Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Believers are strangers and pilgrims in this world, temporary residents traveling to a better, heavenly country that is their true home. As such they are to abstain from fleshly lusts, which mean far more than open licentiousness and include every harmful gratification of appetite or passion. Those lusts war against the soul by dulling the faculties, clouding the mind, benumbing spiritual perception, and bringing the higher powers under the control of baser passions. Abstaining therefore requires temperance and self-denial in eating, drinking, dress, labor and all things, consecrating the body as a living sacrifice and temple of the Holy Spirit with sanctified reason bearing sway. Kept in this way, pilgrims live distinct from the world and show forth God's praises by honest conduct and good works among unbelievers, so that those who speak against them may glorify God.
Strangers and Pilgrims Identity
Believers are temporary residents in this world, strangers and pilgrims traveling toward a better, heavenly country that is their true home, and they are urged to abstain from fleshly desires because those desires wage war against the soul. This restraint belongs to the high standard they are to maintain before the world, joined to honest conduct among unbelievers so that good works answer accusations and lead observers to glorify God in the day of visitation.
That pilgrim identity means allegiance to Christ and a life distinct from the world, separated from its customs, motives, and practices and not shaped by its standards. Christians are only passing through, their hopes are not built here, and their conduct should show that earthly things are temporary and less important than the kingdom of God and its lasting treasures. Their watchful waiting for Christ and refusal to be absorbed in earthly treasure make their separation plain and show that Christ is formed within and that they are transformed.
As people called out of darkness into marvelous light, they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people now made the people of God by mercy, appointed to show forth His praises. That showing forth is a life of loving God supremely and neighbor as self engraved on the heart, a fruit-bearing life of faith working by love and purifying the soul, displaying by spiritual attitude, words, temper, and works that they feed on Christ and have His Spirit dwelling in them. It refuses fault-finding, reproving, personal thrusts against the Christless, and being easily provoked, submits to every human ordinance for the Lord's sake as lawful and right, keeps conduct honest among the Gentiles, and by well-doing puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men so accusers see good works and glorify God. This abstinence is how those who know present truth show plainly they are on the Lord's side, fully identify with principles of eternal truth, give evidence they are God's peculiar people, honor Christ as Head of His church instead of going backward, live like Jesus as laborers together with God, and wait and watch for His near coming in the clouds with power and great glory while proclaiming the last-days message.
The pilgrim journey runs through danger and temptation among those who have rejected the only One who can save them, requiring alertness lest travelers be drawn from loyalty to Christ and leave the path to God's city. Flattering inducements, subtle arguments, ingenious subterfuges, scientific problems, and deceptive offers of friendly alliance are held out to tempt conformity or compromise for influence or apparent advantage, and they are not to be heeded. Overcoming demands watching unto prayer with constant, ceaseless vigilance at every step, a deeper knowledge and clearer understanding of truth, cherishing the grace of the Holy Spirit, honest conduct adorning Christian profession, making straight paths for the feet, and putting on the whole armor of God for hand-to-hand warfare with powers of darkness in sight of heaven, so as not to confuse fellow workers, hinder God's work, hurt the truth, or turn the lame out of the way while a vigilant foe watches.
Looking for God's lasting city and for Christ to receive them to Himself calls pilgrims to deny self, seek cleansing from God and His righteousness, and be ready when Christ comes. That hope makes the world's praise, riches, honors, pleasures, and distinctions seem worthless, directs steps heavenward in longing for home, and marks a clear difference from the world as Christ's righteousness makes them lights in its moral darkness. Because this world is only a temporary stay and not heaven, hearts are to be set on heavenly treasure rather than storing treasure on earth, and travelers must not become absorbed in earthly comforts or spend themselves beautifying temporary homes to neglect of soul growth, but strive to overcome that they may be received into God's paradise and the mansions prepared for them.
Fleshly Lusts Defined
Fleshly lusts in this verse mean far more than licentiousness or violations of the seventh commandment, embracing every harmful gratification of appetite or passion that can become a lust warring against the soul. Appetite itself has a good purpose, but when perverted it harms the body, weakens mind and moral character, degrades the higher faculties, and leads toward death. Because physical and moral nature are closely connected, wrong habits of eating and drinking lead to errors in thought and action, while indulged appetite strengthens animal propensities over mental and spiritual powers. Temperance in eating and drinking, as in all things, is therefore necessary for overcoming and attaining righteousness.
Natural inclinations and appetites were divinely appointed pure and holy, designed to be ruled by reason and, when regulated and controlled by sanctified reason, to minister to happiness as holiness to the Lord. Through indulgence and unholy gratification they are perverted and become fleshly lusts warring against the soul, by which Satan conquers through foes within and without. Unless watched and controlled with constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer, abused and misguided inclinations give loose rein to habits that cause backsliding from God. Abstaining means cooperating with Christ who gave His life to save soul and body and restore God's moral image, by consecrating the very flesh to His service and refusing food and drink that strengthen feelings at war with holiness, happiness, and purity. Every hurtful, health-enfeebling, life-destroying lust of appetite and passion, even what is in the least degree detrimental to brain and nerve energy, is such a warring lust, to be denied, partially subdued, mortified, and promptly corrected lest one be finally overcome.
The warning includes dependence on stimulants, narcotics, and intoxicants, which harm moral character, enslave those who form the habits, and lower spirituality. These are tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, liquor, beer, fermented wine, and morphine, whose indulgence can harm body and soul, cloud clear thought, impair reason and self-control, and displace devotion to Christ. The longer they are practiced the more firmly they enslave the will, dulling the faculties and weakening response to Bible teaching, so that refusing to resist a perverted appetite can take priority over hope of heaven and leave Christ in a subordinate place. Intoxicating beverages and all that intoxicates are the curse man manufactures, corrupting the race while Satan makes strenuous efforts to corrupt it in the time deciding every soul's destiny. Abstaining means touching not, tasting not, handling not what intoxicates and keeping tables free from it, escaping the corruption in the world through lust to become partakers of the divine nature in God-given manhood and womanhood.
