The Flesh

I was sitting at the dinner table last night talking with my three-year old boy as my wife nursed our 3-month old baby girl. Our discussion was superficial and less-than-adolescent, even pre-pubescent, as we talked about garbage trucks, cars, ice cream, and the Wiggles.

I must have said something that set him off because he gave me a strong scowl and said, "No it's not, Daddy!", and preceded to stare me down with the look of unrighteous indignation flaming in his eyes. I held my composure and replied, "Aiden, that's a bad attitude. That's the flesh". He turned his head slightly to one side and said something that almost knocked me out of my chair: "I like the flesh, Daddy".

Isn't that just like you and I? Though we would never go as far or as honest to just come out and say, "I LIKE THE FLESH", we speak loudly through our constant yielding and submitting to our sin. The flesh, or 'sinful nature' was passed onto us like an unwanted hand-me-down piece of furniture from Adam. Romans 5 explains how this horrid armoire ever got into the family, and chapters 6 and 7 talk about the endless struggle to try and sell it away at garage sales and in want ads.

Most of us despise the flesh, the handed-down armoire, but still we leave things tucked away in its' drawers just to pull them out from time to time. Sometimes we actually identify with Aiden, and start to think it matches the other furniture in the house. We fall prey to our own evil hearts, and allow ourselves to become a spiritual cancer in our own lives.

Back in Romans, until we read chapter 8, we are left hopeless and haunted by this despicable heirloom, the flesh, with "it's desires and thoughts". Then we see that if we walk in the Spirit, the flesh is powerless. We must reckon the flesh DEAD and allow God to dismantle the chest piece by piece, nail by nail, board by board.
P.S.--If you DID want to buy it, my armoire is a great sturdy find for only $100. Serious inquiries only!

-Pilgrim