I am talking about us Christians and our battles with the devil! Do I fight him or flee from him, from the temptation he is using at the moment?
Well, James 4:7 teaches me to … “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Here “resist” is the Greek verb “to stand against.”
But then again, in 2 Timothy 2:22 Scripture commands us to … “Flee also youthful lusts.” And instead “Follow (meaning ‘to chase after’) righteousness, faith, charity, peace.”
Hence the Lesson title … “Fight or flee?”
Normally I say put on the whole armour of God and “withstand” the devil, through the Power of Word and the Presence of the Holy Spirit.
BUT CLEARLY THER ARE SOME TIMES WHEN WE SHOUD RUN WITH ALL OUR MIGHT! FLEE CERTAIN ULTRA-DANGEROUS TEMPTATIONS ANYWAY!
Here’s an illustration …
Once godly Joseph was approached (lured, seduced) by his master’s wife (Potiphar’s wife) to commit adultery. Joseph said NO.
That’s resisting!
Then one day …
“And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.” Genesis 39:12
Joseph wisely did not try to argue with her. Or outsmart her. He just “got out of there!”
Again, Moses wrote: “And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.”
He fled.
He did not sin with her!
He obeyed Proverbs 6:5, before it was written … “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.”
Dear friend, is there some especially deceptive sin hounding you?
Deceptively displaying the “pleasures” of the flesh or the world?
If so … run!
Run right now!
Change your location, as Joseph did.
Oh, what dire warnings the Bible delivers, even in its stories and narratives!
Somehow today … I feel enough has been said.
Somehow too, I sense somebody especially needs this Lesson. Do not cast it aside.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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