The Flesh Within Us: Overcoming Rebellion Through the Spirit
- Jack Selcher
- Aug 29, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Summary
Outward rebellion contrasts with the inner rebellion living in every human heart. From a public church crisis to the story of John Piper’s son, resisting God’s authority damages lives and influences others. Scripture identifies this struggle as the flesh-governed mind. The hope is God’s Spirit, whose renewing power ends spiritual drought, transforms small people into spiritual giants, and enables victory through Christ.
A Mother’s Helplessness and Public Pain
A mother was in tears. She was embarrassed and discouraged. Her heart was broken. In the middle of a church worship service, her much bigger, special needs son screamed out of control.
She tried to quiet him, but he fought back, hitting her several times. She decided to leave the service with him, but he did not cooperate.
Several men from the congregation moved in to help her, trying to reason with him. He hit them also.
Finally, one of them applied a wrestling hold and gradually transported him out of the sanctuary amid many more of his screams. When he went out of control, she stood by helplessly.
Rebellion Chosen, Not Forced
More than twenty years ago, John Piper, one of the dozen most famous pastors in the United States, excommunicated his son Abraham from the church when the latter was nineteen. Abraham said he was no longer pretending to be a Christian.
He was restored to the church four years later, but again abandoned the faith. He has not returned to it.
In 2020, he began posting TikTok videos, some of which criticized his evangelical upbringing.
For example, he said that fundamentalist Christians should not have children. He criticized them for encouraging their children to read the Bible. He has more than 1.7 million followers on TikTok, more than his famous father.
He is rebelling against God, justifying it, and influencing many others to replace God’s authority with their own. Abraham is not a special needs son. He is responsible for his actions.
His parents are heartbroken over his departure from the Christian faith. They can do nothing about it except pray.
The Flesh within Us
The third disobedient child lives in each of us. The Bible describes it as the mind governed by the flesh (Romans 8:1-17). The flesh within us wants its way in everything.
We know that child who is hostile to God, as we know our name. That child cannot yield to (Romans 8:7) or please God (Romans 8:8).
When threatened, he/she swings at others and resists God’s rule and living standards while influencing others to do the same.
The Works of a Flesh-Governed Mind
He/she keeps God at arm’s length and bitterly resents His authority. He/she manufactures the poisoned honey of envy, pride, self-righteousness, denial of wrongdoing, resentment, irritability, anger, self-justification, and unbelief.1
We recognize his/her antics. If we allow it, he/she fracture our relationships and reduce our lifespan.
He/she keeps our focus on ourselves and makes us small, independent of our physical size. The good news is that God can turn small people into spiritual giants.
From Spiritual Drought to Living Rain
As I write, life-restoring rain is greening the grass in my yard that was crisp and brown from a forty-plus-day drought. Similarly, God has graciously supplied the rain of the Spirit to overcome the life-diminishing drought of a flesh-governed mind.
We who belong to Christ are in the realm of the Spirit (Romans 8:9). The drought is forever behind us. We must put to death envy, pride, self-righteousness, denial of wrongdoing, resentment, irritability, anger, self-justification, and unbelief. We can (Philippians 4:13).
The rain of God’s Spirit makes all the difference.
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