The War for Our Souls - Pt 3

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12 ESV).

As we continue in our study of Peter’s first letter, I am also continuing to use some of the symbolism of the State of Texas. That may be entirely because of the research I’ve been doing separately from Morning Devotionals. I am writing a fictional book about the secession of Texas from the Union. The story of the state flag illustrates a principle I want to bring us to today. The Texas flag carries deep symbolism behind its colors and designs. The colors selected for the flag were designed to represent the traits of loyalty, bravery and purity. However, most unique is the single star on the background of blue. This gives the state its nickname of “the Lone Star State.” The Texas Flag Code states that the star is symbolic of the state of Texas and the unity as one for God, State and Country. And, in the picture today, what could be more “Texas” than an old barn with the flag painted on it and two longhorns resting in the foreground! It is a “glorious” picture. Our reading today says the motivation of God’s battle for our souls is our good and His glory (v. 12). This is done principally through our behavior. In fact, the goal of human behavior is the glory of God. We cannot mistake this truth. The positive significance of our lives is derived from whether our lives direct other's attention to the glory of God. If we live our lives in such a way that they don't point people to the glory of God, then our lives are without positive significance from a Christian standpoint. What we become is just an echo of a God-neglecting culture. We fit into the world so well that our lives don't point beyond the world. We are no longer aliens and strangers, but simply conforming citizens of the God-ignoring world. But from the biblical standpoint the greatest issue in this world is the glory of God. All human behavior is meant by God to get attention for God. As far as God is concerned, our life has positive significance to the degree that what we do from the time we get up in the morning till the time we go to bed at night points people to the glory of God. Keep in mind, lest you infer from this that solitude has no positive significance, you are one of the people you are to point to God. So there are two great issues in the world, the salvation of the soul and the glory of God; or, how the soul of man might not be destroyed and how the glory of God might not be belittled. Jesus has won the war, though battles are still fought today within our lives that show that victory in all of its glory. That’s our motive for good deeds!