says you’re not. You’ve been born of the Spirit. Christ dwells in you. You are spiritual. You’re walking in the Spirit. Set your mind on things above. Now, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, he does say, “And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?”

Interestingly, Paul never refers to a Christian as being in the flesh, but he speaks about the flesh “that remains in us.” That’s the battle that we’re fighting – the spirit is fighting against the flesh the flesh that remains until glorification until finally even our physical body is fully redeemed. So how do we fight the lust of the flesh? I mean if there’s a special level of judgment here for those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness this is describing the false teachers, but we all know we struggle with these things, then how do we control bodily desire? How do we fight the lust of the flesh? The first tactic for fighting the lust of the flesh always in the scripture is to flee to turn and run the other way.

If you know that’s lust, you know that’s desire, turn and go the other way. What is that describing? Repentance. Turn, reject it. Don’t go that way. Don’t do it. Romans 13:14 says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

We all know, let’s admit it, we know ourselves well enough that when we are fighting the flesh, we know how long we can fight and when we’re bound to give in, don’t we? We know how long we’re willing to fight until we finally resign and give in. “Make no provision for the flesh.” Stand and fight. Continue to resist. Galatians 5:16-17, Paul says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you do not do the things that you want.”

Next time, part 3…