I prayed and asked,
“Jesus lived without sin, but how?”
I believe the divine response was,
“because He desired nothing besides the Father.”
Jesus was fully God and fully man. And, though He was fully man, His singular desire for the Father kept Him in perfect obedience to the Father and in harmony with His divine nature.
We who have received His divine nature can—by His grace: His nature, His power, and His guidance—walk in obedience to the Father as He did.
But why don’t we walk perfectly in obedience? Why do we repeatedly fall into sin?
Meet your opponent: your desire.
“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.”
— James 1:14-15
What did Jesus have that allowed Him to walk in perfect obedience that we should also diligently strive for?
A singular, undivided, uncompromising desire for God alone. We should desire nothing besides God.
But, what does that look like?
Imagine a circle representing the Kingdom of God, and imagine within that circle another circle representing the life of Jesus Christ. Now include another intersecting circle representing the life of Peter.
When Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ this is represented by the part of Peter’s circle that intersects with the Kingdom of God. But when he attempts to convince Jesus not to die, this represents the part of Peter’s circle that is outside the Kingdom of God.
All the while, all of Jesus is within the Kingdom, including how He must die, and He rebukes Peter for tempting Him to go outside the circle of God’s Kingdom (His will), which is sin.
One of the biggest takeaways should be even though Peter was coming from an undoubtedly genuine place of care and kindness for someone he loved, it was ultimately evil because Peter’s desire was misplaced, and if followed, would have damned us all—just like the original Adam.
This is what God is dealing with me on. He has brought me to a point in my walk where my goal is to desire nothing besides God.
Lord, make me a man after Your own heart!
Does this mean I don’t love my family, my brothers and sisters in Christ, or you?
Remember the earlier Scripture from James 1:14-15? Read the very next verses:
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
— James 1:16-17
When God is our sole desire, we love what is in and we love from within God.
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
— 1 John 4:20-21
That’s loving what’s in God.
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
— Matthew 5:44-45
And, that’s loving from within God.
The goal is union rather than intersection—for God to be our whole desire, with nothing outside.
This is a picture of perfection, and the means of acquiring it: the heart God gives—Christ’s heart—that desires God alone.
The real battle is desire, and the stakes couldn’t be higher—our endless, unhindered enjoyment of God starting right now.
#perfectourlove #spiritualwarfare #TheRealBattle #desire
