AN INWARD FOE

"For to be carnally minded is death . . . because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," Rom. 8:6, 7.

The young Christian will not be long on his way to heaven before he discovers an inward foe, working to the detriment of his sweet Christian experience. This foe St. Paul calls the "carnal mind." In the Greek, the will of the flesh, the word flesh here coming from "Sarkos", and referring to the sinful propensities of fallen nature rather than from "soma," meaning the physical body.

This "carnality" is a unit. If any remains, all remains; if it is cleansed away, it is all cleansed away. There are many traits of this remains of evil in the believer's heart. Before discussing these traits, pay close attention to these four basic principles about the carnal nature:

1. Every human being is born with a warped, contaminated, sinful disposition. David was no exception to the rule. He said, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psa. 51:5.

2. All unsanctified believers are possessed with this carnal nature. The best theologians agree to this.

3. Growth in grace will not remove this polluted sinful nature. One may grow in grace a life time, but carnality cannot be outgrown.

4. The blood of Christ, applied by the Holy Ghost, the sanctifying Agent, is the only hope for deliverance from this tormenting, soul-damning infection.

Search your heart as we lay down some principal traits prominent in many Christian believers. Ask God to reveal its secrets, and let Him sanctify you wholly as soon as you are aware of the need of it.

1. Pride. This tops the list. It is the first known sin. It took a holy archangel, Lucifer, and transformed him into a hideous devil. Read Isa. 14:12-23 and see what pride did for him. How true the proverb, "Pride goeth before destruction."

What is pride? Inordinate self-esteem, high opinion of one's importance; an undue sense of superiority, a selfish feeling of exhaltation and elation in view of talents, accomplishments, clothes, personal charm, friends and the like. The feeling of unwillingness to suffer without retorting; the self-defensive, air-of-importance disposition which is greatly pained to have to take anything said or done to one, particularly from those considered inferior. Have you ever felt these things, Christian friend?

2. Evil tempers or anger is a carnal trait, and is sure evidence that one is not sanctified. In Eph. 4:31 St. Paul says, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you." Verse 26, "Be ye angry and sin not," does NOT license us to be angry. Dr. Adam Clarke says the literal translation is "Be not angry lest ye sin." See Clark's Commentary, Eph. 4:26. He further adds, "It would be difficult for even an apostle himself to be angry and sin not." But further: Paul said SIN NOT! Can you say harsh, sharp, cutting things in angry tones and never feel that you have grieved the Spirit? If so, I fear you are entirely out of the grace of God and have imbibed a hard heart, besides. When those flashes of anger run over you and something boils up in your soul for a few seconds, what remorseful feelings creep over you after it is over! Good friend, Christ will rid you of this if you will come humbly pleading the blood for your deliverance.

3. A spirit of revenge. Rom. 12:19 says, "Vengeance is mine . . . saith the Lord." He says He will repay, meaning that is not our part. How sad for Christians to feel the spirit of retaliation; of getting even with someone, or for a second the feeling to smite back with hand or tongue when evil entreated. Ah, we know when that ugly thing shows its head, and, though outwardly we are calm, inwardly we feel a surge of revenge.

4. Evil suspicion. Are you prone to look constantly for evil traits in others? Do you find yourself always thinking of people working against you, when probably the contrary is true? True enough, it may sometimes look that way, but the Spirit-filled Christian refuses to take the poison of evil suspicion and get sour towards others.

5. Ill will. Do you feel at times towards others as you would not have them to feel towards you? Not only must we do unto others, but feel towards others in our hearts, as we would that they should towards us. But carnality will not do this. It often finds a certain secret sense, though half-squeezed down by conscience, of inward satisfaction at the downfall or demotion of someone who has been a peculiar trial in life. Is that "perfect love"?

6. Selfishness is sure to creep out once in a while in unsanctified hearts. How? In a selfish, stingy, holding back principle which will see God's cause or people suffer before it will relinquish a few cents to help the matter. Sometimes in a domineering spirit feeling that it should be placed ahead of others; in a word, undue self-love and egotism.

7. Jealousy is a sure sign of this inward foe. Look at Saul after he backslid in heart. He could not stand David's prosperity. It was all right for him to slay Goliath, but for him, not Saul, to get the credit, that was a different story! The song of the ladies brought the old man of jealousy to the surface. Did you ever know him to rise in camp meetings, conferences, conventions and other like places, when some godly little David was receiving "honor to whom honor" was due while for the moment others of greater talents, experiences, etc., were overlooked? The best evidence of jealousy is the fact that one cannot feel perfectly comfortable in the presence of that one who has achieved, either because of inward feelings against him, or disparaging remarks that his work is superficial, or a certain dislike for him.

