“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14).
The only possible way a Christian can be fully prepared for spiritual battle at any time is to do exactly what this verse commands: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The action taken must be personally done and ought to be a once-for-all-time event.
From the moment you put on Christ in baptism (Galatians 3:27), your outward conduct and abiding mindset is to be focused upon and patterned after Jesus. Your focus is on being all your Lord requires of you and doing all He expects of you.
No escape plan is to be devised. No provision for returning to the pigpen of sin is to be contemplated. All such contingencies are to be stopped and obliterated immediately. No one can serve two masters acceptably.
This approach to life is not necessary just for extraordinary periods of testing and trials like what the Christians in Rome were going to face soon; it is essential to every day of a Christian’s life. A soldier does not careen back and forth between being enlisted and not enlisted. He is a soldier, and thus he is expected to think and behave as such at all times.
As a soldier of Christ who has put on the Lord Jesus and the armor of light, do not make any provision for the flesh.
Divided loyalty is spiritual treason.
It is also an ironclad guarantee of spiritual defeat.
