What does the Bible say about overcoming lust?

This sordid occurrence took place at the time of sheep-shearing, the time when something was taken from the sheep. To take and leave naked is Satan's work. Sexual temptation was increased by the practices of the Canaanite cult. Ritual fornication was part of their fertility magic. It seems that Tamar posed as a temple/cult prostitute. Such was the world that Judah had married into! Can there be anything so dreadful as this kind of union? Alas, it is also found in the New Testament among the saints of God. Paul spares no words in telling the assembly at Corinth that, "fornicators" shall not "inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6: 9, 10). What had been done privately at home was made known to the conscience of the assembly and strongly condemned (1 Cor. 5: 1-13). With such they were not even to eat. The wicked person had to be put away from among them. We know that these sins are commonplace in the world. We need to be aware of our natural propensities and ought to be most cautious and reserved in our conduct with those of the opposite sex (1 Tim. 5: 2). Paul gives no licence for any dalliance with evil, but writes, "Flee fornication" (1 Cor. 6: 18). We are commanded by Scripture to put a great distance between ourselves and the temptation. Obedience to the Word of God is the only way of escape which has been provided. In the next chapter, Joseph, in captivity but still answering to God's will, "fled, and got him out" of Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife was persistent but he was as resolute to please God. Such a consideration seems entirely absent from Tamar and Judah. They demonstrate their personal vileness.

Verse 18. "Flee fornication," etc. Instead of being regarded as a thing indifferent, or even as a trivial offence, this sin is to be dreaded and shunned as a leprosy; for it contaminates both soul and body. Other sins did so but in part; but this completely, by turning that which God has claimed for Himself to an use which He condemns. A wrong is thus inflicted on the body itself, by alienating it from its true honour as an instrument of righteous worship, and again degrading it to the service of sin. It is, therefore, morally, what idolatry is spiritually; and the dissuasive from both is expressed by the apostle in the same terms.8 Each sin is to be fled from, by those who would please God. But there is a further and especial sense in which a believer's body is said to be sinned against by such an act. And this also the Corinthians should have known.

Verse 19. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" There is such a thing as spiritual self-respect. A Christian is expected to forget his first parentage in the remembrance of the second. He is not God's creature only, but His child. As the Son of God became incarnate, to put Himself within reach of our sins, so the believer, who adds knowledge to his faith, should understand that his mortal body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Sent down by the Father in the name of Jesus, He occupies this earthly house as a pledge and witness of its coming change.9 Now it is God's Spirit which we have of Him, and God's Spirit is His own essential presence. But what God dwells in is His temple. We have in this verse a distributive repetition of the doctrine already stated in an earlier chapter.1 Each Christian body is a temple of the Spirit, even as the collective assembly of saints is His temple, and the place where His honour dwells, in what locality soever that assembly is found. Now what God occupies is His, and not our own. We are not robbed of our natural ownership, but it merges in the higher honour of our calling. Our bodies are His temple — ours, therefore, only as ourselves are His; to be kept then, in sanctification and honour, in His Name.2 Thus a double duty is imposed on the Christian with respect to his own body. He is to manage and govern it with vigilance and godly decision, as a restive and unruly beast; he is to hold it in honour, and tremble to abuse it, because it is the temple of the living God. Are we Christians, and yet ignorant of these things? Once more, then, let the cross be our monitor and shame.

"Flee fornication." In this one is not told to fight, but to keep far from it, as Joseph fled from the wife of Potiphar. Other sins may not involve the body in this way, but this is sin against one's own body. And as well as our bodies being the members of Christ, now we are told, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." The Spirit of God dwells within our body in order to display in us the precious reality of His character in our practical lives. Notice that it is not said that our spirits or souls are His temple, but our bodies. So that when we are told, "Ye are not your own," we cannot regard this as being merely in regard to our spiritual interests, but fully applicable to our bodies. Being bought with a price - a price so infinitely great - certainly we are totally the property of the Living God; and it is only right and becoming that we should glorify God in our body.

But this is not the question discussed here. The Galatians had new life, but what was to be the power for producing Christian holiness? They were bringing in the rule of the law as a means of holiness; and the apostle entirely puts this aside "Walk," he says, "in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." There we have the divine guard; nay, more than that, it is not merely admonition against this or that evil, but what will give us power for what is good. "Walk in the Spirit." The Holy Ghost has been sent down to dwell in the believer. It is not the truth of our being builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit, as in Ephesians, where we have also the body of Christ brought out, the corporate relations of the children of God. The Epistle to the Galatians never gives us what is corporate, but always what is individual. And the walk being an individual thing, or what concerns each soul, if there were not another in the world, this is what you want. The word is, "Walk in the Spirit;" he does not say, Walk in the law. On the contrary, he had dealt sharply with the men who were so zealous for that rule. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." You want power against the lusts of the flesh: the Spirit is that power, and there is no other. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, in order that ye may not do the things that ye would." This, I believe, is what the Holy Ghost wrote and meant. What we have in our version is, as many of us have long known, positively wrong. I wish not to pass it over, nor to bring it in by an underhand way: but wherever there is anything plainly mischievous in this version, which is but a human one, it is a christian duty to call attention to it; and the more so, as I am always ready to maintain its general excellence and to defend the common Bible we have got against adversaries who would do it dishonour. But it is not a friend's part to justify a real mistake that may have slipped in through human infirmity, or worse.

