3 Keys to Experience Victory Over Temptation

1 Peter 2:11 continues with the command to “…abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” The word “war”, in the Greek language, implies an ongoing engagement, not a single battle. The fleshly lusts will maintain an ongoing war inside of your mind, emotions and will that no one can see. It is invisible, but significant.
 
We come to church and smile at one another. Someone asks, "How's it going?" We say, “Great!” or “Fine!” or “Better than I deserve!” - but no one really knows the invisible war that's going on in our lives where we are battling the flesh that is in us and the world that is around us. This battle is described in 1 John 2:15-17.
 
1 John 2:15–17 (NKJV)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
 
Christians experience this invisible war because we know there are certain lifestyles and behaviors we are to avoid, but we also have appetites which God gave us to satisfy.  Peter is specifically saying to abstain from sexual immorality, but God gave us the appetite for sexual intimacy. This appetite is designed by God to be satisfied in the confines of a marriage between a husband and a wife (see Genesis 2:24 and Hebrews 13:4).
 
Sadly, people today often choose to satisfy that appetite in ways that God did not intend - fornication (sex before marriage), adultery (sex with anyone other than your marriage partner), homosexuality, addiction to pornography, etc. The inner war moves beyond that person to include guilt from past addictions, difficulty with forgiving oneself over past relationships, divorce, and broken homes. Peter speaks of the inner war as the result of indulging the flesh, but we know the end result impacts others as well.
 
This can be applied to other areas as well. God gave us the appetite to eat and drink, but we should abstain from overindulgence or an unhealthy diet. God gave us the appetite to achieve, but we should abstain from becoming a workaholic. God gave us the appetite for rest, but we should abstain from laziness. Peter says, “For your own good, abstain. If you don’t, you will experience an ongoing war in your very soul.”
 
Wayne Grudem writes, “Such a command implies that inward desires are not uncontrollable but can be consciously nurtured or restrained—a needed rebuke to our modern society which takes feelings as a morally neutral ‘given’ and disparages any who would say that some feelings and desires are wrong.”[1]
 
God's Word says some feelings and desires are wrong and don’t need to be acted upon. Our world argues, "No way, if I feel it, it must be right. If I want to do it, then I should be allowed to do it." God's Word says abstain from “fleshly lusts”, and God never tells us to do something that He does not also give us the power to accomplish. God says abstain so He has given you the power to say “no” to that temptation.
 
Galatians 5:16-25 contrasts the Spirit-filled life and the flesh-filled life.
 
Galatians 5:16–25 (NKJV)
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
 
The Christian who wants to live in victory over the sins of the flesh should remember Galatians 5:16, which reads, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The “not” is emphatic in the Greek, meaning, “You will not ever fulfill the lust of the flesh.” It is a powerful promise from God’s Word. Do the things you ought to do, and you will not do the things you ought not to do. Spend your time focusing on the Spirit-filled life. Fill your life with what would please God. We sing a wonderful song entitled, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” which includes these lines:
 
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace
 
Those fleshly temptations will begin to lose their appeal when you are in love with Jesus, filling your life with that which God has provided for you to enjoy. Jesus wants to meet our needs. He wants to satisfy those appetites, but in a way that is healthy and life-giving. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” It doesn’t mean that you won’t be tempted to sin. You will still have to say “no” to temptations. However, instead of always saying “no” to the wrong things, we should focus primarily on saying “yes” to the right things! Our minds should be consumed with the positive rather than the negative.
 
The battle of the flesh and the spirit can be imagined as a fight between two dogs. The dog that will win is the one that is fed, because they are stronger. As a Christian, if you feed the flesh, the lower nature, the base instincts that dominate this world, you will do battle in your soul. You feed your spirit as you read the Bible, pray, live in community with the people of God in a local church, serve God and others with your gifts, share your faith with others, and enjoy those things that God commends in His Word. If God says “yes” to it, enjoy it! If God says “no” to it, abstain from it.
 
Another way to gain victory over the “fleshly lusts” is to see the end result of giving in. Lust leads to sin, and sin leads to death. 
 
James 1:13–15 (NKJV)
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
 
When I was a Youth Pastor, I encouraged the teenagers to “look for the hook” – that is, look past the bait. Every enticement of the world has a “hook”. Jesus said the devil comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), and he will try to accomplish this by enticing you to sin. You may think, “Pastor, that’s a lesson for the teenagers,” but it still applies to all of us.
 
