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Sinful Desires

 

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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