It includes lustful and perverted appetite for flesh meats, rich and unhealthful foods, condiments, spices, pickles, tea-drinking, stimulating diet, and gluttony. Such indulgence strengthens appetites and animal propensities while weakening higher and holier qualities, lowering impulses and blunting ability to discern sacred things and value eternal things and Christ's salvation. Giving appetite free rein leads to giving passions free rein, leaving people bereft of reason, lethargic and palsied, neglecting reform to loss of spiritual power and ever deeper debasement in habits degrading human beings lower than beasts. Those who know the truth are to speak against these lusts and put away everything that creates an appetite for flesh meat.
The verse also forbids sexual sin including fornication, adultery, secret vice and corruption, and debasing enfeebling vices, which violate the holiness expected of commandment-keepers, bring dishonor and reproach on the truth, and can overcome people to perdition unless resisted with strength beyond human strength. It forbids love-sick sentimentalism, trifling, flirtation even by married people such as married men with young girls or widows, levity and even licentious acts, governing words, deportment, and character in sober thinking with thoughts kept from running riot. Claiming no harm was meant, no moral wrong was done, or that it was only thoughtlessness is no excuse. The same indulgence of inclination, passion, courtship and marriage without consulting God, as in the days of Noah and the cities of the plain, dishonors God and brings misery and judgment, while purity in thought and habit brings strength to soul and health to body for seeing the King in His beauty.
Fleshly lusts further include self-gratifying amusements and every habit of indulgence that weakens physical power, clouds the mind, or dulls spiritual perception, because amusement sought merely for self-gratification is dangerous and fights against the inner life. They include worldly fashions and desires that compete with healthy bodies, sound minds, and sanctified hearts, so that conforming to the world shows attachment to those lusts rather than the life of pilgrims awaiting the Lord's appearing. They include being actuated by desire for gain, love of money, love of display, extravagance and hoarding, and spending means to gratify desires God would have repressed. To abstain is to refuse fraud, robbery, and oppression of widows, orphans, and the poor for wealth, to restrain repressible desires, and to represent the life of Jesus by living to do others good.
War Against the Soul
Sinful gratification wages its war by dulling the faculties, weakening brain nerve-power, benumbing the brain and sensibilities, clouding the mind, and deadening mental and spiritual perception so that God's Word and Spirit make only a feeble impression on the heart. Intemperance weakens perception until eternal things are treated as common and placed on a level with common things, and the ability to value eternal things is dulled. Because great sympathy exists between the physical and the moral, and physical habits and moral strength are closely connected, wrong habits of eating and drinking lead to errors in thought and action, and obedience to physical and moral law belongs to resisting these desires. The warning forbids not only licentiousness but every harmful indulgence of appetite or passion, and indulged appetite strengthens animal propensities and lower impulses over mental and spiritual powers.
It brings the higher powers of the mind, designed for noble purposes, under the control of baser passions and sets physical nature in continuing conflict with spiritual nature. Dependence on stimulants and narcotics such as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, liquor, beer, fermented wine, and morphine harms moral character, lowers spirituality, and enslaves those who form the habits, more firmly the longer they are practiced. Such bondage weakens moral and spiritual capacity, prevents valuing God's law, Christ's atonement, and immortal life, displaces devotion to Christ, and can take priority even over hope of heaven. Continuing in lustful appetite and cherished idols sacrifices self-confidence, Godlike manhood, and noble moral independence, leaving a person slave to a hurtful, low, degrading habit that constantly grows stronger while health and spiritual growth are weakened.
These lusts war against the soul by weakening physical and mental force, injuring health, benumbing the brain so eternal truth cannot be appreciated, hindering spiritual advancement, and keeping a burdened conscience with constant accusation. Those who indulge them become a mark to be hit whenever straight truth is spoken, take offense when difficult truths are presented, withdraw from church meetings, and lose interest in the meetings and love for the truth. Crucifying fleshly lusts removes that obstacle, lets truth pass without wounding the conscience, and allows the arrows of truth to pass harmlessly by, so that only those who in the fear of God rely on Him for strength and abstain and reform can advance spiritually, and not before. This applies to lustful appetite, perverted appetite, debasing passion, sinful indulgence, and appetite for flesh meat with tea, tobacco, and flesh-meats as harmful stimulants; indulging them leaves people bereft of reason, lethargic and palsied, neglecting reform brings loss of spiritual power and ever deeper debasement in habits that disgust the heavenly universe and degrade human beings lower than the beasts, while indulging and concealing tobacco prevents growth in the divine life. Those who stop may suffer a period of loss and feel worse for a time while benumbed nature recovers from false stimulus, but persistence lets nature rally and do her work well, calling for sacrificing even painful bodily gratification to purify flesh and spirit in hope of eternal reward and an unfading crown.
If watched and controlled these desires can be overcome, but if given loose rein through unwatchfulness they strengthen, corrupt through lust, cause backsliding from God, and lead toward pain, death, perdition, and loss of eternal life. Natural inclinations and appetites were divinely appointed pure and holy, designed for reason to rule them so they would minister to happiness as holiness unto the Lord, yet by indulgence and unholy gratification they are perverted and become fleshly lusts warring against the soul by which Satan conquers. The conflict has foes within and without in a decided warfare with the powers of darkness fought in sight of the universe of heaven, beginning when a person leaves Satan's side for Christ and requiring hand-to-hand fighting with the whole armor of God, for temptations are numerous, deceiving, and often not clearly discerned. Overcoming demands constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer, cooperating with Jesus Christ who gave His life to save soul and body and restore the moral image of God in man by consecrating the very flesh to His service and refusing food that strengthens feelings at war with holiness, happiness, and purity, since resisting powerful evils like secret vice requires strength beyond human strength.
