Have you ever read any of the Give Yourself Goosebumps series by RL Stine? They were like Choose Your Own Adventure horror fiction, and they featured scenarios like this:
You finally leave the house party with your friend. But you’ve noticed it’s already past your curfew. You want to get home as quick as possible before your parents notice just how late you are. So your friend leads you through a shortcut to get you home as soon as possible. You go down a dark alleyway, but as you turn the corner, you meet a large zombie.
- If you choose to fight the zombie with your friend, turn to page 10.
- If you choose to turn back around and run, turn to page 21.
- If you choose to push your friend towards the zombie and run past the zombie, turn to page 30.
Obviously in real life, you will never come face-to-face with a zombie, and a good option in this sort of life-threatening situation is to simply put the book down and continue with your day. Also, if you’re a reader who’s anything like me, death is never the end: you can simply turn back and try the other options until you succeed.
Even so, I think the Christian life is not dissimilar to a Give Yourself Goosebumps book: we too stumble across life or death situations when we come face-to-face with the monsters of sin and temptation. Consider this scenario:
You are a Christian who decides one morning to go to the beach. But upon setting foot on the hot white sand, you meet a giant red monster named Lust.
“Oho!” he says, throwing one disgusting arm around your shoulders and gesturing at a group of girls playing beach volleyballs in bikinis. “What have we here? Come and take a good look!”
- If you choose to turn your car around, drive home and hide in your room, turn to page 10.
- If you choose to go with Lust, turn to page 21.
- If you choose to evade Lust and try to find a patch of sand out of its sight, turn to page 30.
- If you equip yourself for battle, stand your ground and try to defeat Lust so you can go enjoy the waves in peace, turn to page 46.
In scenarios like these, believers ask, “What options do I have?” and “Which one will I choose?”
Flee!
“But Caitlin,” I hear you say. “Surely the right option is to flee. This is what Scripture instructs us to do.” Flee as swiftly as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife (Gen 39). Flee sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:18) and idolatry (1 Cor 10:14). Flee the things of this world—the love of money (1 Tim 6:10-11) and your youthful desires (2 Tim 2:22). “Flee!” the Bible commands.
But is that our only option? Should our Christian sister never watch the latest romance movie, because she knows that it is bound to include a scene that will make her heart rate rise? Should our Christian friend who struggles with greed and covetousness always abstain from shopping? Should our Christian brother avoid posting online entirely because somehow he always ends up in fights?
Also, what does it really mean to flee? How does the believer who struggles to not love this world flee when the world surrounds them and is waiting for them at every single corner? Is the act of fleeing, simply put, escaping? Is it about seeking safety from danger, or is it more about avoiding danger at all costs? Or does it denote a sense of fighting—in fleeing the power the temptation holds over you?
Scripture is clear in its imperative: flee! It is the option we must pick—the page we must turn to. But obedience calls for knowledge: we must know what it means to flee.
Know yourself
We often fall for the advice that in order to win a fight, the first step is to understand your enemy: know its weak spots, plan your attack strategy and then watch your plan unfold perfectly. But the truth is, understanding yourself holds the key to successful fleeing. Self-awareness reveals two key truths—firstly, that you are always weaker than your opponent, and secondly, that you are your own opponent.
You are weaker than your opponent
When Paul writes to the Corinthians about temptation, he warns them about the danger of false security in their self-acclaimed strength: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor 10:12). Paul knows too well the flaw in humanity’s self-perception—the tendency to believe that we are stronger than we are and to think that our self-control is in better shape than it is. We think we are quick enough to hold back our own tongues and agile enough to avoid the lure of temptation.
Knowing this, Paul forewarns the strong: “Don’t let your guard down and rely on your own strength”. As the Puritan pastor-theologian John Owen said,
Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head.1
Sin does not view you as an enemy too strong to defeat; it is clever, using both force and deceit to knock you off your feet.
You are your own opponent
Secondly, the opponent you face is not a monster you stumble across in a dark alleyway; rather, our enemy—sin—dwells within. Ultimately, this is how it weakens us: our enemy is our own evil desire, and its tactic is to drag us away and entice us (Jas 1:13-14). Paul depicts this enemy of self through the internal struggle of man against his flesh: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Rom 7:15).
Knowing the true nature of your weak, flesh-ridden self prepares you to choose the right option. It is this self-awareness that reveals why we must choose to flee: “Flee, because you will never be able to win this fight against your own flesh!” It would be foolish to wander down the alleyway when you know temptation lives right there. It would be foolish for the believer who struggles with lust to stride confidently towards that sexually explicit TV series. It would be foolish for the believer who struggles with envy to go on Instagram and scroll through countless posts of friends flaunting their riches. It would be foolish for the believer who struggles with greed to walk, credit card in hand, into a shop filled with all the things their heart desires.
Heed the command: “Flee!”
Flee by avoiding
Now that we know why we must flee, we come to understand what we must do to obey that command. How should we flee?
Our initial understanding of the act of fleeing might be to escape—in other words, to cut and run, leg it, skedaddle. However you want to put it, in its most simple form, fleeing is about getting away from danger as quickly as possible.
