There is NO desertion from being One’s Self.
Readership: All
Theme: Headship
Author’s Note: This essay was submitted by a reader on 2023/3/22. Coauthored with section titles and images added by Jack.
Reader’s Note: This essay should have been posted before the previous one, but I didn’t finish it in time.
Length: 2,000 words
Reading Time: 10 minutes
The Sinful Nature is the Default Setting
Every person by virtue of being made in the image of God and being descendants of Adam and Eve who ate of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, inherently knows what is right and wrong. However, we are subject to our sin nature, and without Christ that sin nature will ALWAYS choose wrong. With continued practice of choosing wrong, humans sear their consciences, lose that sense of discernment, and become confused about what is right and wrong. Christian circles refer to this as being “lost”.
This is why there is always dissonance between one’s conscience and what one wants to do. To appease the conscience and alleviate guilt and shame, they invent justifications, narratives, reasons, or stories. They boast. They hamsterbate. They keep secrets. They lie. They project. They scheme. This leads to a disconnect between people and God and between people and other people.
This is why proponents of abortion, euth@nas!a, h0m0sexu@l!ty, no fault divorce, tr@nsgǝndǝr!sm, and so on will SHOUT from the rooftops about all the supposed GOOD reasons why what they do is justified, even moral. They NEED to believe it is good, so they can sin with their consciences appeased. They need to JUSTIFY the sin – because they know it is sin – but they salvage their consciences by telling themselves that they are doing it for “love”, tolerance, to end suffering, to prevent su!c!de, to “make the world a better place”, and so on — all for the supposed common GOOD!!!
Redemption is a Battle against the Sinful Self
Christian redemption and regeneration is the only way out of this mess of confusion and sin.
Firstly, we get back in touch with the conscience. We gain clarity about our own sin and how it is harmful. We repent and reject our own sin. When we receive Christ, our spirits are regenerated and we want to please God. God gives us the desire to fight against our sinful nature. We have the Holy Spirit Who empowers us. But the sinful nature doesn’t just disappear. It will always be there in us as long as our spirits inhabit the fleshly bodies we live in. We continue to live in the weak mortal flesh of earthly bodies surrounded by a world of sin and temptation. Our sinful nature is reviled by this inner conflict. It continues seeking escapement, or to fight for its own dominance in our lives, or to be included in the corrupt world around us. Our conviction wants the opposite.
Hence, the true fight. The Christian is in constant battle with his own sinful nature, the flesh, the world, the value system that feeds the flesh and Satan — the deceiver who tells us that our sinful nature is GOOD. That voice saying, “It does not matter if you sin, so long as you are happy. Your HAPPINESS glorifies God, not your OBEDIENCE.”
The Weaker Vessels are Especially Susceptible
As we learned in the study of Female Agency, women are less capable of maintaining this fight than men are, on the average.
Women shun introspection and personal responsibility. They will fight and become feisty nasty if pressed into it. Meanwhile, the world tells women they are beautiful, perfect, strong, and independent to stoke their sinful Pride and further fuel their rebellion against conscience and God. In addition, the world offers them a smorgasbord of entertaining distractions, gnostic assurances and justifications, and gynocentric narratives about how they are “victims” (presumably of men). Satan feeds them the idea that everything “just happens” and that they have no control over their own lives.
Women resist trusting and submitting to male authority. They seek independence and profligacy. The world tells women they need an education, financial independence, and birth control so that they will never have to depend on nor trust a man. Satan feeds them the idea that men are childish, immature, irresponsible, reckless, selfish, “toxic”, and untrustworthy.
Wives’ sinful nature wants to control their husband (Genesis 3:16). The world tells women they need to control men or else they will be abused, and then offers methods of controlling men (Duluth, MәT00, No Fault Divorce, etc.). Satan deceives women by feeding them the idea that controlling their husbands and men in general is GOOD. “Feminism good, Patriarchy bad!” Even the church propagates the false teaching that a husband needs to “earn” his wife’s respect by being a true “servant leader”. No! Wives need to respect their husbands because he is their husband!
Women are their own worst enemy.
Men Prefer to be the Weaker Vessel
Men have to perform and produce. No exceptions. Men can’t get a break. It is easy for Men to feel like mules or workhorses which are only valued for what they can do, or how much they can earn. Men fail to find the joy or value of achievement, or building a domain, or developing confidence and a healthy ego. Thus, Men are prone to see work as a curse and not as an opportunity to build, consolidate a domain, and succeed (Genesis 3:17-19).
Things like appreciation, gratitude, having a dominion of authority, honor, respect, and yes, a regular fulfilling sex life, can guard men’s hearts against losing vision and feeling like lowly draftstock. But these motivations are meticulously trimmed out of a man’s life by the carelessness and cruelty of others and the forces of evil. In fact, Women / Wives have a multitude of peculiar and well-honed skills designed to inflict the opposite mentality on a man which a man must guard himself against at all times.
The World ignores a man if he’s not 6’2”, good looking, rich and/or well employed.
The World punishes a man if he’s short, fat, bald, homely, honestly outspoken, or exceptionally common.
The World snarks a man if he can’t compete with Chad or the Jones’.