Every indulged appetite at enmity with the laws of being becomes a warring lust, where strong and active lower propensities oppress the soul, lustful indulgence and lustful eating war against health and peace, and the highest interests of the being are imperiled in warfare between the higher and the lower attributes. Breaking God's laws for the body intensifies this conflict in fallen humanity, unnatural physical indulgence strengthens those desires and degrades both body and soul, and intemperance of any kind benumbs the perceptive organs and weakens brain nerve-power. Abstaining therefore includes temperance in eating, drinking, dress, and labor, avoiding anything intoxicating, governing appetites and passions by the revealed will of God, cleansing from every habit that defiles the physical system, and advancing with received light instead of depending on past experience. The warring lusts are every hurtful, health-enfeebling, life-destroying lust of appetite and passion, including any lust in the least degree detrimental to brain and nerve energy, in a determined warfare between good and evil, right and wrong, God and the devil waged incessantly since the angels in heaven rebelled. Denial of appetite, denying and partially subduing and mortifying each such lust, brings the body into more healthful condition to continue the warfare with stronger faith and clearer, keener perception and to gain mastery over self, for the most difficult warfare is against self, requiring complete subjection of all appetites and passions, constant watchcare over the heart, victories by constant suppression of every evil desire and unhealthful practice, purification of the soul temple from every defilement, and prompt and painful correction of every step deviating from the laws of life and health and the laws of God, lest one be finally overcome.
Honorable Witness to Unbelievers
As strangers and pilgrims whose allegiance is to Christ and whose life is distinct from the world, believers must abstain from fleshly desires because those desires war against the soul. Their conduct among unbelievers is to be honest, so that even those who speak against them as evildoers will see their good works and glorify God in the day of visitation. This is the responsibility of the church as a whole, whose holy conduct displays God's praise, and the duty of every person who claims to be God's child living among nonbelievers.
That witness shows feeding on Christ and having His Spirit dwelling within by spiritual attitude, words, temper, and works. It refuses fault-finding, reproving, personal thrusts against the Christless, and being easily provoked. It keeps conduct honest among unbelievers, submits to every human ordinance for the Lord's sake as lawful and right, and with well-doing puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men, so as not to cut off influence or awaken prejudice. As a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light and made God's people by mercy, pilgrims are to show forth His praises by a fruit-bearing life of faith that works by love and purifies the soul, loving God supremely and neighbor as self with the law engraved on the heart, and by copying the simplicity of Christ as probationers in this world. This restraint belongs to a life purified by faith and shaped by beholding Christ, so that honest conduct and good works make His character visible.
Those who hold sacred trusts and minister in the Lord's work must not feel at liberty to be disobedient, unthankful, unholy, condemnatory and harsh, loving to serve themselves rather than the Lord. The spirit and character they reveal forms their own destiny for how their works will appear in the judgment, requiring letting present truth abide as a principle in the soul, striving earnestly for perfection of character, and surrounding contacts with a life-giving holy atmosphere that revives humble and contrite hearts. Ministers must preach this abstinence everywhere as faithful sentinels holding back moral woe, breaking the chains of intoxicating drink and moral corruption that enslave people, touching not, tasting not, handling not what intoxicates and keeping tables free from it in cooperation with Christ, so that by escaping the corruption in the world through lust believers stand in God-given manhood and womanhood as partakers of the divine nature. That same call applies to practicing health reform and cultivating the heart, to abstaining from foods that stir up fleshly lusts since eating and drinking affect the health of the soul, and to overcoming one's own lusts by earnest effort and prayer for grace, with teachers, ministers, sanitarium workers, and every successful worker for God studying the laws of physical health and presenting the truth forcibly by precept and by example in their own abstinence and in agreement between example and teaching.
Speech and character are part of this witness, with light shining through good conduct, practical godliness, and personal holiness that faithfully represents Christ and defends God's law before those who do not obey the truth. As a people separated from the world and its customs and called out to be God's peculiar people, abstinence shows plainly that they are on the Lord's side, fully identified as believers in eternal truth and honoring Christ as Head of His church. It belongs to being laborers together with God, living like Jesus, letting words bless others, and waiting and watching for His near coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory while proclaiming the last-days message.
Temperance and Bodily Health
Abstaining from fleshly lusts includes temperance in eating, drinking, dress, labor, and all things, refusing intoxicants and sinful indulgences that weaken the body and its powers in order to preserve the whole being for God's service. It is self-denial through health reform, choosing simple food and drink for God's glory, controlling appetite because indulgent eating strengthens baser passions and endangers bodily health and spiritual life. Bringing eating and drinking into conformity with the laws of nature is duty to God, an earnest study and personal obligation, since willing ignorance is sin and eating and drinking bear importantly on life. Diligently heeding this conforms a person physically and spiritually to the image of God.
The body and its members are to be consecrated to Christ's service as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice and temple of the Holy Spirit. The higher powers are to rule, with passions controlled by will, will controlled by God, and sanctified reason bearing sway, preserving vigor of mind and body in cooperation with God. Christ's self-denial and control of appetite show how to resist temptation, governing eating and drinking by principle for God's glory and upholding virtue and godliness. Daniel and his companions show that religious principle enables the young to overcome temptation to indulge appetite and remain faithful even at great sacrifice.
Indulged tobacco, tea, coffee, flesh meats, and stimulating, unhealthful diet are lustful appetites and cherished idols that war against the soul by weakening physical and mental force. They benumb the brain and dull the mind so eternal truth and Christ's salvation cannot be appreciated, hinder spiritual advancement, burden the conscience with constant accusation, and leave a person exposed to be wounded whenever straight truth is spoken. Liquors of every kind and tobacco cloud reason and place man below the brute, while meat and other injurious articles make the blood impure, since the body is composed of what is eaten and what is placed in the stomach becomes flesh and blood. Giving them up may make one feel worse for a time while benumbed nature recovers from false stimulus and suffers a period of loss, but persistence lets nature rally and do her work well. Without abstaining and reforming there is no advance and no eternal life, but slavery to a hurtful, low, degrading habit that constantly grows stronger, sacrifices self-confidence, Godlike manhood, and noble moral independence; those who in the fear of God rely on Him for strength and reform can advance so that the arrows of truth pass harmlessly by.
Healing from God gives no license to indulge perverted appetite or ignore the call to abstain, for restored health, strength, and powers are given to be devoted to His service. Accepting health reform is part of truth and blessing, while hesitation and refusal lose blessing, though the test may be difficult. The warning must be urged by teachers by both precept and example. Tendencies to wrong, whether inherited or cultivated, can become lusts warring against the soul and must be met with determined effort, moral effort, and trust in Christ's grace, helping a person escape the corruption of the world and live under the controlling power of grace. The danger is already present, and the Lord's sword must reach deeply to cut away appetites and passions. Victory over self, the world, and the devil comes through Christ's imparted righteousness and mastery over self-indulgence, resisting alcohol and stimulating drinks whose cravings impair reason and self-control, with constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer.
