Make No Provision for the Flesh

Rom. 13:8. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

11 And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

(The New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1977.)

Paul is not urging the Roman saints to keep the law in verse nine but to realize that the whole law is summed up in the saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the only debt that we should have toward any other. This is not a matter of trying to love others but one of remaining in Christ all the time.

And he says that we should wake up for the time is short, that salvation is nearer than when we first believed. So we should put on the armor of light which is the same as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. He encourages us to walk properly as one who walks in the day and not as those who walk in sinful things in the dark. And, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.”

What is the provision for the flesh? I was taught that we should make sure that there is no provision for the flesh in our homes. For example, if I was a drunkard before I was saved, I should make sure that there was no alcoholic beverage in my home so that I wouldn’t be tempted. No doubt if that were my case it would be wise not to have those kind of things in my home.

But Paul is not talking about that kind of outward arrangement in our lives. The provision for the flesh here is its desire to keep the law. The flesh, which is our entire human being, loves the law of God and wants to live up to it. But whenever we try, the law of sin captures us and brings us into spiritual death. (See Romans Chapter Seven)
By putting on the armor of light, we live in God as light. This light kills the desire to attempt to please God, for in His light we see that our fallen human being cannot keep the law and never will be able to. At the same time we see that Christ on the cross has accomplished everything for us. He shines on us and we stay in fellowship with Him as we confess out sins. Then we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and put Him on. By this “putting on” of the Lord the desire of the flesh to keep the law is cancelled out in us. It remains cancelled as long as we live in spirit. This is to make the body of this death unemployed as Paul mentions in Rom. Seven.

The minute we get out of spirit, the desire of the flesh to be good, to keep some law to please God will crop up again. The only solution is to remain in Him.

For those who have known and experienced the mingled spirit, that is the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit, can I believe relate to this.