6.13 Temptation, the Flesh, Habits, Sexual Sin, and Addictive Patterns

⁶ “Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen?

⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”

⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word.

¹⁰ With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments.

¹¹ I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.

²⁰ My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹ Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²² For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.

²³ Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.

²⁴ Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech.

²⁵ Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

²⁶ Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.

³ The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.

⁶ “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus replied, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

⁹ “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰ “Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter.

⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

³⁵ A slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever.

³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

² For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.

³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴ so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

⁶ The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace,

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

⁸ Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

¹² “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

¹³ “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴ By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

¹⁶ Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

¹⁷ For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,

²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³ gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.

⁵ Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

⁷ When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.

⁸ But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices,

¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

¹ Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.

² For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

³ For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

⁴ each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

⁵ not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

⁶ and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

⁷ For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

⁸ Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.

²² Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

²³ But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

²⁴ And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²⁵ He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

²⁶ Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.

¹² Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹² Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.