Appetite is to be brought under the control of reason, abstaining from harmful indulgence and from tobacco and other depraved appetites as part of purification of flesh and spirit and advancement in the divine life, even at cheerful sacrifice and suffering in view of the eternal reward and immortal inheritance. Parents who practice this are prepared to guide children step by step in healthful, safe, and righteous ways, guarding habits and inclinations lest indulged evils and selfish desires become warring lusts, that children may become helpers with Christ. The desire for the flesh of dead animals is such an appetite, and when appetite clamors for meat, fasting and prayer can seek God's grace to deny it, disciplining the person and turning attention to the spiritual nourishment of God's Word.
Holy Pilgrim Life
Abstaining from fleshly lusts belongs to putting off the old self and living the renewed holy life, resisting corrupt desires through the Spirit, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is personal piety in wise and unreserved cooperation with divine principles, practiced with watchfulness and prayer, in humility, mutual submission and unity, without lifting up the soul to vanity. It is the practice of all that is claimed as truth by those entrusted with the greatest truths ever committed to mortals, fitting them and qualifying them for the kingdom of God. Fleshly or carnal lusts are the desires of the lower, corrupt nature working through the body, where depraved appetite excites and strengthens animal propensities. To crucify the flesh does not mean inflicting pain on the body but putting temptation to sin to death, expelling corrupt thoughts, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, keeping body and members under rule of the soul as instruments of righteousness with the love of God reigning supreme.
The call requires sober thinking with thoughts kept from running riot when Christ is enthroned in the heart, governing words, deportment and character in social purity and honest conduct among unbelievers. Sexual sin including fornication and adultery violates the holiness expected of commandment keepers and brings dishonor to God and reproach on the truth. Love-sick sentimentalism, trifling, flirting even by married men with young girls or widows, levity and licentious acts are forbidden, and pleas of no harm meant, no moral wrong done, or mere thoughtlessness are no excuse. Such sentimental indulgence and flirtation are incompatible with godliness and sober Christian character, while honest conduct answers critics by good works that lead them to glorify God. The same indulgence of inclination, passion, and courtship and marriage without consulting God as in the days of Noah and the cities of the plain dishonors God and brings misery and judgment.
Professing to be pilgrims while keeping heart and treasure fixed on this world contradicts the profession, for Christians are not dwellers on earth but strangers in a strange country stopping only as for a night. They must not be actuated by the same motives and desires as those whose home and treasure are here, especially desire for gain, love of money, love of display, extravagance and hoarding. To abstain is to refuse fraud, robbery, oppression of widows, orphans and the poor for wealth, and to represent the life of Jesus by living to do others good. Earthly possessions are entrusted only for needs of life and health, testing faithfulness for eternal riches, and must not be desired and acquired as if owned, since the lasting home and purchased inheritance of glory, honor and immortality lie elsewhere. Followers of Christ are God's children and joint heirs with Him, yet the world does not recognize their adoption, holy calling, or fellowship with the Father and Son, so their humiliation and reproach conceal who they are and what they will inherit. In business this separateness means refusing sharp or corrupt methods and following heaven's principles after Christ's pattern, and grasping for large wages while professing to be a peculiar people zealous of good works violates the putting away of fleshly lusts and greed for gain, displeases God and hinders advance into new territories.
As travelers pilgrims must restrain desires God would have them repress and refuse to spend means to gratify them, limiting wants to set a right example and faithfully represent their faith. They show they are strangers by where and how they live, working in cities as Enoch did but not dwelling in them, leaving cities for a favorable atmosphere away from rulers' residences and wealthy homes, securing if possible an uncrowded cultivable site. They allow nothing savoring of extravagance in outlay for buildings or furnishings, do nothing for display, and by strict economy show they realize they are strangers while exerting God-given powers to uplift those needing help. They avoid costly furnishings and unnecessary spending and use means to support Christ's work because they will soon leave earth for a better heavenly country. Homes, time, money and abilities are to be used for others and God's work rather than display or worldly indulgence, since corrupting appetites and passions tarnish the soul.
Pilgrims and strangers must not settle and colonize the work in one place or crowd everything into one locality, but go out to establish work in many neglected towns, cities and fields. True missionary workers will not invest large sums in one place, center the work in one place, or stay where they are not needed, but deny self, lift the cross, leave crowded centers like Battle Creek, and plant the standard of truth where it has not been heard. They are to make plants in many places, establishing schools and sanitariums where nothing represents the truth, for spreading truth, caring for the sick, educating youth, preparing the way for Christ's coming, and going everywhere with the missionary spirit to save souls perishing in sin.
Abstaining means remaining forever separate from the world, living in the world but not of it and keeping free from contaminating influences, refusing to bind up with worldlings by inviting them into councils or dishonoring truth by bringing worldly lawyers into connection with God's work. Medical missionary work is not to be made the body but bound up with gospel ministry, with physicians and medical workers molded after Christ's similitude, standing on the platform of truth uninfluenced by false theories and laboring unitedly with church and ministers in disinterested soul-saving work.
Remembering pilgrim identity means traveling toward a better country with pure and holy lives showing new birth from above and that this world is not home. It requires humbling the soul before God, holding eternal realities constantly in view, and doing God's work with earnestness, bringing those realities before seekers and cooperating with Him to turn sinners from Satan to serve the living God. This life is active through the week in service and joyful, powerful testimony on the Sabbath as living witnesses, for a living church is a working church. Watchful waiting for Christ and refusal to be absorbed in earthly treasure make separation plain and show transformation, with conduct declaring earthly things temporary and less important than the kingdom and its lasting treasures, in earnest devotion looking toward the heavenly country.
Professing pilgrims must not conform to worldly fashions and lusts that compete with healthy bodies, sound minds and sanctified hearts, but live carefully and holy as strangers awaiting the Lord's appearing. Watchfulness distinguishes them from the world, while conformity shows attachment to warring lusts rather than pilgrim life. Indulging appetite strengthens unholy passions and harms the soul, so Christian conduct requires abstaining rather than merely bearing the Christian name.
