“Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
1 Peter 4:1-2
Your primary weapon in your war against sexual sin isn’t filtering software, an accountability partner, a 12-step recovery program, an online forum or a therapist. Your primary weapon is your mind, a mind conformed to the mind of Christ. When you think as Christ thought during His earthly ministry, you stop sinning.
You are to arm yourself with the mind of Christ. That is, you and I are to view sin the way Christ viewed sin. We are to respond to temptation the way Christ responded to it. Christ was tempted in all points as we are, yet He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). When we arm ourselves with the mind of Christ, we do the same.
To have the mind of Christ necessarily means a life of suffering. Christ suffered for us in the flesh, not just on the cross of Calvary, but throughout his entire life. We suffer in the flesh just as Christ suffered in the flesh when we have the mind of Christ. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We will be, too, if we walk through this wicked, sinful world seeing it the way Christ saw it, and thinking about it the way Christ thought about it.
When you arm yourself with the mind of Christ, seeing pornography vexes your spirit. Being tempted to sin sexually causes you mental anguish. But there is an awesome payoff. When you arm yourself with the mind of Christ, and make the will of God (not your own lusts and desires) the rule of your life and actions, you cease from sin.
To arm yourself with the mind of Christ means to be ready to suffer for Him. It means being ready to die to self, to die to the flesh, and to die to sin. Christ died not only to pardon your sin, but to destroy it. You, too, are to crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts (Galatians 5:24). Something worth thinking about, eh?
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