Peter Exhorts the Persecuted Believers Volume 22

 We Believers are to Abstain from Fleshly Lust

1 Peter 2:11-12 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. KJV Note: NKJV=New King James Version

The Apostle Peter reminded those early Jewish converts to Christ back then as he (with these same words) reminds all of we converts to Christ today and of every era and generation that since we are now the people of God's own possession that we have a responsibility to show Him our love and gratitude so he exhorts us to mortify our flesh with these words, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;" (1 Peter 2:11) (KJV). The grace which we have been given comes to us without any merit or in other words without any of us deserving it at all, but this same grace also comes to us with the power or dunimus of our Father in Heaven equipping, energizing, and empowering us to excercise restraint and to refrain from those fleshly appetites that were common ways for us to behave before we were made the people of God (1 Peter 2:10). When the Apostle Peter here (in verse 11) calls us strangers and pilgrims, he is reminding us that we still live in our tent/house/body which is not our permanent home, for it is corruption now and will eventually go back to the dust of the earth from which it was made, but will become incorruption when we are resurrected by our God and Father as the Apostle Paul writes to the Corithian believers with these words, "So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) (NKJV). Since, we are still alive on the earth 🌎 as strangers and pilgrims we must be vigilant while still in our natural body to yield to God the Holy Spirit and the powerful grace that we receive from our Lord Jesus Christ sitting now on His Throne of Grace ready always to dispense as much as we need to do as the Apostle Paul declared with these words to the Roman believers and to the Colossian believers, "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:13) (NKJV) and these words, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:5) (NKJV). This is not and cannot ever be done by us in our strength or power (for we have none, if we did we never would have needed our Lord Jesus Christ), but by the power of grace from the Throne of Grace our lives can and will be free of these fleshly appetites that kept us from Christ and that continuously wage war against our souls, that is, our minds or mindset. We must contend against carnal inclinations by the grace of God and fight as a spiritual soldier in the supernatural power of grace just as a human soldier of war fights in the natural with human weapons. Here is what John Wesley said of 1 Peter 2:11, "Here begins the exhortation drawn from the second motive. Sojourners: pilgrims - The first word properly means, those who are in a strange house; the second, those who are in a strange country. You sojourn in the body; you are pilgrims in this world. Abstain from desires of anything in this house, or in this country."

Next the Apostle Peter tells us that his exhortation and imploring of us to abstain from these many fleshly lust that war against us is not only for our spiritual well being, but it is also that we may walk among all those who still are spiritually dead in this newness of life completely contrary to the way we lived before the day of our salvation, as he declares with these words, "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Peter 2:12) (KJV). Since, God having saved us, that is, snatching us out of the clutches of the evil one 1⃣ as the Apostle Paul declared He has done with these words to the Colossians we should walk or live worthy of our high calling 'in Christ', "For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:9-14) (NKJV). When we live under control of our 'old man', by not putting him off and putting on the new man 👨 (Ephesians 4:22-24), we do this as Paul declared with these words written to the believers in Rome, "For 'the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles/unbelievers because of you,' as it is written." (Romans 2:24) (NKJV). As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ we must repent of our sins and design, desire, and determine to walk or live out our daily lives to please Christ because we love Him and not begrudgingly as if it is only our duty, remember what Paul the Apostle wrote to the Galatians, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1) (NKJV) and also these words, "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." (Galatians 5:16-18) (NKJV). Here is what John Wesley said of 1 Peter 2:12, "Honest - Not barely unblamable, but virtuous in every respect. But our language sinks under the force, beauty, and copiousness of the original expressions. That they by your good works which they shall behold - See with their own eyes. May glorify God - By owning His grace in you, and following your example. In the day of visitation - The time when He shall give them fresh offers of His mercy."

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…