David was not a teenager when he fell into sin with Bathsheba. Noah was not a teenager when he got drunk and naked after being delivered from the world-wide flood. Abraham was married when he went into Egypt and lied about his wife Sarah to the Pharaoh. The truth is, enticements to sin come to adults just as they do to teenagers.
 
When advertisements come to sinful behaviors and lifestyles, they never show you the end result of that addiction. Look at alcohol advertisements. They show you young, thin, happy adults having a good time. They never show you the addiction, the wasted money, the broken homes, or the regret from decisions made under the influence of alcohol. Advertisers show you the worm, which is the bait to lure you. They never show you the hook. Look for the hook.
 
I'm not a fisherman, I've only fished a couple of times, but I remember one in particular where we had a competition to see who could catch the most fish in an hour. We'd also give an award to the person who caught the biggest fish and another award to the person who caught the smallest fish.
 
Well, I didn't know how to fish very well. So someone graciously helped me by providing me with a reel, attaching the hook, and putting a little worm on the line.  I put it in the water and sat there for 45 minutes. While others were catching fish left and right, I saw no bites whatsoever. A few times I thought I might have caught something, but when I pulled it up, it was just seaweed. I threw it back in the water and waited again.
 
Finally, with only 10 minutes left in the competition and still no catch, someone tactfully came up to me and asked to see my hook. When I pulled it up, it was covered in seaweed. He wiped off the old stuff, put two large worms on the hook in such a way that made it look like four worms, and said, "Now throw that in." Two minutes later, I caught something! I even took home one of the awards - the smallest fish award. I was very proud of that award. The truth is, I was trying to entice these fish with a hook and no bait. No fish is enticed with a hook.
 
Satan is smarter than that. He will not entice you with poverty, addiction, divorce, estrangement from family, or anything else he wants you to experience. He will entice you with fornication, adultery, alcohol, recreational drugs, pornography, and a whole host of other “baits”. You have to be smart enough to “look for the hook” and avoid it. Realize this warning is for our good! God is protecting us from heartache and disappointment. He loves us and wants to give us abundant life! Say “yes” to God’s best. Abstain from fleshly lusts!
 
Another way to gain victory over the fleshly lusts is to take drastic action against sin. Jesus says in Matthew 5:30, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” Jesus is not saying to physically dismember yourself. He’s metaphorically saying take drastic steps to avoid sin. Establish guardrails that will keep you from giving into fleshly lusts.
 
The world may never understand the guardrails that we establish that protect us and keep our integrity intact. Even if they don’t understand, we are remaining faithful to God and serve as good examples before others. “The Billy Graham Rule” refers to a decision that Billy Graham made early in his ministry to never meet, travel or dine alone with another woman other than his wife. Graham knew that he was away from his family a lot, and he wanted to maintain his faithfulness to Ruth and his integrity before others.
 
This rule came to the forefront of American politics when it was revealed that Mike Pence, a conservative Christian politician, kept the same rule. Many did not understand the rationale. One writer explained the reaction of many who did not understand Pence’s practice, “How sexist! screamed half of the internet…. Conservative Christians who attempted to stand up for Pence were quickly shouted down.”[2] Leah MarieAnn Klett interviewed Pence and wrote about this for The Christian Post. She wrote,
 
Reflecting on the polarizing reactions to his adherence to the rule, Pence stressed that maintaining professional boundaries has not hindered opportunities for women in his team, instead fostering a respectful work environment.
“It was remarkable that we were being criticized for putting a premium on respecting our marriage and avoiding the appearance of impropriety and also creating conditions in the workplace that were respectful of the men and women that worked with us,” Pence said.[3]
 
Pence and Graham, along with many, many others who live by this rule are simply prioritizing their marriages and staying faithful to their spouses. This may sound drastic, but the goal is to set up guardrails and avoid the conditions that would make it easy to sin. These are a few principles, though there are others, that can help us to live out the command in 1 Peter 2:11 to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”
 
“Dear Lord, thank You for warning me away from temptations that will draw me away from Your best for my life. I want to abstain from the fleshly lusts. I want to experience Your victory. Help me walk in the Spirit. Help me look for the hook. Help me establish guardrails. I pray that I will be the man (or, woman) of integrity and purity You have called me to be. In Jesus’ name, amen.”


[1] Wayne Grudem, 1 Peter, Tyndale NT Commentaries, vol. 17 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 122.
[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/mike-pence-and-the-sexism-of-the-billy-graham-rule/521328/, accessed 9/2/2024.

[3] https://www.christianpost.com/books/mike-pence-on-the-billy-graham-rule-and-whats-next.html, accessed 9/2/2024.