Dear
friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful
desires, which wage war against your soul. (I Peter 2:11)
Thanks to
the pandemic, we have an excellent picture of what this verse is about. Viral
particles aren’t really alive. They can’t reproduce on their own. They infiltrate
a human body, then a human cell, and enslave the cell’s factories into
producing viral particles, which then invade other cells. In response to the
invasion, the body jacks up its heat, floods the bloodstream with antibodies (soldier-cells),
and builds up mucus to try to rid the body of the invaders. Sometimes, its soldier-cells
work so hard at killing the virus that they don’t notice the amount of
collateral damage they’re causing. That’s what is called a Cytokine Storm.
Sinful
desires are viral particles. They can’t do anything by themselves, but they can
cause our souls to produce more sinful desires, and as we give in and give way,
the infection spreads not only in us, but to others. And if we’re going to
survive, we’re going to have to fight for our lives. We need to put on
spiritual masks and gloves and not attend “Virus parties” and, most importantly,
we’re going to have to get it through our thick skulls that these sinful
desires that we so often entertain and treat as honored guests are our enemies.
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