Good Monday morning, and thank you for joining us again on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

We start this new week with a great Bible question here today from a listener named Bill.

It's the kind of question that drops us right into a discussion over how our hearts work.

Here's Bill's question, Pastor John, hello, can you explain to me first Peter to 11?

And how these passions of the flesh actually waged war against the soul?

How do these passions threaten the soul?

Can you explain how all of this works?

Thank you.

Let's start by clarifying a few words in this verse.

For example, the word passions urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh.

The word is simply desires epithew me on.

They can be good desires in some contexts, or they can be bad desires.

The word itself doesn't decide whether they're good or bad.

What decides that in this verse is the added phrase of the flesh, abstain from the desires

of the flesh.

But even that is not a full explanation of why the desires would be so destructive and make

war on the soul.

So what does flesh mean?

How does the term flesh make its desires bad and dangerous, destructive to the soul?

The word flesh can mean simply the human body.

As it does, for example, in first Peter 4.1 where it says that Christ suffered in the

flesh.

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