Believers are strangers and pilgrims in this world, temporary residents traveling to a better, heavenly country that is their true home. As such they are to abstain from fleshly lusts, which mean far more than open licentiousness and include every harmful gratification of appetite or passion. Those lusts war against the soul by dulling the faculties, clouding the mind, benumbing spiritual perception, and bringing the higher powers under the control of baser passions. Abstaining therefore requires temperance and self-denial in eating, drinking, dress, labor and all things, consecrating the body as a living sacrifice and temple of the Holy Spirit with sanctified reason bearing sway. Kept in this way, pilgrims live distinct from the world and show forth God's praises by honest conduct and good works among unbelievers, so that those who speak against them may glorify God.
Strangers and Pilgrims Identity
Believers are temporary residents in this world, strangers and pilgrims traveling toward a better, heavenly country that is their true home, and they are urged to abstain from fleshly desires because those desires wage war against the soul. This restraint belongs to the high standard they are to maintain before the world, joined to honest conduct among unbelievers so that good works answer accusations and lead observers to glorify God in the day of visitation.
That pilgrim identity means allegiance to Christ and a life distinct from the world, separated from its customs, motives, and practices and not shaped by its standards. Christians are only passing through, their hopes are not built here, and their conduct should show that earthly things are temporary and less important than the kingdom of God and its lasting treasures. Their watchful waiting for Christ and refusal to be absorbed in earthly treasure make their separation plain and show that Christ is formed within and that they are transformed.
As people called out of darkness into marvelous light, they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people now made the people of God by mercy, appointed to show forth His praises. That showing forth is a life of loving God supremely and neighbor as self engraved on the heart, a fruit-bearing life of faith working by love and purifying the soul, displaying by spiritual attitude, words, temper, and works that they feed on Christ and have His Spirit dwelling in them. It refuses fault-finding, reproving, personal thrusts against the Christless, and being easily provoked, submits to every human ordinance for the Lord's sake as lawful and right, keeps conduct honest among the Gentiles, and by well-doing puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men so accusers see good works and glorify God. This abstinence is how those who know present truth show plainly they are on the Lord's side, fully identify with principles of eternal truth, give evidence they are God's peculiar people, honor Christ as Head of His church instead of going backward, live like Jesus as laborers together with God, and wait and watch for His near coming in the clouds with power and great glory while proclaiming the last-days message.
The pilgrim journey runs through danger and temptation among those who have rejected the only One who can save them, requiring alertness lest travelers be drawn from loyalty to Christ and leave the path to God's city. Flattering inducements, subtle arguments, ingenious subterfuges, scientific problems, and deceptive offers of friendly alliance are held out to tempt conformity or compromise for influence or apparent advantage, and they are not to be heeded. Overcoming demands watching unto prayer with constant, ceaseless vigilance at every step, a deeper knowledge and clearer understanding of truth, cherishing the grace of the Holy Spirit, honest conduct adorning Christian profession, making straight paths for the feet, and putting on the whole armor of God for hand-to-hand warfare with powers of darkness in sight of heaven, so as not to confuse fellow workers, hinder God's work, hurt the truth, or turn the lame out of the way while a vigilant foe watches.
Looking for God's lasting city and for Christ to receive them to Himself calls pilgrims to deny self, seek cleansing from God and His righteousness, and be ready when Christ comes. That hope makes the world's praise, riches, honors, pleasures, and distinctions seem worthless, directs steps heavenward in longing for home, and marks a clear difference from the world as Christ's righteousness makes them lights in its moral darkness. Because this world is only a temporary stay and not heaven, hearts are to be set on heavenly treasure rather than storing treasure on earth, and travelers must not become absorbed in earthly comforts or spend themselves beautifying temporary homes to neglect of soul growth, but strive to overcome that they may be received into God's paradise and the mansions prepared for them.
Fleshly Lusts Defined
Fleshly lusts in this verse mean far more than licentiousness or violations of the seventh commandment, embracing every harmful gratification of appetite or passion that can become a lust warring against the soul. Appetite itself has a good purpose, but when perverted it harms the body, weakens mind and moral character, degrades the higher faculties, and leads toward death. Because physical and moral nature are closely connected, wrong habits of eating and drinking lead to errors in thought and action, while indulged appetite strengthens animal propensities over mental and spiritual powers. Temperance in eating and drinking, as in all things, is therefore necessary for overcoming and attaining righteousness.
Natural inclinations and appetites were divinely appointed pure and holy, designed to be ruled by reason and, when regulated and controlled by sanctified reason, to minister to happiness as holiness to the Lord. Through indulgence and unholy gratification they are perverted and become fleshly lusts warring against the soul, by which Satan conquers through foes within and without. Unless watched and controlled with constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer, abused and misguided inclinations give loose rein to habits that cause backsliding from God. Abstaining means cooperating with Christ who gave His life to save soul and body and restore God's moral image, by consecrating the very flesh to His service and refusing food and drink that strengthen feelings at war with holiness, happiness, and purity. Every hurtful, health-enfeebling, life-destroying lust of appetite and passion, even what is in the least degree detrimental to brain and nerve energy, is such a warring lust, to be denied, partially subdued, mortified, and promptly corrected lest one be finally overcome.
The warning includes dependence on stimulants, narcotics, and intoxicants, which harm moral character, enslave those who form the habits, and lower spirituality. These are tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, liquor, beer, fermented wine, and morphine, whose indulgence can harm body and soul, cloud clear thought, impair reason and self-control, and displace devotion to Christ. The longer they are practiced the more firmly they enslave the will, dulling the faculties and weakening response to Bible teaching, so that refusing to resist a perverted appetite can take priority over hope of heaven and leave Christ in a subordinate place. Intoxicating beverages and all that intoxicates are the curse man manufactures, corrupting the race while Satan makes strenuous efforts to corrupt it in the time deciding every soul's destiny. Abstaining means touching not, tasting not, handling not what intoxicates and keeping tables free from it, escaping the corruption in the world through lust to become partakers of the divine nature in God-given manhood and womanhood.
