Joshua Harris: Feeding The Flesh
(1) This is you. Or us, a human made in God’s image. Ladies, sorry you have to identify with a little guy. I’m not sure why he doesn’t have a shirt.
(2) This is the flesh. He’s kind of a Jabba the Hut meets WWF wrestler. The Flesh represents the sinful, corrupted desires of our heart. It’s not a reference to our bodies–our bodies are created by God and are good. The flesh represents our sinful cravings to live for ourselves and disobey God’s laws and commands.
(3) Before Jesus saves us, this is how all of us relate to the flesh. The Bible says that we are slaves to our sinful desires. Our flesh is boss. If you’re not a Christian, I’m not trying to offend you. I know this isn’t a flattering picture of your current condition but it’s true of all of us apart from God saving us.
(4) This is what happens when we trust in Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross and conquered sin and rose again, we are freed from the power of sin. It’s no longer our boss. See how the chain is broken? And we get clothes, which is really great.
(5) But our flesh doesn’t disappear. It still hangs around to entice us. After we’re Christians, we’re no longer slaves to sin, but the flesh can still tempt us. We can choose to give into temptation and indulge the flesh. This is what theologians call “indwelling sin.” Jesus broke the power of sin, but we still live with the presence and influence of sinful desires.
(6) That’s why the Bible is full of encouragement to fight our fleshly desires. We can’t live at peace with it. We have to attack it and deny it. (In hindsight, I guess the “sword of the Spirit” would have been a bit more biblical. Oh well.)
(7) The problem is that too often Christians make friends with their flesh. In fact they feed their flesh. We give into our sinful desires. We pamper our flesh. We provide it three rounded meals a day with snacks and dessert. We might think that since we’ve been freed by the cross it’s okay to indulge the flesh. But there’s a real problem. When we feed the flesh…
(8) …it grows! And before you know it, the flesh is bigger and stronger than you and starts to push you around. That’s why Paul is telling us in Romans 13 that we need to…
(9) …starve our flesh! That’s what we want our flesh to look like. We want the flesh gaunt and feeble. When Paul says “make no provision for the flesh” he’s saying don’t feed your sinful desires. Don’t do things—don’t think things, don’t watch things, don’t meditate on things—that strengthen your sinful inclinations.
Feeding Our Flesh Through Media
Let’s think for a minute about our media diet. I think one of the biggest ways that Christians today feed their flesh is through what we watch on TV, in movies, and online. We each need to ask the question “Are the things I’m watching feeding my flesh?”
And if the answer is “yes,” it doesn’t matter what the movie is rated. It doesn’t matter if everyone you know watches it. You need to act on what God shows you. Don’t feed your flesh. Don’t make provision for your sin. Turn away from it.
• Maybe for you the sensual scenes, or even plots, in certain movies or TV shows increase the strength of lust in your heart. Turn it off.
• Maybe violent movies and shows feed anger and a desire in your soul to use violence to get your way. Turn it off.
• Maybe the advertisements and the values you expose yourself to are feeding your cravings for material things or wrong ideas about your body. Stop watching.
• Maybe the things you watch feed your unbelief and fear. One mother I spoke to recently requested prayer because her dreams were filled with demonic images. She was afraid to sleep. When asked her about her television viewing habits, she told me that she often watched TV shows about real-life crime that were very violent. As we talked, she began to see the connection between what she watched and the bad results in her heart.
Friends, what we view in media becomes our meditation. It either feeds our desire for godliness or it feeds our flesh. Which one are you feeding? If you added up the time you spend reading God’s word, praying, listening to sermons or reading Christian books, how would it stack up against time spent watching TV and movies?
If you give more of your time to worldly entertainment and pursuits, is there any reason to be surprised that sinful desires are so strong in your life? No. If we’re feeding the flesh, it’s no mystery that we’re not growing in holiness.
