Christians know that they shall not pursue physical pleasure by learning scriptures in the Bible. They know that they will become enemies of God and cause their souls be fall into eternal destruction otherwise. But many of them actually seek the pleasure in the world and say that they believe in Jesus. Those people cause my heart be frustrated.
If you are children of God, you shall never pursue the earthly pleasure. You was saved by the work of the blood of Jesus on the cross, welcomed the Holy Spirit in your heart and deeply loved the Lord. You shall realize that you are stepping out from spiritual life as much you are distracted to the world.
If so, who can rescue you from the physical desire that makes you chase after the world and move away from the spiritual joy? You can’t overcome the physical desire by your own strength, for you are just humans. The Holy Spirit that God sent can turn you away from the bodily want.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. (Galatians 5:16-17)
Those who live by the Spiritual get isolated and be disrespected just because believing in Jesus. This shows that they are truly sacred and be segregated from the world. If you are like them, you shall not feel lonely but be grateful that the Lord who loves you dwells in you as the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul was respected by the people in the world as a promising young man. But He has considered whatever he gained rubbish because he believed that knowing Christ Jesus is much greater than any other knowledge. He said “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”(Galatians5:24) Then, he kept trying to live by the Spirit even crucifying his physical desire. We should drive out the bodily desires by the Spirit so that the world can’t allure us to turn away from the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #867