Can we truly rejoice in the prosperity and gain of others? Is there no discontented, jealous feeling within?

8. Malice is sometimes manifested by Christians not in perfect love. It crops out betimes in the feeling that we "just find it difficult" to perfectly forgive someone who has mistreated us. Or, it may be there is a tendency to hold something grudge-like in our spirit which robs us of real fellowship with certain other Christians. No, we do not "have it in for them," but it doesn't "set well" on our feelings when we are around them, because we have never relinquished that feeling that they did not treat us right. It should be stated in fairness to truth that however humble and holy one may be, some folk refuse to fellowship him which brings a damper-like feeling over one's spirit, But the feeling of malice towards one has no place in the truly sanctified heart.

9. Stubbornness is a trait of the old man of sin. This was Saul's ruin. This sin consists of the disposition to rebel against God; headstrong to have one's own way. The inward tendency to put up a resistance towards doing all the will of God as His Word has revealed to us. This is a dangerous folly. It has brought many to ruin.

10. Worldly shame. Christ informed us that whosoever would be ashamed of Him and His word in this wicked world, He would be ashamed of him before the Father and the angels, Mark 8:38. To feel ashamed to shoulder the cross and bear it is certainly carnal. For example: the thing that keeps many converted believers from being filled with the Spirit is the fact that they are ashamed to be numbered with people who stand for full salvation, or ashamed to testify that they are sanctified. That feeling of shame is pure, unadulterated carnality. Holiness, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, sanctification and heart purity are all Christ's Word; if we are ashamed of it, we might as well prepare either to pray through to where we are NOT, or else!

11. Undue affection for relatives, friends and worldly things. It is passing strange to some that this should be placed in this catalogue, but here is where it belongs. Until we get enough religion to go with Christ, regardless of worldly friends and relatives we are not going very far towards heaven. Even in the Old Testament days people had to get that much. When Elisha was called, he slew his oxen, made a farewell feast, bade his relatives good-bye and started out. When God called Abraham the first demand was, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," Gen. 12:1. God well knew he would never do any good with him as long as he listened to the beck and call of carnal kin, so told him to GET OUT! Some folk would be better off if they would move fifty miles from their nearest relatives -- they are so tied up to them that they cannot have spiritual freedom. But a better thing to do is this: to die out to them, get filled with the Holy Ghost, take your stand for the right and do your utmost to win them for God! But you will have to die out to them before you can be in this condition.

Jesus had quite a lot to say on this subject. "He that loveth father or mother . . . son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me," Matt. 10:37. To the man who would first go bury his father, He said, "Let the dead bury their dead." He told His disciples that they must be willing to leave all and take up the cross. All this seems to the believer at first glance to be hard and exacting. But it is not. He did not say forsake them, mistreat or neglect them. No, this itself would be unchristian. But we must get to the place where we desire the whole will of God for our lives more than we desire to please our relatives and friends. We must so put them upon the altar of our consecration that they will not get in our way of serving God and doing His will.

As for the love of worldly things, the secret desire that in some Christian believers' hearts comes to the surface for a brief span to once more participate in something questionable and of a worldly nature, should be a warning that there needs to be a renovation of the heart from those things which would defile it if allowed. We are not now speaking of the temptation which crosses young converts' pathway at times, but of the realization of inward affections toward worldly things which Christians should not have.

12. The lust of the flesh is a sure evidence of carnality. Pity of pities it is that this dreadful, hideous, deceitful monster should be found lurking in the bosom of a Christian believer. This inordinate, unholy desire which has paved the way downward for millions is a deadly foe to Christians. Legitimate, normal desire is not sinful nor carnal; it is entirely human. But the unsanctified heart has a mixed condition in which the carnal and unwholesome sediment of unholy desire is found. It sometimes comes out when people of opposite sex for a few seconds sense certain secret pleasure in long, affectionate, squeezing handshakes; looking deeply into each other's eyes, or in gazing and fastening the eyes in the wrong direction. Then as if out of a clear sky lightening had struck, their inner consciousness arouses and they come to their senses, spiritually. Oh, the shadowy, polluted feeling that settles down over them like a horrible nightmare; the wringing agony of soul that sometimes follows, with tears and earnest prayers. Gentle reader, there is a better way to live than this. Seek the cleansing stream and be made whole.

Sour, fretful, peevish, crabbed and irritable dispositions may be resulting from the presence of the carnal nature, Beware of this state. Search your soul, Christian believer, and if you find these or other things contrary to heart purity, let Christ cleanse you today.