The World goads Men into sin and then kicks them when they’re down. To keep them down, the World offers them a smorgasbord of entertaining distractions, e.g. alcohol, legalized marijuana, NetFlix, and endless p0rn at a click.
The World tells Men they are abusive, bad, corrupt, immature, “toxic”, and that they need to “control themselves” (meaning to be emasculated and impotent) or else they will be branded as abusers and predators.
The World feeds Men gynocentric narratives about how they are supposed to serve and worship women endlessly and with no thought to themselves.
Satan feeds Men the idea that they have no abilities nor gifts, no authority, no domain of influence, no purpose, and that they have no control over their own lives.
Satan discourages Men with the half-truth that their value is determined by how well they can compete in this World, and that they are worthless if they can’t. Again, even the church propagates the false teaching that a husband needs to “earn” his wife’s respect by being a true “servant leader”. No! All Men, including Husbands, have an intrinsic need for respect regardless of their performance! If Satan can get a foothold in this area, he’ll stoke bitterness, confusion, discouragement, envy, fear, lust, and anything else he can invent.
Satan tells men they need a woman to make their life complete, and this in a culture in which women are self-centered, tattooed, h0ed out baby elephants, ruined for marriage right out of high school.
Satan deceives Men (and Women) with the idea that women are perfect goddesses, princesses, but utterly forbids Men from viewing Women as companions, helpers, housewives, lovers, baby makers, and sex toys to be used for their natural purpose.
All said, and as you can imagine, it is easy for Men to resist exerting the will, to avoid the battle, to retreat, and disengage through comfort, distraction, and ease. Men lose the battle when they become confused, lose discernment, lose focus, lose purpose, and give in to cowardice, fear, laziness, Herodianism, and self-indulgence. Men go AWOL when they fail to engage in living out the challenges that each day brings. If Men fall in battle, it is to be expected. He must pick himself up and prepare for the next day of battle. But if Men willingly choose a path of desertion (e.g. by resorting to an addiction, entertainment, p0rn, etc.) they are resisting God. Turning to a faux archetype is a cope, but Men need to work through those issues towards maturity (i.e. “perfection” in Biblical language).
The Battle Lies Within
As discussed above, there are three main arenas in which we battle.
- Against the flesh (sinful nature) by displaying Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Against the world by basing our lives on God’s morality and transforming our minds in accordance with His thinking according to His precepts and commandments.
- Against Satan by calling out the Truth from the lies (how Satan tries to deceive).
To the extent the Christian wins these battles, we bring Glory to God.
As Christians, we have to align our actions with the Word. We must obey the Lord in Spirit and in Truth, but our fleshly nature resists at every turn. We want to run on autopilot and pursue pleasure without a care as to whether it is wrong or not. We want to enjoy the three ring circus of the world and feel accepted therein. We listen to Satan ignorantly and passively and get confused, swept away, and incapacitated. Thus, the Battle Lies Within.
Women’s main battle within is to NOT create unnecessary battles with and difficulties for the men in their lives, but to SUBMIT to their fathers or husbands in ACTION and to RESPECT them in ATTITUDE.
Men have a more complex battle to contend with. As we learned in the study of Faux Masculine Archetypes, Men have many ways to cope with this, but overall, the battle within is to resist the temptation to anesthetize, cop out, and kick back.
In our own strength, it is impossible. But having received Christ, we have the choice to obey or disobey. We depend on the Holy Spirit for strength to do it. We cannot do it on our own. It is a daily struggle, which is why the disciplines of Bible study and prayer are important, as I mentioned in The Challenges of Moving Towards Headship (2023/4/5). Over time, as our spiritual maturity increases the battles are won but the struggle is always real. There are days when we will have epic fails — which happens when we try to do it on our own strength. It is only when we abide in the Holy Spirit does the Fruit of the Spirit become manifest. And we have to keep our eyes on the prize. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The war is real. The battle lines are drawn. We already have the final victory which was achieved by Christ when he died and rose again. It is the daily battles that still need to be done and this will continue as long as we inhabit our earthly bodies. Since we are born again, our spirit will never die but our earthly bodies will (which is why Christians believe in resurrection of the body NOT the spirit).
In heaven, we will have glorified bodies. We will not contend against our fallen fleshly nature. We will not have the world’s value system to contend with, and Satan is out of the picture. We will have all these restraints removed from our desire to follow God (placed in our regenerated spirits when we received Christ). We will be free from the curses of sin. That is why it will be HEAVEN!!! Finally, true lasting peace and no more battles to fight!!!
We cannot do this on our own strength. It is only Jesus who can give us the wisdom and the strength to do so. To the extent we depend on HIM; to the extent we OBEY HIM — we will win. We will bring GLORY to GOD and we will be given a heavenly reward for it.
Related
- Σ Frame: A Mystical Approach to Meta Reality (2021/3/19)
- Σ Frame: The Spiritual Confusion of Clinging to the “Rules” (2021/3/24)
- Σ Frame: Silence (2021/12/17)
- Σ Frame: Pursuing Flow to develop Confidence and Trust (2022/4/2)
- Σ Frame: Moral Agency is Dependent on Spiritual Maturity (2022/12/19)
- Σ Frame: God’s Glory is Obstructed by Pride (2023/3/15)
