Page:On The Spiritual Battle.pdf/38

 immaculate embroidered trims and with great sleeves, his head poised and face well recognized, and the kinds of similar things that can be exhibited. Therefore the Lord God also says, “Keep your feet from being unshod.” In other words, do not expose their nakedness through imprudence and lack of the fear of God. That is why, when Bathsheba bared fleshly feet and spiritual David took fleshly slippers off of her feet, she stripped David of truth and blamelessness. David did not avert himself from bare-footedness and have his feet fitted in the way of the gospel. Therefore, he soiled such beautiful feet in adultery.

It also happens to us that our feet are not fitted spiritually. The eyes spot something, the foot of evil desire takes a step there, its iniquitous bare-footedness is plainly exposed, and that which is written is fulfilled in us, “My eye affects my soul…” (Lamentations 3: 51) The apostle, wanting to marshal the troops in the battle against hardships, commands us to fit our feet in the way of the gospel. Then, those feet will not go beyond the bounds of the gospel and show up somewhere besides where the gospel of truth shows them. The gospel marks that all out for them. The enemy we should fight with shoots precisely at what the feet of our desires would make plain, so that he approaches our hearts from that angle and baits those naked and clearly exposed desires with something perilous by which it can clamp down, our hearts not regarding it as evil. He disguises the knowledge of its peril so that the foot is exposed in some ugliness hateful to God, like a person who would put a naked foot outside the walls during an enemy siege. Then everyone takes aim there, wanting to shoot him in his unshod foot. They are vigilant in battle to stab in the foot if he does not have armor so that he could not stand, run away on foot (being injured in the feet), or hold his feet in his stirrups. And so, falling down, he will be killed. That is why the devil does not quit taking greater pains against us, because he has greater cunning against us than these warriors. But wherever the desire of our bare-footedness is exposed, he immediately shoots at it there to wound it.

Therefore, fit your desires in the readiness of the gospel so that you correctly recognize, assess, and reject them through the gospel. Then, you can first recognize those that are evil, what they are evil in, and discern the ones that are harmful and the ones you must yield to (those demanding necessary things for the body, because we cannot suppress desires that are necessary for the body). But those desires are evil that are not necessary for the body but are, instead, solely for pleasure and the lust of the flesh. Such desires are prohibited by God and should be gotten rid of through the truth of the gospel so that, just as the gospel directs us to reject the world and its vanity, those desires that demand the vanities of this world should likewise also be rejected. That is why the apostle says here that our feet are fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. He also refers to the gospel of peace because desires that are fitted in the gospel are immediately quieted from the vanity of the world. Those that are not fitted have enormous unrest, not being able to have anything in the world that would appease them. Many possessions do not satiate them and many women do not satiate a man’s lustful desires (or men women’s). The colors of drapery do not satisfy and neither do the softness of a gown, scents, the taste of expensive foods, praises, or promotions. All of these do not satiate our fleshly desires or placate them, but provoke and drive them more, ushering in restlessness. Because of that, the apostle commands us to fit our feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, because only in and through the gospel are our desires placated and quelled. Peace on earth is announced to those who yield to the gospel. When evil desires are cast aside through the gospel, new and heavenly spiritual desires are born through it. Just as a person had desire for earthly things before, he will now desire heavenly things, born again through the gospel, and the dwelling of that person will be in heaven with Christ.

The apostle further says: