. . . drop themselves into the sea.
The final enemy is the one to which we tend to historically pay the least attention, and that is the flesh. And here is the key to what kept the monastics and the Amish from straying into the legalism and the lack of balance of the separatist fundamentalist. For too many of us, and not simply for the separatist fundamentalist but for all too many of us, our attitude is that if only we did not have the temptations of the devil and the world, we would be able to live reasonably Christian lives. After all, we have God within us, and greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world, right?
And, that is where the great mistake is made. Here was the great truth that the monks perceived, following Saint Paul in Romans 7. They perceived that of the world, the flesh, and the devil, our worst enemy is the flesh. When they looked within and saw how truly sinful they were, they realized that they were their own worst enemy. As Pogo said in that famous comic, “we have met the enemy and he is us.” What they realized was that their number one priority in spiritual warfare was to defeat themselves. They realized that the more they defeated themselves, the less that the world and the devil could have a hold on them. Within each one of us is a fifth column, a quisling, a traitor, whose actions seek to undo and undermine the good decisions that we have made and the good actions we have taken. As Saint Paul says:
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
And so, though they may have started out with the thought of separation to be able to live out lives of holiness, they realized that they had not left behind the largest impediment to living a holy and Christian life. As Saint James says:
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. . . . Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.
We have met the enemy and he is us. That is a realization to which most separatist fundamentalists have never come. But, the Amish have. And, so, their insistence on forgiving and loving each other, which I pointed out in yesterday’s post, is the grease that makes it possible to keep the Christian life going. This is why the Desert Fathers became such forgiving and loving people. The more they examined themselves, the more they realized that they could not keep from forgiving others if they wished to receive forgiveness themselves. You see, too many fundamentalists behave as though the Gospel is merely one of personal forgiveness, and that once you are forgiven, it matters not to your salvation whether you live a life of active forgiveness or not. For too many fundamentalists, “. . . forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us . . .,” is a meaningless phrase since there is no way to apply it once God has forgiven you. At most, that prayer means some temporary current unpleasantness with God, or some inner psychological harm, if one does not forgive, but nothing else. The thought that you may someday be faced with a holy God who may charge you for every sin for which you do not forgive others is theologically impossible to a fundamentalist. But, it is a quite possible thought to the Amish and to the monks. And so, they forgive and they love and they reconcile.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
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