Buffeting the Body

1 Cor 9:27 - but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

One of the main reasons so many Christians fail to live consistently holy and clean before the Lord, which all true Christians will intensely desire to do, is because they have not practiced the principle of “buffeting their body and making it their slave” as the Apostle Paul practiced and taught in 1 Cor 9:27.

We have to understand that even though we’ve become a new creature in Christ and have been indwelled by His Holy Spirit, the flesh and it’s carnal appetites will still desire to be satisfied within us and must be steadfastly subdued by walking in the Spirit and denying its ungodly impulses. It’s a walk of faith. Christ has stripped the power of the flesh over us and given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness, but we must still walk that out by faith.

Why faith?  Because true faith in God will recognize the incomparable freedom and benefits of holiness and righteousness compared against the degrading, enslaving nature of sin. Enough so that whenever a fleshly urge rises up within us, intensely wanting to be satisfied, we say “NO!  You no longer have any dominion over me and I will not indulge you!...consider yourself denied!”.

You will be amazed at how quickly the temptation dissipates when you do this every time with determination. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you…...

We may not “feel” like doing this in the heat of the temptation, but the quality of our faith is PROVEN in that moment….everything leads up to the test. True faith is never passive, it is very active and must be purposely exercised the life of the believer. This is why the Apostle James said  “I will show you my faith BY MY WORKS”. Faith without works is considered “dead”. Some teach that faith is purely a gift and we don’t have any control over it, this is false. Faith is a gift AND a responsibility, it is given in measure, and then WE are held responsible to exercise it and build upon it. This is why we are commanded to “build yourself up in your most holy faith…” this is why it says in Hebrews “The just shall LIVE by faith, and IF ANY MAN shrinks back, my soul will have NO pleasure in him”.

Jesus makes an interesting statement in Luke when he says “When the son of man returns, will he find faith in the earth?” Will he find a people that have so committed themselves, in faith, to being like Him and being changed and conformed into His image, that they’ve learned how to “buffet their body and make it their slave”.