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Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as
aliens and exiles to abstain from the
desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.
Don’t do fleshly desiring things. Is this a comment about sexuality or more
widely applicable to the ‘flesh’? That
depends on how you interpret the key word 'flesh'..
I am under the impression that it is the human body, fallen after sin,
and that this is a call to abstain from any sinful behavior, maybe drinking,
maybe things of a sexual nature, whatever.
More detail is not provided. Some
context is provided however.
Peter wants them to act ‘honorably’ among the Gentiles. Apparently, they are being branded as
evildoers, but Peter does not want to provide any ammunition for these
charges. In other words, the followers
of Jesus might be branded as one thing, but their behavior is going to provide
evidence to the contrary. They are going
to be on their best behavior.
But here is where there is an odd mixing of focal
points. Peter’s context is the wider
Gentile community, but his focus is on ‘desires of the flesh’, personal stuff,
sinful to be sure, but not widely threatening as individual behaviors. It would seem that the context of the charges
being brought against them is that the followers of Jesus engage in such
‘desires of the flesh’, that this is the basis of the religion of Jesus.
It kind of fits with one set of early charges leveled against
Christianity. The Lord’s Supper was
branded as cannibalism, eating flesh, drinking blood. There was a certain validity to the
uninformed assumptions about the Eucharist.
But as he concludes this sentence, a theological focus is
also brought into view.
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