Due to its lack of a true relationship with God and of a realistic hope
for the future, the world has devised countless forms of seeking instant
pleasure. Those forms of pleasure which seek to please the sin-prone side of
our personalities should be shunned by those who are trying to develop a
spiritual mind. “... the sinful nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature” (Gal. 5:17 NIV).
Because of this fundamental opposition, it is impossible to reason that we
can legitimately give way to our sinful nature and also claim to be
following the Spirit. The world is structured around “the cravings of sinful
man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” (1 Jn.
2:16 NIV). “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes
himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Spending our time, thinking and money
on sinful things of the flesh, watching worldly movies etc. is being “a
friend of the world”. The desires of the world will soon pass away, and
those who have sided with the world in this life will pass away with it (1
Jn. 2:15-17). “The world (i.e. society) of the ungodly” will be destroyed by
the second coming (2 Pet. 2:5), seeing that “the whole world is under the
control of the evil one” (1 Jn. 5:19 NIV). If we are to avoid that
destruction, we must be “not of the world” (Jn. 17:16 cf. Rev. 18:4).
Many of the world’s ways of getting temporary pleasure involve doing so at
the cost of bodily health: hard drug taking and excessive drinking are
examples of this. Our physical health, our money, indeed all that we have
really belongs to God. We are therefore not free to use these things just as
we wish, but must act as stewards of what God has given us. We will be asked
to give an account of our management of them at the judgment seat (Lk.
19:12-26). Habits such as drug abuse and alcoholic bingeing are an abuse of
both our finances and health. “Do you not know that you are the temple of
God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple
of God, God will destroy him ... your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you ... you are not your own ...you were bought at a price;
therefore glorify God in your body ...” (1 Cor. 3:16,17; 6:19,20). Abuse of
the body is therefore a serious matter.
However, it is recognised that if
habits like these were formed before conversion, it may not be possible to
break them in a moment. What is expected is a recognition of the badness of
the habit, and a realistic effort being made to stop it. The stresses of
life should increasingly be met by recourse to the Word of God and prayer,
rather than to any human form of relaxant.
Underlying all these examples
is the fundamental question whether we are allowing our minds to be changed
by the influence of Christ working through God’s Word. If so, we shall see
that all these things, together with dishonesty of any kind, are
incompatible with a Christ-like life.
“You, however, did not come to know
Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to
your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and
to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak
truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members one of one body. ‘In
your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still
angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must
steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands,
that he may have something to share with those in need.” (Ephesians 4:20-28
NIV)