But there is a way in which the Christian may walk through this world, with the enemies on every side, and be in perfect safety. There is a way in which the flesh has no power whatever against the Christian. And what is that way? "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not at all give effect to the passionate cravings of the flesh." That is our secret, "walk by the Spirit." God has given the Holy Spirit to dwell in each believer, and He does dwell in us, though often we forget Him, or grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), or disregard Him; but He does dwell in you, dear Christian reader, and He is ready to give you power for your walk. Heed His least prompting, obey Him instantly as He brings to your mind the Word of God; so we "walk by the Spirit." In verse 18 we will read of being "led by the Spirit." That is true; He knows the path we are to walk, and He is a faithful, trusty Guide. If we will but let Him lead us, then we will truly "walk by the Spirit," and we will not at all fulfill the passionate cravings of the flesh. How strong the flesh is! What passionate cravings it has! But there is One who is mightier than the flesh, who dwells within each one of us, and all His mighty power is ready to lead us, and to let us walk by the Spirit, so that there is no need for us to give effect at all to these passionate cravings of the flesh. In the Greek it is a double negative; that makes it very strong, "not at all" do we need to heed the flesh.

(V. 22). The instruction to separate from evil is followed by the equally important injunction, “Flee also youthful lusts.” Having separated from the corruptions of Christendom, we are to beware lest we fall into the corruptions of nature. “Youthful lusts” would not only allude to the grosser desires of the flesh, but also to all those things which fallen nature desires with the thoughtless impetuosity and self-will of youth. Never are we in greater danger of acting in the flesh than when we have acted in faithfulness to the Lord. One has said, “We may be beguiled into moral relaxation through satisfaction in our ecclesiastical separation.” How seasonable, then, is this exhortation to flee also youthful lusts, following, as it does, the injunction to withdraw from iniquity and separate from vessels to dishonour.

Our blessed Lord, in the temptation in the wilderness, is the perfect example in this as in all else. Satan sought to ply Him with every possible seduction, but He "kept" Himself by the maintenance of entire dependence and perfect obedience, and thus Satan could not touch Him, could not withstand the two-edged sword of the Spirit which He wielded, namely, the Word of God. And may we also not "keep" ourselves? Satan has no enticements for the new nature, and God has graciously given us the power, in the gift of the Holy Ghost, wherewith to mortify "the deeds of the body," our "members which are upon the earth" (See Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5), to keep the old man under the power of death, as well as to use the sword of the Spirit, so that there can be no necessity to become entangled in his snares. To overcome his solicitations, however, will require incessant vigilance and dependence, as is shown, by our Lord's words to His disciples, "Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Matt. 26:41.

By Him we have the power practically to mortify within ourselves the very passions in which we once indulged. No force of our own can accomplish this end. Self cannot put self to death; nature cannot mortify nature. “If by the Spirit ye do mortify — put to death — the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Rom. 8:13.) Self-indulgence is sin; God's Spirit gives us power over self, and, instead of indulging self, by Him we put to death the motions after the things in which we once delighted.

Sexual desire may become very strong so the requirement to live in this way may be considered a hard imposition. In such a case it is helpful if the young Christian concerned talks confidentially to a mature Christian of the same sex or a couple to find the help, support and prayer he or she needs. Beware of any ‘alternative solution’ (masturbation, pornography, films, etc.)! This will only make you unhappy and increase your burdens, and it will bring you into spiritual free fall. ‘For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if any praise, think on these things’ (Phil. 4:8).

“The heart is often led astray by the eye”, is no understatement! If in verse 36 we have a positive request (“Incline my heart … ”), in this verse we have a negative request: “Turn away mine eyes … ”. How quickly we are defiled by a look! How quickly we are distracted by what our eyes observe, how quickly deviated from the Lord's way for us: “ … quicken Thou me in Thy way”. Here again, the Lord will not do for us what we must do for ourselves. The apostle Paul tells us: “ … make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:14). Someone has said that it is the “second look” that is sin! He meant, that when you walk in the street and you see an unclean thing, a pornographic picture, you cannot help that. But when you stop, or turn to look again, that is deliberate! By turning, or stopping to look again, we are actually making provision for the flesh.