It includes lustful and perverted appetite for flesh meats, rich and unhealthful foods, condiments, spices, pickles, tea-drinking, stimulating diet, and gluttony. Such indulgence strengthens appetites and animal propensities while weakening higher and holier qualities, lowering impulses and blunting ability to discern sacred things and value eternal things and Christ's salvation. Giving appetite free rein leads to giving passions free rein, leaving people bereft of reason, lethargic and palsied, neglecting reform to loss of spiritual power and ever deeper debasement in habits degrading human beings lower than beasts. Those who know the truth are to speak against these lusts and put away everything that creates an appetite for flesh meat.
The verse also forbids sexual sin including fornication, adultery, secret vice and corruption, and debasing enfeebling vices, which violate the holiness expected of commandment-keepers, bring dishonor and reproach on the truth, and can overcome people to perdition unless resisted with strength beyond human strength. It forbids love-sick sentimentalism, trifling, flirtation even by married people such as married men with young girls or widows, levity and even licentious acts, governing words, deportment, and character in sober thinking with thoughts kept from running riot. Claiming no harm was meant, no moral wrong was done, or that it was only thoughtlessness is no excuse. The same indulgence of inclination, passion, courtship and marriage without consulting God, as in the days of Noah and the cities of the plain, dishonors God and brings misery and judgment, while purity in thought and habit brings strength to soul and health to body for seeing the King in His beauty.
Fleshly lusts further include self-gratifying amusements and every habit of indulgence that weakens physical power, clouds the mind, or dulls spiritual perception, because amusement sought merely for self-gratification is dangerous and fights against the inner life. They include worldly fashions and desires that compete with healthy bodies, sound minds, and sanctified hearts, so that conforming to the world shows attachment to those lusts rather than the life of pilgrims awaiting the Lord's appearing. They include being actuated by desire for gain, love of money, love of display, extravagance and hoarding, and spending means to gratify desires God would have repressed. To abstain is to refuse fraud, robbery, and oppression of widows, orphans, and the poor for wealth, to restrain repressible desires, and to represent the life of Jesus by living to do others good.
War Against the Soul
Sinful gratification wages its war by dulling the faculties, weakening brain nerve-power, benumbing the brain and sensibilities, clouding the mind, and deadening mental and spiritual perception so that God's Word and Spirit make only a feeble impression on the heart. Intemperance weakens perception until eternal things are treated as common and placed on a level with common things, and the ability to value eternal things is dulled. Because great sympathy exists between the physical and the moral, and physical habits and moral strength are closely connected, wrong habits of eating and drinking lead to errors in thought and action, and obedience to physical and moral law belongs to resisting these desires. The warning forbids not only licentiousness but every harmful indulgence of appetite or passion, and indulged appetite strengthens animal propensities and lower impulses over mental and spiritual powers.
It brings the higher powers of the mind, designed for noble purposes, under the control of baser passions and sets physical nature in continuing conflict with spiritual nature. Dependence on stimulants and narcotics such as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, liquor, beer, fermented wine, and morphine harms moral character, lowers spirituality, and enslaves those who form the habits, more firmly the longer they are practiced. Such bondage weakens moral and spiritual capacity, prevents valuing God's law, Christ's atonement, and immortal life, displaces devotion to Christ, and can take priority even over hope of heaven. Continuing in lustful appetite and cherished idols sacrifices self-confidence, Godlike manhood, and noble moral independence, leaving a person slave to a hurtful, low, degrading habit that constantly grows stronger while health and spiritual growth are weakened.
These lusts war against the soul by weakening physical and mental force, injuring health, benumbing the brain so eternal truth cannot be appreciated, hindering spiritual advancement, and keeping a burdened conscience with constant accusation. Those who indulge them become a mark to be hit whenever straight truth is spoken, take offense when difficult truths are presented, withdraw from church meetings, and lose interest in the meetings and love for the truth. Crucifying fleshly lusts removes that obstacle, lets truth pass without wounding the conscience, and allows the arrows of truth to pass harmlessly by, so that only those who in the fear of God rely on Him for strength and abstain and reform can advance spiritually, and not before. This applies to lustful appetite, perverted appetite, debasing passion, sinful indulgence, and appetite for flesh meat with tea, tobacco, and flesh-meats as harmful stimulants; indulging them leaves people bereft of reason, lethargic and palsied, neglecting reform brings loss of spiritual power and ever deeper debasement in habits that disgust the heavenly universe and degrade human beings lower than the beasts, while indulging and concealing tobacco prevents growth in the divine life. Those who stop may suffer a period of loss and feel worse for a time while benumbed nature recovers from false stimulus, but persistence lets nature rally and do her work well, calling for sacrificing even painful bodily gratification to purify flesh and spirit in hope of eternal reward and an unfading crown.
If watched and controlled these desires can be overcome, but if given loose rein through unwatchfulness they strengthen, corrupt through lust, cause backsliding from God, and lead toward pain, death, perdition, and loss of eternal life. Natural inclinations and appetites were divinely appointed pure and holy, designed for reason to rule them so they would minister to happiness as holiness unto the Lord, yet by indulgence and unholy gratification they are perverted and become fleshly lusts warring against the soul by which Satan conquers. The conflict has foes within and without in a decided warfare with the powers of darkness fought in sight of the universe of heaven, beginning when a person leaves Satan's side for Christ and requiring hand-to-hand fighting with the whole armor of God, for temptations are numerous, deceiving, and often not clearly discerned. Overcoming demands constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer, cooperating with Jesus Christ who gave His life to save soul and body and restore the moral image of God in man by consecrating the very flesh to His service and refusing food that strengthens feelings at war with holiness, happiness, and purity, since resisting powerful evils like secret vice requires strength beyond human strength.
Every indulged appetite at enmity with the laws of being becomes a warring lust, where strong and active lower propensities oppress the soul, lustful indulgence and lustful eating war against health and peace, and the highest interests of the being are imperiled in warfare between the higher and the lower attributes. Breaking God's laws for the body intensifies this conflict in fallen humanity, unnatural physical indulgence strengthens those desires and degrades both body and soul, and intemperance of any kind benumbs the perceptive organs and weakens brain nerve-power. Abstaining therefore includes temperance in eating, drinking, dress, and labor, avoiding anything intoxicating, governing appetites and passions by the revealed will of God, cleansing from every habit that defiles the physical system, and advancing with received light instead of depending on past experience. The warring lusts are every hurtful, health-enfeebling, life-destroying lust of appetite and passion, including any lust in the least degree detrimental to brain and nerve energy, in a determined warfare between good and evil, right and wrong, God and the devil waged incessantly since the angels in heaven rebelled. Denial of appetite, denying and partially subduing and mortifying each such lust, brings the body into more healthful condition to continue the warfare with stronger faith and clearer, keener perception and to gain mastery over self, for the most difficult warfare is against self, requiring complete subjection of all appetites and passions, constant watchcare over the heart, victories by constant suppression of every evil desire and unhealthful practice, purification of the soul temple from every defilement, and prompt and painful correction of every step deviating from the laws of life and health and the laws of God, lest one be finally overcome.
