For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if , by the Spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Romans 8:13-14).
If you were to climb into a submarine, you might think that, as long as it held watertight, you could glide on down to the bottom of the ocean. Sadly, if you tried to do this. you’d soon discover how mistaken you are. Submarines can only go so deep before the pressure of the water crushes them like an empty soft drink can crumpled by your hand. Indeed, a number of years ago, a submarine called the Thresher went down too deep. The water pressure rose to the point that the submarines heavy steel bulkheads were crushed. The sub was torn apart, leaving pieces of debris scattered! across the ocean floor for searchers to find.
If you want to go down really deep, you need a specially designed research vessel shielded by heavy steel armor. Now imagine that you jumped into one of these heavily clad research vessels and headed down to the ocean depths. Guess what you’d find? Fish. Fish! Fish with skin just millimeters thick.
How is it that fish with just a thin skin covering can survive the pressure of such great depths, where a submarine with thick steel plates cannot?
The answer is quite simple: fish have equal and opposite pressure inside them. Submarines do not.
When confronting the pressures of sin, some Christians try to become like a submarine, shielding themselves from the outside world, strapping themselves into a narrow space where they are safe from external pressures. They make rules that are designed to reinforce them against temptation. But unfortunately, the deeper into life we
go, the more inadequate this approach will be. The external pressure will just become too great.
This is why we need to be like the fish, to develop positive pressure inside ourselves. Rather than simply resisting the outward pressure of temptation, we need to combat it by building up positive spiritual pressure within, replacing the values the world would impose with the Spirit developed character of Christ.
Adapted from the Internet