One way in which believers apply the command to flee is by avoiding. The believer who knows they are too weak to win a fight will often aim to avoid. If the voice of Folly in Proverbs 9 calls to “those who pass by” (Prov 9:15), then isn’t the best way to avoid her to simply not pass by at all?
On the one hand, this solution is wise: it rightly acknowledges our weakness. On the other hand, it fools believers into thinking that you can simply avoid what lies within. Consider a Christian who struggles with lustful thoughts towards their co-worker: fleeing through avoidance looks like physically steering clear of any interaction with this co-worker—for example, leaving the room when their object of temptation enters, communicating only through email, or never looking them in the eye if they must talk in person. This Christian hasn’t fled from the enemy at all; instead, the enemy remains comfortably by their side like a good friend.
Flee, but do not avoid
Our initial understanding of what “fleeing” means must be built upon. It would be dangerous to create a dichotomy where fleeing is simply about getting away. We do this when we categorise our options as fight, flight or freeze. We limit the definition of “fleeing” to “flying”.
But the Bible never does this. Just as Scripture demands the believer to flee, it equally demands the believer to fight—to put to death the things of the flesh (Col 3:5; Rom 8:13). We must expand our definition of fleeing to more than just running away. We cannot run away from ourselves; ultimately, that just tires us out, because every time we think we have reached safety, we come face to face with our sinful desires in a new environment.
Therefore, I want to propose that we expand our definition of fleeing to one that involves putting to death the sin within. John Owen implores the believer to see that sin is not put to death through diversion and avoidance. He says,
He who does not kill sin in his way takes no steps towards his journey’s end. He who finds not opposition from it, and who sets not himself in every particular to its mortification, is at peace with it, not dying to it.2
What Owen is saying is that putting sin to death (that is what he means by “mortification”) cannot happen through avoidance, because the danger zone is not external. As Jesus shows us, the danger lies within:
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20–23)
If we want to escape once and for all, we need to confront, not avoid.
Put to death and pursue
When a believer chooses to flee, where should they flee to? In Scripture, the act of fleeing is not a stand-alone concept, but is often paired with another action: pursuit. In two key passages where Paul commands believers to flee, he follows up his command with an imperative to also pursue:
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (1 Tim 6:9-11)
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim 2:22)
In other words, flee from the temptation of wickedness by running to righteousness. Pursue safety in Christ. Safety in Christ is not a hiding place where you sit and wait for the danger outside to pass; it’s more like an open field where you can walk around with full confidence of safety and protection.
Let’s return to our example of the Christian who struggles with lustful thoughts for their colleague. Instead of avoiding their colleague in an attempt to flee temptation, they should flee and pursue. Instead of leaving the room when their colleague enters, they should flee from sin by pursuing righteousness—for example, by praying. Kelly Kapic says,
What does holiness look like in this case? Very often Christians have a truncated view of sanctification, which stops far too short of true righteousness. Although it would be a good thing for this man to get to the point that he no longer looks at this woman as an object of lust, that is not all that is hoped for in sanctification. Rather, in the power of the Spirit the goal is to move to a life-affirming position. Thus, the objective is not the absence of thoughts about this woman, but the presence of a godly appreciation for her.3
In other words, don’t ignore the existence of this person; treat them with dignity and respect. Here, the action of fleeing lust is seen in the pursuit of genuine and appropriate respect and love, rather than mere avoidance.
Cling to the knowledge that brings comfort
Each of us battles with different temptations and sins. Because we are all different fighters, no fight is the same. We all have different training experience, different strengths and capabilities, and different weak spots. I can’t offer you a 10-step guide to fleeing and pursuing. There is no cheat code in the fight against sin.
Instead, my greatest piece of wisdom for you, dear reader, is to know yourself. Learn more about the sort of temptations that arise in your life. Discover what your tendencies are when you are faced with beasts like the Lust monster. Uncover the hiding place you tend to flee to, and know what to pursue when you are running away. Knowing all of this with be key to your success. So grow in your knowledge!
But growing in this sort of self-knowledge may lead you to feeling defeated, yearning for the redemption of your weak, sin-ridden self. If so, there’s something else that triumphs and lifts our eyes to the truth of the one who is stronger than our sin—namely, the God who is faithful. Paul reminds his readers of this great and timeless comfort: even in the midst of the fight when the struggle to flee seems impossible, they are not abandoned: God “will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Cor 10:13b). At the end of the day, when we find it hard to flee temptation, we can rest in the truth that God will come to our rescue.
In a similar vein, Jesus comforted his disciple Peter when he assured him that failure to flee and pursue would not mean failure of faith (Luke 22:31-32). Jesus not only prayed for the moment of temptation that Peter would face, he died on the cross so that Peter’s failure would be covered by his blood. As Paul reminds us, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).
So dear reader: know yourself. Know your option to flee and pursue. But most of all, know your saviour who is stronger than the monsters of your temptation and sin.
Caitlin Ogg has completed her fourth year at Moore College.
Bible quotations are also from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society, www.ibs.org. All rights reserved worldwide.
Endnotes
1 John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, edited by Kelly M Kapic and Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015) 53.
2 Ibid, 55.
3 Kelly M Kapic, “Introduction: Life in the midst of battle: John Owen’s approach to sin, temptation and the Christian life”, Ibid, 34.
Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash
