by Mark White<\/p>\n
War is terrible. Casualties take so many forms, with some being innocent people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The atrocities of war are nearly beyond belief. The old adage, “all is fair in war,” has been played out time and again through the ages as people have suffered the ravages of warfare. Since the American Civil War, we have very little historical experience with war on our own turf, and no personal experience whatsoever with war in our own backyards. For Americans, war is always something we wage “over there.”<\/p>\n
Our shores have been safe from the all-out bombardments which other societies have frequently experienced, and for whom there is almost automatic acceptance that warfare is a fact of life. The carnage of dead bodies strewn about the shattered streets of our hometown is a picture we have not seen. Try to imagine your home as a bombed-out shell. Picture in your mind your livestock slaughtered, your workplace destroyed, and your way of life completely decimated. Visualize, if you can, the little children of your neighborhood with missing limbs, or raped, or perhaps dead. Most of us cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to live in war-besieged places like Iraq, Croatia, or Palestine. There, human life is so poorly regarded that the leaders of these peoples do not mind spilling the blood of their own countrymen in what sometimes appears to be senseless, petty strife. Perhaps those of our nation who have seen active combat know something the rest of us do not. War is not pretty, and those who glory in it are misguided. It is serious business, and armed conflict always produces loss from which neither the victor nor the conquered ever fully recovers.<\/p>\n
If carnal warfare is merciless and horrific, how much more so the spiritual warfare in which Christians are engaged. Peter warns the readers of his epistle to realize the seriousness of the struggle they were making against immorality of all sorts. In fact, he uses several strong terms in I Peter 2:11 to impress the imagery upon the minds of first-century Christians, and also upon us. He wrote, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul<\/em>.” Since we are really living in a place that is not home to us, we must be careful lest we succumb to the alluring temptations of the flesh. Just as American travelers must not drink the water in some foreign lands, no matter how sparkling pure and refreshing it may appear -even so, Christians in the world must avoid the contaminants to our souls which come so attractively packaged. A Nigerian preacher friend of mine learned this lesson in a severe way upon visiting the United States. The rich, fat, sweet diet of Americans proved to be intolerable for his bland stomach. Those southern pecan pies were so alluring, but eating an entire pie at once will sicken the best of Southerners, much less a Nigerian! Peter said we must “abstain,” which literally means “to hold oneself constantly back from.” Fleshly lusts are seductive, promising, and so palatable – especially at first. Solomon’s wise instruction concerning the fleshly lust of alcohol is an appropriate illustration of the fact that it may be alluring at first, but in the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper” (Proverbs 23:32).<\/p>\n These “fleshly lusts<\/em>” of which Peter speaks “war against the soul<\/em>.” If a good military strategist never underestimates his enemy, then Christians must surely realize that lust is a serious deterrent to spirituality. Lusts of the flesh are dangerous and powerful. They mean to win, not just tease and toy with the Christians’ affections. Pornography entices and excites, then enslaves. Filthy speech is initially perceived as “cute” or “cool,” but it ultimately reflects a mindset rooted in a soiled heart. Adultery excites the libido, but ultimately destroys the soul and even the body. Immodesty\/nudity is at first “trendy” and “fashionable”, but finally lewd and lascivious. “It’s war out there,” dear brothers. Arm yourselves with the Spirit’s sword and shield and do battle for your spiritual self-preservation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Mark White War is terrible. Casualties take so many forms, with some being innocent people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The atrocities of war are nearly beyond belief. The old adage, “all is fair in war,” has been played out time and again through the ages…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[413,1840,156],"class_list":["post-89326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-flesh","tag-immorality","tag-lust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32241,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-modern-war-still-determined-by-god-how-can-a-person-determine-which-is-the-right-side\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":0},"title":"Is modern war still determined by God? How can a person determine which is the right side?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been reading and examining the book of Kings lately. I am currently in II Kings, and it's been quite worth the read so far, to say the least. I find there's a lot of lessons throughout the two books. It's interesting the amount of detail that can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-a-pacifist\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":1},"title":"What is a pacifist?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What's a pacifist? Because I know the Bible says to turn your swords into something that is not used to kill. Answer: A pacifist is someone opposed to violence for any purpose. He believes that every matter can be handled without violence. Thus a pacifist is opposed to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25105,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-bible-predict-a-future-war-in-korea\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":2},"title":"Does the Bible predict a future war in Korea?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I have a friend online who sent me this message; \"I HOPE you know the SERIOUSNESS of this approaching Korean war! The Bible mentions it! So it MUST be a MAJOR MAJOR WAR (to be mentioned in the Bible!) My guess, (for it to be SO MAJOR that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31806,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-a-government-gives-false-reasons-for-going-to-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":3},"title":"What if a government gives false reasons for going to war?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am wondering what the Bible says concerning going to war for unjustified reasons? What if a country deceives its people and claims reasons for going to war, but there is evidence that does not justify war? How do Christians and Christians in the military handle this type of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9619,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-biblical-support-for-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":4},"title":"Is there any biblical support for war?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there any biblical support for any country or human being to be in all-out war or conflict? Answer: Actually there are hundreds of passages that support the concept of war.\u00a0 War is one of those topics that pacifists have to work hard to try to get it out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69314,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-churches-split\/","url_meta":{"origin":89326,"position":5},"title":"Why Churches Split","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall The Civil War had fascinated me since elementary school when I wrote an assignment on what I thought was the Silver War. I was wrong on two counts. I \"knew\" it couldn't be the Civil War because it wasn't \"civil.\" But neither was it silver. Probably the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}