DO NOT BE DECEIVED! There is a certain kind of counsel out there that is to be shunned as though it were a deadly plague. What is it?
It goes generally like this: Whenever a person who professes faith in Christ begins to backslide or fall into sin repetively the counselor will say that a Christian has both the Spirit and the Flesh working in them similar to having a white dog and a black dog inside them. The idea is that whichever you feed most will win the fight.
The problem with that is the person may get the idea that this feeding the black dog(flesh) is not to be taken as evidence of being lost, but just as the normal Christian experience since we all have these two dogs living inside us. But what do the Scriptures say to this type of counseling???
“…if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:3
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:7-8
The Apostolic teaching is totally against such counsel. A Christian has moved from the old yard where the black dog lives into the new yard where only the white dog lives. That he may from time to time seek to go next door and feed the black one is not disputed here, but the habitual style of life is not feeding the black dog anymore since he is no longer in that realm. He is in the new realm of the Spirit and that is how he lives. Far from feeding the so called black dog(flesh) being a sign of the normal Christian struggle it is a sign of the normal son of Adam being in the old realm not in the new one. See also Romans 7:5-6 where Paul again says either you are “in the flesh” or “in the Spirit”. Its not both/and, but either/or for the Apostle. If you find you are gravitating toward the flesh you must put it to death by the Spirit or you will perish forever, this is what Paul himself says Romans 8:13. Therefore, shun all counsel that would allow you to have any peace with the flesh. If you pluged in the verb “feeds” instead of “sows” in the verse above you will see the plagueishness of this counsel, for if you feed the flesh you will not just loose some fight in this life but reap corruption in the next.
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