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Lusts of the flesh
Below are several verses on lust. From reading the verses below, you see that “lust” is when you go overboard, or are excessive, or have an obsession with satisfying normal needs of our soul or body.
Our soul can be thought of, as our self-esteem and self-worth and emotions. Our bodies are called “flesh” in the Bible.
God expects us to meet the desires of our body and soul in moderation.
For example, food is a need of our body or flesh. Eating is not sin unless it becomes an obsession - then it is gluttony.
Self-esteem is a need of our soul. Having a car for transportation is a need for our body. Buying an expensive new car to boost our self-esteem could be considered having an obsession related to self-esteem, which in Biblical terms is referred to as the sin of the "pride of life". Trying to present an image of being "cool" or "rich" or whatever, is an obsession, which could be considered "lust".
Normally obsessions related to our soul come under the Biblical sin of "pride of life" and obsessions related to our body come under the Biblical sin of "lusts of the flesh".
Why is having an obsession for anything wrong? Because God gives us everything to be used as tools to glorify him and serve him. Because God wants us to keep our focus on loving Him and loving our friends and on serving Him and telling others about him.
In this life we have two very limited commodities; time and money. A symptom of being obsessed with something is when we spend a lot of time or money on it.
Being obsessed with something robs God of our time and often our money. When we become obsessed with something we take our focus off of God and we usually spend an extra amount of money fulfilling the desires of our obsession.
What are some examples of having an obsession? Having to have a certain new car, or a certain size or style home, or having to have the latest technical gadgets such as surround sound audio equipment, or spending most of our time watching movies or videos or TV, or watching sports most of the time, or overeating and becoming overweight, and the list could go on and on.
When we spend excessive time or money on our obsession, we end up having less time or money to be used for God. This makes us less useful to God and shows God that we don't really care about serving Him.
However because our bodies are flesh, giving our flesh some attention is glorifying to God. For example eating enables us to have energy to serve God. And having a healthy sex life with our spouse enables us to be more productive as a Christian, spouse and parent.
So lust is having an obsession for something. And two symptoms of having an obsession for something are when you spend a lot of time, or you spend a lot of money, to meet the needs of the flesh.
So as Christians we should be looking for ways to spend less time and less money on meeting the needs of our flesh.
Billions of Christian dollars and millions of hours of Christian time are spent each year on "romance" to help Christian marriages be happy. This includes going out to dinner when you could eat at home for much less, vacations, Christian marriage and romance books, weekend getaways and marriage seminars.
Spending less time and money on “romance” is one way that MarriageRomance.com can help married couples so they can devote more time and money to serving God.
Married couples that wish to use MarriageRomance.com to help keep their “romance” alive, typically will pay $12 for six months of membership. If the married couple spends ten minutes of time at night, once a month, to read or listen to some romance stories this can be a blessing to the marriage. As “iron sharpens iron” so also, the stories, help renew the passion in the marriage.
Sex is an important part of marriage and having some sexual passion for your spouse helps the marriage experience more enjoyable and in so doing makes the married couple be closer and helps keep the bonds of marriage strong. Reading stories occasionally together is not sin, but rather being obsessed with the stories would be sin.
Now here are the verses on the "Lusts Of The Flesh".
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Matthew 19:12
For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from [their] mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive [it], let him receive [it].
Romans 7:18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Romans 8:1
[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:5
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:8
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:13
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Romans 13:13-14
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfill] the lusts [thereof].
Galatians 5:16-17
[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Galatians 5:24
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Galatians 6:8
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Ephesians 2:3
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
1 John 2:16
For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
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