THE CHAINS OF THE FLESH
© Carlos Padilla – June 2022
For many years I have observed how men and women believers live bonded with chains they have built themselves. The Bible tells of the chains and of the bonds, but not in all cases it refers to those we auto impose ourselves, but it also tells of those that are imposed to us by the world, because of the Gospel, to which the apostle Paul refers in several occasions. Today I will refer to the first ones, those that man builds himself with his own ideas, by his egoism, and which are fruit of the idolatry of the self, of an ego that blinds those who put first the traditions of men before the Word of God, and we will see that even though they have always existed, in these times the prophecy is fulfilling of the character of the man for the end times, that which is making that millions live bonded to their own chains. How to set yourself free from your own chains of your flesh?
TWO CHAINS OF THE FLESH
Amongst the many types of chains of the flesh, I would like to concentrate in two that are driving crazy the church and the believers for many centuries: our own commandments as a self law, which separates us from other brothers in the faith creating denominations of all kinds, as scribes and Pharisees already did with whom the Lord Yahshua already had to deal with. And in second place, our need to achieve things by our own merits and efforts, which feeds the ego and in many cases are fruit of a religious tradition which foments the salvation through those own efforts, and becomes antichrist, because salvation was achieved by Yahshua on the Cross for us and is received by faith. These two chains of the flesh, two sins they are. These two chains, differently than many others, do not tie us due to our natural weakness, but through the mind, and for them to be able to tie someone, first they need to be accepted and implemented; it is not by the instincts. These chains come through the deceive of the “deceiver”, but the believer who lives with God and seeks holiness in his life, can overcome them and get rid of them by the power of Christ and with the mind of Christ.
The two weapons to fight these two chains of the flesh that tie us by the mind, are prayer and fasting, and this last one not only of food, also from things of the world that separate us from God. The true fasting, to which the Lord refers in Isaiah 58, is an ideal Text to drive us through the way of liberation from the chains of the flesh:
“…Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard”. Isaiah 58:6-8.
THE CHAINS OF THE CHRISTIAN
The apostle Paul also spoke of his chains, but these, differently to the ones we have dealt with before, and which we ourselves can undo, those of Paul and of any Christian who bears fruit of the Spirit, where consequences of the persecution for the cause of the Gospel. It may also refer to his own flesh, or his own sickness, or what he use to consider a burden from his flesh that made it difficult to be 100% free to serve the Lord. That should be our aim, but we know that we must be humble and realistic, and accept that until we are in the Kingdom of God we will not stop dealing with our flesh, and some of its chains that tie us to this world.
By concentrating in the two chains that we build by ourselves, our own law and our own merit, we are burdening ourselves with a heavy burden that sinks us along the way, with a weight that opposes to the words that the Lord Himself commanded us: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30. In deed we must learn from Him when we are laboured and are heavy laden, because the yoke of Jesus Christ is not the burden that we impose ourselves. Our burdens take us to hopelessness: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8; to depression, to lose the faith and the trust in God, because, in the first case, our own law, judges the neighbour, and itself, and no one is at its level. And in the second case, because we cannot achieve to do all we want by our own merits, without the help of the Lord and without the humbleness He talks about. Jesus gives us the example of being gentle and lowly in heart, and this is what gives the rest in our souls, if we take His yoke, because the burden He carries with His great love.
Self control is one of the seven gifts of God to go up the steps of the ladder of the growth of the disciple of Jesus Christ. Before you have self control you receive faith, with this starts the first step, virtue, and after this one we take the next step of knowledge, y this of God and His Word, so we can receive the third gift, and we go up the step of self control, which takes us to perseverance, godliness and the culmination of the ladder with the gift of love. This Biblical study about Virtue and the 7 Gifts of God and the ladder can be read in this link: https://www.yahshua.net/virtue.htm Therefore, it is with the knowledge and the self control that we will be able to let go from the chains of our own law and traditions and commandments of men, and of our ego that wants to achieve everything by our merits. Let us become humble before the Lord who will grant us the knowledge that sets us free from false prophets and false masters, to leave the chains o deceive and false traditions, and will give us pace to leave the merits in the hand of God, and will convince that it is Him who saves and blesses us, helps and provides us, and therefore our efforts will follow His ways, and not the other way round in the wrong way doing first our own ways and searching for His recognition of our merits and His blessing after. Now, once free of those two chains of the flesh, we can come to Jesus Christ – Yahshua, knowing that the Holy Spirit will teach us that deep knowledge of God, and will guide us in ways of justice, not ours, but His.
PROPHETICAL ORIGIN OF THE CHAINS OF THE FLESH
The second letter of the apostle Paul to Timothy, in the third chapter, describes what would be the character of man in the so called “last days”, and is, precisely that character the one we see in today’s society and through which without noticing, many have become tied with the chains of their own flesh. Again we see how Biblical prophecy fulfils. But Jesus is always our Saviour, as well as for eternity, He is for our daily life, if we come to Him, because the world persecutes us as Faro did with the Israelites when he made their life bitter under a tortuous work, making it more difficult and requesting the same results to make bricks for the great egocentric works of that king. But the good news is that in the Kingdom of God there are no chains for all eternity.
CONCLUSION
We have seen that the prophecies of the end times tell us of the character of man for that time, and all people around us comment that society is getting worst and that people are separating from the character of God. We must not be surprised to see in ourselves glimpses of that character with which the world where we live contaminates us. This is why the Lord washed the feed of His disciples, and that way we must do with one another, and looking to ourselves in the mirror of Christ to see where we are tied with the chains of our own flesh. He has the key to open them, and we can come to Him in prayer to know where we have fallen and sanctify.
This way, when our burdens are so heavy that keep us tied to our chains, when those weights we have created them ourselves, imposing a law with which to judge others and no one can keep up, and it separates us from family or from a brother in Christ, or when we cannot achieve all that we thought we would do with our own merit and feel far from God, let us come to Jesus in prayer, gentle and lowly in heart and repent of that attitude. Only this way our chains of the flesh will lose and the Lord will give us His peace. Jesus Christ – Yahshua ascended to the throne of glory 40 days after His resurrection, defeating the chains of death, and 10 days later He sent the Holy Spirit to bless those who believe in Him giving us the power of becoming free or our own chains. So as He has treated us, let us treat others in piety, compassion and mercy, and let us recognize our incapacity before God asking for His grace, to do what He approves, and we shall find rest for our souls. Also, we will see God do in our lives and in the lives of our beloved relatives and brethren in the faith, and will see how our faith and trust in God grow for our blessing and for His glory. Amen!