+ Download Cartoon (PDF) +
Written and Illustrated by Joshua Harris © 2007 Covenant Life Church
February 15th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Haha, that is brilliant!! Those illustrations are perfect…and it’s such a good message, too.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:51 am
The flesh - IT BURNS!
Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Romans 6:6
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for putting this up! Lately, I have been desiring to give into my flesh and it has been a huge struggle. I think my flesh needs to be “starved”.
Thanks once again for posting this! 
February 15th, 2007 at 7:37 am
That is so true. Thanks for putting that up! Nice illustrations. The flesh’s expression when the guy is set free in front of the cross is priceless.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:51 am
That is great, guys. A very fitting illustration for making provision for sin, and good drawings, too!
February 15th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Wow. That was quite humorous as well as VERY TRUE! It was a great depiction of the reality of our “flesh”…I was inspired. And not only did it give a true depiction, but the funny drawings sorta’ stick in your mind…unlike just words, which sometimes have a tendancy to slip away from us.
:)
~Lady Tai
February 15th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Heehee. That made me smile, but it’s so true. Oh, and thank you, ColeC, for putting up those wonderful verses.
February 15th, 2007 at 8:45 am
That was good. Love the illustrations, they really make it “stick.”
February 15th, 2007 at 8:56 am
So simple, yet so good. Thanks!
February 15th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I saw this on your brother’s blog the other day. My family thought it was really good. It would make a nice little track to hand out to folks at church.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:09 am
What a great illustration! Thank you for sharing it with us!
February 15th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Thats so true. It really makes me think on what “feeds” my flesh. Thank you!
February 15th, 2007 at 9:31 am
That was truly art. I love how Jabba the Flesh sometimes has eyebrows and sometimes does not.
February 15th, 2007 at 10:02 am
This is really interesting to me at this moment, because one of my friends recently decided to do a ‘romance fast’ and forswear thinking, talking, watching, or listening to anything romantic. I have decided to join her and now realize how much I think about ‘love’ and ‘marriage’! Thinking about that too much is feeding the flesh! Thanks, Josh!
February 15th, 2007 at 10:48 am
The visuals definitely keep the concept in the mind!
This post is so timely, especially, I think, in light of the comments Steph(y) brought up in the previous post. When a guy feeds the flesh lusting after women, it grows. The longer the flesh is fed, the more difficult it is not to be pushed around by it, as the picture depicted so well. He will think things that are more and more shameful when he sees women. I believe it’s because of this that we men have the experience to fill out all those questions on the survey. Perhaps if we never gave in to the flesh in the first place we wouldn’t be bothered by so much that women wear.
But we don’t desire to continue like this. We want to starve the flesh! And here I’ll put in a THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! to all the young ladies who want to make changes to their wardrobes because of the Modesty Survey. That will help SO much. It’s already an encouragement just to see women who are willing to sacrifice maybe their favorite shirt or pair of pants for our sakes!
Yes, it’s sad that we have noticed so much about women’s dress. Some of it is just the result of having the flesh with us, and some of it is the result of indulging that flesh, but we really want to change! Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
February 15th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Excellent! That’s a great illustration. It relates so much to this little anecdote I read just a short while ago:
Someone once asked Charles Spurgeon about what determines which nature will prevail—the Spirit or the flesh. The person described it as an all-out fight between two dogs. Which one will win?, he asked. Spurgeon replied, “The one you feed.”
February 15th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Very nice illustration.
It’s so true.
The one you feed is the one that will grow. Feed the flesh, and sin will increase in your life. Feed the Spirit, and sin will decreas in your life and be replaced by a fufilled life.
Thank you very much for that illustration.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Brilliant approach! Thanks for helping bring this home in such a simple, yet profound way.
Joyfully in Christ,
Claire
February 15th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Wow - what a timely post! The concept of living a life according to the Spirit has been mulling around in my head recently, and the cartoons give a wonderful visual illustration. Walking according to the Spirit… letting the Spirit lead… listening to the Spirit… it’s a definite battle, but it’s so comforting to know that He who is in us, has conquered the world… and He can also conquer our sinful, fleshly natures!
