#be sober-minded

5 TIPS For Minimizing REGRET

Every adult who’s graced planet earth has traveled down a road or two of unforgettable regret.  Scores of unsuspected victims of the wrath of regrets weather more than a few storms along the way and live to talk about it. Many even process the experience as teaching moments, eager to share them with others to help them avoid making similar mistakes. To care is to share. God wants us to be humble,…

2 Peter 2:14–22 (ESV)

They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

 One of the things that Satan counts upon most is that Christians will have unsteady souls. He and his demonic hosts are skilled in enticing, luring, and arousing our fleshly interests and desires for fallen and sensual living. Notice here in 2 Peter 2:14, his agents have “eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.” I have been told that a large percentage, some estimates are as high as 40%, of the internet caters to the practice and use of some sort of pornography. And that males are exploited most often because of our innate mental capacity to be stimulated and aroused by what we see. Satan would have us have his “eyes full of adultery,” and live “insatiable for sin.” He would have God’s servants become “slaves of corruption.” “For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” To this Satanic campaign, Peter says this to the one truly listening to God:

 1 Peter 5:8–9 (ESV)

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

 The Greek word for “be sober-minded” should be taken here to mean: “be in control of one’s (own) thought processes and thus not be in danger of sensual or irrational thinking.” God’s servants are not to be slaves of corruption. Peter has already said this earlier in his first epistle:

 1 Peter 1:13–15 (ESV)

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

 Kingdom servants do not have imaginations that are filled with sexual fantasies. We are not to use an encounter with an attractive woman to launch into sensual passion. We are to live with sober minds. Minds that think with God and that are not conformed to the “passions of your former ignorance.” Your body will follow where your mind and heart go. And if it doesn’t, we are to flee from youthful lusts. Don’t hang around the things that stir up sensual thoughts and desires. We are not to allow these things to “form or mold our behavior” we are to allow the grace of God to “change our lives so that we will be like” Jesus Christ himself. We are to live with him as our example and model and live, behave, and conduct ourselves in purity and practical singleness of focus on him. Remember these words from the writer of Hebrews:

  Hebrews 12:15–16 (ESV)

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is (or be) sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

 The Greek word for “sexually immoral” is the word that we get “pornography” from. And Paul said this about these types of people within the body of Christ:

  1 Corinthians 5:9–11 (ESV)

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

 Sometimes people leave our lives. They go from us. Their motives are unclear at the time. But their hearts are moving in a certain direction. They have taken on another agenda, one outside of the purity, righteousness, and holiness that grace would love to produce in our lives. See to it that you do not fail to obtain the grace God would give to you in any particular moment. If you do, your adamic roots will spring up. Your former lusts will be energized, and you will be defiled, enslaved, and sell out what God wants for you for a single portion from the devil.

 Satan knows what our weaknesses are. Our “adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We must be watchful and prepared for action so that he doesn’t devour and destroy our capacity for grace orientation and freedom in Christ with our former weaknesses.