Date: 21st July, 2020
Ministering: Pastor Bola Bello
Last week, we considered how the lust of the flesh operates in a believer in contrast to its operation in the life of an unbeliever. We learnt that there are two laws operational in a man; the law of Sin and Death and the law of the Spirit of life. We also established that there are two personalities contending for dominion over a person’s life and how the Holy Spirit works in us to stop the works of the flesh within a child of God. Today, we will consider the scriptural meanings of some terms related to the flesh and its operation.
Necessity for proper interpretation of scriptures
The basic reason why biblical interpretation is restricted is because of the manner in which the Bible is written. Importantly, we need to understand that science or literature does validate the Bible, but the Bible validates or invalidates both (Jeremiah 23:28-29). It is therefore important that the valid conclusion of any preacher or the Rabbi of the word of God is to ensure that the Bible is interpreted in such a way that it conveys exactly what the Bible intends to teach the people, but not according to the knowledge of science and literatures (Ecclesiastes 12:1-3).
The reason why the recent set of believers could not overcome the warfare of the flesh is primarily because the message of flesh has flourished in the Church. If what I teach the people is different from what the Bible intend to teach, I have brought flesh to the message, and what I would produce is fleshly people.
Again, some terminologies of the Bible are used interchangeably, yet with different meanings and application. A lot of metaphors are also used to describe certain imagery or to depict certain ideas. Also, the Greek interpretation of the Bible has not helped matters, since the Bible was not originally written in the Greek language but in the Hebrew language. Most of the Hebrew terminologies do not often mean the same things with the Greek interpretation. Moreover, Bible is a divine conversation brought to the earthly realms, hence the mortal minds wrestle with the interpretation (2 Peter 3:15-16). Unlike the preachers of the early church, prayerlessness and lack of preparation is also a hindrance to appropriate interpretation of scriptures in our days.
A person cannot also establish scriptural interpretation based on personal revelation. There should be other persons who should agree with that understanding that you have gained form scriptures. If what you share from scriptures cannot be confirmed or understood by any other person, then it means it is wrong or it is not yet time for its revelation to the populace. One thing is certain; any message preached that does not bring people into the love and fear of God is a message of the flesh.
For example, we wrongly interpret mind and soul as the same thing, heart and conscience as similar in meaning, which are not necessarily so.
There is always a transaction between your mind and your heart. Mind and heart are not similar in operation, but are interrelated in function. There are words used in the Bible that appears to be synonyms in the literal translation but mean different things when used in the Bible. Words such as soul, conscience, spirit, and heart may seem to have close meanings literally but have very different functions or operations by scriptural usage, hence, the need to critically look at them again.
There is a sin within and there is another without. The sin within is caused by the systems and dynamic of human mind and soul. We cannot overcome the sin without if we do not overcome the sin within. The sin within has to do with how the mind works while the sin without is the system of the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15).
The conscience can be basically interpreted as a teacher. When Paul used the word “conscience”, he was talking to people who never understood the dealings of the Spirit. Everybody has a conscience; whether a believer or an unbeliever. The conscience does receive messages from the Holy Spirit to enable man to judge between the right and the wrong (Hebrews 9:14; 6:1). However, the conscience is limited. Even the righteousness that the unredeemed conscience produces is dead works before God.
1 Peter 3:16-17
Though you have a good conscience that could produce acceptable result before God, people may speak evil of you because they could not differentiate what is good before God against what is wrong to Him. As a man in Christ you cannot align yourself with the unrighteous and do unrighteous things even if you will be termed to lack good conscience. You cannot live your life by conscience or you may wreck it. This is the reason why we are admonished to live by the Spirit.