Honorable Witness to Unbelievers
As strangers and pilgrims whose allegiance is to Christ and whose life is distinct from the world, believers must abstain from fleshly desires because those desires war against the soul. Their conduct among unbelievers is to be honest, so that even those who speak against them as evildoers will see their good works and glorify God in the day of visitation. This is the responsibility of the church as a whole, whose holy conduct displays God's praise, and the duty of every person who claims to be God's child living among nonbelievers.
That witness shows feeding on Christ and having His Spirit dwelling within by spiritual attitude, words, temper, and works. It refuses fault-finding, reproving, personal thrusts against the Christless, and being easily provoked. It keeps conduct honest among unbelievers, submits to every human ordinance for the Lord's sake as lawful and right, and with well-doing puts to silence the ignorance of foolish men, so as not to cut off influence or awaken prejudice. As a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people called out of darkness into marvelous light and made God's people by mercy, pilgrims are to show forth His praises by a fruit-bearing life of faith that works by love and purifies the soul, loving God supremely and neighbor as self with the law engraved on the heart, and by copying the simplicity of Christ as probationers in this world. This restraint belongs to a life purified by faith and shaped by beholding Christ, so that honest conduct and good works make His character visible.
Those who hold sacred trusts and minister in the Lord's work must not feel at liberty to be disobedient, unthankful, unholy, condemnatory and harsh, loving to serve themselves rather than the Lord. The spirit and character they reveal forms their own destiny for how their works will appear in the judgment, requiring letting present truth abide as a principle in the soul, striving earnestly for perfection of character, and surrounding contacts with a life-giving holy atmosphere that revives humble and contrite hearts. Ministers must preach this abstinence everywhere as faithful sentinels holding back moral woe, breaking the chains of intoxicating drink and moral corruption that enslave people, touching not, tasting not, handling not what intoxicates and keeping tables free from it in cooperation with Christ, so that by escaping the corruption in the world through lust believers stand in God-given manhood and womanhood as partakers of the divine nature. That same call applies to practicing health reform and cultivating the heart, to abstaining from foods that stir up fleshly lusts since eating and drinking affect the health of the soul, and to overcoming one's own lusts by earnest effort and prayer for grace, with teachers, ministers, sanitarium workers, and every successful worker for God studying the laws of physical health and presenting the truth forcibly by precept and by example in their own abstinence and in agreement between example and teaching.
Speech and character are part of this witness, with light shining through good conduct, practical godliness, and personal holiness that faithfully represents Christ and defends God's law before those who do not obey the truth. As a people separated from the world and its customs and called out to be God's peculiar people, abstinence shows plainly that they are on the Lord's side, fully identified as believers in eternal truth and honoring Christ as Head of His church. It belongs to being laborers together with God, living like Jesus, letting words bless others, and waiting and watching for His near coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory while proclaiming the last-days message.
Temperance and Bodily Health
Abstaining from fleshly lusts includes temperance in eating, drinking, dress, labor, and all things, refusing intoxicants and sinful indulgences that weaken the body and its powers in order to preserve the whole being for God's service. It is self-denial through health reform, choosing simple food and drink for God's glory, controlling appetite because indulgent eating strengthens baser passions and endangers bodily health and spiritual life. Bringing eating and drinking into conformity with the laws of nature is duty to God, an earnest study and personal obligation, since willing ignorance is sin and eating and drinking bear importantly on life. Diligently heeding this conforms a person physically and spiritually to the image of God.
The body and its members are to be consecrated to Christ's service as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice and temple of the Holy Spirit. The higher powers are to rule, with passions controlled by will, will controlled by God, and sanctified reason bearing sway, preserving vigor of mind and body in cooperation with God. Christ's self-denial and control of appetite show how to resist temptation, governing eating and drinking by principle for God's glory and upholding virtue and godliness. Daniel and his companions show that religious principle enables the young to overcome temptation to indulge appetite and remain faithful even at great sacrifice.
Indulged tobacco, tea, coffee, flesh meats, and stimulating, unhealthful diet are lustful appetites and cherished idols that war against the soul by weakening physical and mental force. They benumb the brain and dull the mind so eternal truth and Christ's salvation cannot be appreciated, hinder spiritual advancement, burden the conscience with constant accusation, and leave a person exposed to be wounded whenever straight truth is spoken. Liquors of every kind and tobacco cloud reason and place man below the brute, while meat and other injurious articles make the blood impure, since the body is composed of what is eaten and what is placed in the stomach becomes flesh and blood. Giving them up may make one feel worse for a time while benumbed nature recovers from false stimulus and suffers a period of loss, but persistence lets nature rally and do her work well. Without abstaining and reforming there is no advance and no eternal life, but slavery to a hurtful, low, degrading habit that constantly grows stronger, sacrifices self-confidence, Godlike manhood, and noble moral independence; those who in the fear of God rely on Him for strength and reform can advance so that the arrows of truth pass harmlessly by.
Healing from God gives no license to indulge perverted appetite or ignore the call to abstain, for restored health, strength, and powers are given to be devoted to His service. Accepting health reform is part of truth and blessing, while hesitation and refusal lose blessing, though the test may be difficult. The warning must be urged by teachers by both precept and example. Tendencies to wrong, whether inherited or cultivated, can become lusts warring against the soul and must be met with determined effort, moral effort, and trust in Christ's grace, helping a person escape the corruption of the world and live under the controlling power of grace. The danger is already present, and the Lord's sword must reach deeply to cut away appetites and passions. Victory over self, the world, and the devil comes through Christ's imparted righteousness and mastery over self-indulgence, resisting alcohol and stimulating drinks whose cravings impair reason and self-control, with constant watching, ceaseless vigilance, and watching unto prayer.