February 15th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Excellent illustration!! Next time I am tempted to feed my flesh, I will remember this illustration.
Thanks Josh!
February 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
on scene six, is that showing that we use the Rod of Aaron against the flesh
Really good post! Actually the Bible calls for more extreme action against the flesh. We are not only to starve it, but put it to death!
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom 8:12-13)
This is what has been known as the Mortification of sin. Mortifying the deeds of the flesh.
I loved your conection to what we watch. I know so many Christians that stumble on this point. They think that they can put anything in to their minds and be okay. What a deadly delusion!
Thanks for the post.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Thanks For that geat illustration-I laughed so hard. I personally like the part where he starves the beast. Great job!
-MJ
February 15th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
[…] Friday, February 16th, 2007 in Uncategorized Joshua Harris: Don’t Feed The Flesh! […]
February 15th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I was wondering if I was allowed to post it on my blog?
February 15th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
If you can’t control your own desires, or fear that you are going to be taken over, then you are quite possibly the most pathetic person I have ever heard of. And it has nothing to do with religion.
Simply pathetic.
February 15th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Right, not religion - relationship with God. God is perfection; the further from Him, the closer to sin. (We cannot defeat sin on our own - just try being perfect for a week or two, at least, everyone but Jesus I’ve ever met has always failed.)
God Bless,
Jonathon
February 15th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
PS: Coyote, we are pathetic. Each and every single one of us. That’s why we need Jesus - that’s why we need the cross. I hope that makes sense. If not, just pose your questions.
BTW: Fun cartoon, Joshua!
February 15th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
:-D great!
February 16th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Hey that was really good.
February 16th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Great follow up to the modesty survey… underwear falling off. : P
Just kidding… it’s a good post. : )
February 17th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
~Wow~
That is very good. It would be wonderful as a tract because the picture keep the viewer reading and it would be easier to remeber!
Love it! It is Salvation explained so simply….
February 19th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for the poignant reminder to put off the old man and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds!
February 19th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
can we, like, reprint this? Would that be legal and okay?
)
this is really great! The pictures really stick with a person (esp the image of the underwear falling off the flesh
February 21st, 2007 at 9:02 am
One can only mortify the flesh by walking in the spirit.
February 24th, 2007 at 10:12 am
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March 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I posted on my blog within the last week about our Spiritual diet.
http://blog4him.jdr4him.com/2007/03/05/you-are-what-you-eat/
Check it out and tell me what you think.
Thanks!
Your Brother in Christ,
Joshua
June 13th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Nicely illustrated.
June 18th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Wonderful! This was so timely, too. I believe God directed me to this post (praise Him!). I had just gone through a time of wanting to give into my flesh. But now I am strengthened, and, by God’s grace working mightily in me, I shall not give into that death.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I love those cartoons!! Especially the last one!
Also, that is a really, really good message (or article) below it. I really think God wants me to share that with my neighbor. Thanks so much!!
August 4th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Justin (2 posts above) sums it up for me. Thank you Joshua for this great encouragement. God bless you, and keep up the good work.
Paul
August 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Joshua Harris: You are an amazing artist! That comic is so full of meaning, but is said so openly and simply that anyone and everyone can understand and be blessed by it, and wonderfully amused by those illustrations. :c)
~ Elisabeth J. Gruber
December 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
[…] […]
February 17th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
That is very encouraging for some of us i am sure.
Thanks guys
February 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Wow, that is a great illustration, and such a timely reminder!
Thanks!
March 27th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
What a great illistration!
April 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
That is so true!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
This is really great. I never really thought about feeding the flesh in the that way before.
This is completely true!
May 7th, 2008 at 7:56 am
:) i rember when Josh did a sermon with this
June 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I like the illistration!