WEDNESDAY September 6th
1 Peter 2:11-12
‘Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.’
There is one small word in these verses which reveal to us what is one of the central themes in this letter of Peter and it is the word ‘urge’. He is writing to them with a sense of urgency that they need to, must, as we refer back to chapter one live lives that are holy, lives that are worthy of the gospel.
He is urging them on the basis of what they have become and who they have become—again referring back a few verses ago—as the people of God to abstain from anything that is to do with the passions of the flesh, that is the old sinful nature. He calls it a war or a battle that is waging in the soul, an intensive struggle, a tug-of-war, the flesh tugging in one direction and the new made alive spirit tugging in the other direction. But which will tug the hardest? He urges us to tug with the spirit and not with the flesh. Abstain he says from anything to do with the passions of the flesh.
The reason being not just because God who is holy has called us to be holy, but also because we need to ensure that our conduct among unbelievers is honourable. They should be able to see that we do not use the same questionable language as them, we do not participate in the same questionable life-style as them, we live in such a way that they will see the difference and it will bring glory to God.
Going back to verse 3 we read ‘—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good’. Peter had drawn a comparison to those things we may have done in the past (see verse 1) and of the desire we should now have to grow up or mature as believers. He is saying if you have tasted of the Lord (that is of all that is to do with the new life in Christ) and have seen that it is good, why on earth would you think about or even consider going back to taste again of those things from which you have been saved.
The idea of tasting of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8 which says ‘Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!’ We will all have tasted things that we either didn’t like or we liked so much that we wanted more, and once we have tasted of the Lord it should be the desire of each one of us to want to taste of him even more, and to no longer desire to taste the things of the world.
If this is not the case in your experience, ask the Holy Spirit to touch your spiritual taste buds, ask him to bring a bitter taste to those things that are not spiritually healthy for you and to bring a sweet tase to those things that are.
Talking of taste, there is another reference in Hebrews 6 that gives warning to those who have tasted of the Lord and yet gone back to taste the things of the world, its verses 4-6 ‘For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.’