Appetite is to be brought under the control of reason, abstaining from harmful indulgence and from tobacco and other depraved appetites as part of purification of flesh and spirit and advancement in the divine life, even at cheerful sacrifice and suffering in view of the eternal reward and immortal inheritance. Parents who practice this are prepared to guide children step by step in healthful, safe, and righteous ways, guarding habits and inclinations lest indulged evils and selfish desires become warring lusts, that children may become helpers with Christ. The desire for the flesh of dead animals is such an appetite, and when appetite clamors for meat, fasting and prayer can seek God's grace to deny it, disciplining the person and turning attention to the spiritual nourishment of God's Word.
Holy Pilgrim Life
Abstaining from fleshly lusts belongs to putting off the old self and living the renewed holy life, resisting corrupt desires through the Spirit, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is personal piety in wise and unreserved cooperation with divine principles, practiced with watchfulness and prayer, in humility, mutual submission and unity, without lifting up the soul to vanity. It is the practice of all that is claimed as truth by those entrusted with the greatest truths ever committed to mortals, fitting them and qualifying them for the kingdom of God. Fleshly or carnal lusts are the desires of the lower, corrupt nature working through the body, where depraved appetite excites and strengthens animal propensities. To crucify the flesh does not mean inflicting pain on the body but putting temptation to sin to death, expelling corrupt thoughts, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, keeping body and members under rule of the soul as instruments of righteousness with the love of God reigning supreme.
The call requires sober thinking with thoughts kept from running riot when Christ is enthroned in the heart, governing words, deportment and character in social purity and honest conduct among unbelievers. Sexual sin including fornication and adultery violates the holiness expected of commandment keepers and brings dishonor to God and reproach on the truth. Love-sick sentimentalism, trifling, flirting even by married men with young girls or widows, levity and licentious acts are forbidden, and pleas of no harm meant, no moral wrong done, or mere thoughtlessness are no excuse. Such sentimental indulgence and flirtation are incompatible with godliness and sober Christian character, while honest conduct answers critics by good works that lead them to glorify God. The same indulgence of inclination, passion, and courtship and marriage without consulting God as in the days of Noah and the cities of the plain dishonors God and brings misery and judgment.
Professing to be pilgrims while keeping heart and treasure fixed on this world contradicts the profession, for Christians are not dwellers on earth but strangers in a strange country stopping only as for a night. They must not be actuated by the same motives and desires as those whose home and treasure are here, especially desire for gain, love of money, love of display, extravagance and hoarding. To abstain is to refuse fraud, robbery, oppression of widows, orphans and the poor for wealth, and to represent the life of Jesus by living to do others good. Earthly possessions are entrusted only for needs of life and health, testing faithfulness for eternal riches, and must not be desired and acquired as if owned, since the lasting home and purchased inheritance of glory, honor and immortality lie elsewhere. Followers of Christ are God's children and joint heirs with Him, yet the world does not recognize their adoption, holy calling, or fellowship with the Father and Son, so their humiliation and reproach conceal who they are and what they will inherit. In business this separateness means refusing sharp or corrupt methods and following heaven's principles after Christ's pattern, and grasping for large wages while professing to be a peculiar people zealous of good works violates the putting away of fleshly lusts and greed for gain, displeases God and hinders advance into new territories.
As travelers pilgrims must restrain desires God would have them repress and refuse to spend means to gratify them, limiting wants to set a right example and faithfully represent their faith. They show they are strangers by where and how they live, working in cities as Enoch did but not dwelling in them, leaving cities for a favorable atmosphere away from rulers' residences and wealthy homes, securing if possible an uncrowded cultivable site. They allow nothing savoring of extravagance in outlay for buildings or furnishings, do nothing for display, and by strict economy show they realize they are strangers while exerting God-given powers to uplift those needing help. They avoid costly furnishings and unnecessary spending and use means to support Christ's work because they will soon leave earth for a better heavenly country. Homes, time, money and abilities are to be used for others and God's work rather than display or worldly indulgence, since corrupting appetites and passions tarnish the soul.
Pilgrims and strangers must not settle and colonize the work in one place or crowd everything into one locality, but go out to establish work in many neglected towns, cities and fields. True missionary workers will not invest large sums in one place, center the work in one place, or stay where they are not needed, but deny self, lift the cross, leave crowded centers like Battle Creek, and plant the standard of truth where it has not been heard. They are to make plants in many places, establishing schools and sanitariums where nothing represents the truth, for spreading truth, caring for the sick, educating youth, preparing the way for Christ's coming, and going everywhere with the missionary spirit to save souls perishing in sin.
Abstaining means remaining forever separate from the world, living in the world but not of it and keeping free from contaminating influences, refusing to bind up with worldlings by inviting them into councils or dishonoring truth by bringing worldly lawyers into connection with God's work. Medical missionary work is not to be made the body but bound up with gospel ministry, with physicians and medical workers molded after Christ's similitude, standing on the platform of truth uninfluenced by false theories and laboring unitedly with church and ministers in disinterested soul-saving work.
Remembering pilgrim identity means traveling toward a better country with pure and holy lives showing new birth from above and that this world is not home. It requires humbling the soul before God, holding eternal realities constantly in view, and doing God's work with earnestness, bringing those realities before seekers and cooperating with Him to turn sinners from Satan to serve the living God. This life is active through the week in service and joyful, powerful testimony on the Sabbath as living witnesses, for a living church is a working church. Watchful waiting for Christ and refusal to be absorbed in earthly treasure make separation plain and show transformation, with conduct declaring earthly things temporary and less important than the kingdom and its lasting treasures, in earnest devotion looking toward the heavenly country.
Professing pilgrims must not conform to worldly fashions and lusts that compete with healthy bodies, sound minds and sanctified hearts, but live carefully and holy as strangers awaiting the Lord's appearing. Watchfulness distinguishes them from the world, while conformity shows attachment to warring lusts rather than pilgrim life. Indulging appetite strengthens unholy passions and harms the soul, so Christian conduct requires abstaining rather than merely bearing the Christian name.