day no. 14,937: to refuse to engage evil in battle is to embrace it in defeat

Romans 7:22-23
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind

Every Christian is at war. If you refuse to believe it, acknowledge it, prepare for it or engage in it, you are accepting defeat, flattering yourself and embracing the enemy. 

To refuse to engage evil in battle is to embrace it in defeat.

There is a battle going on in the mind and in the body and between the mind and the body. The law of your members (your body) is, "Don't tell me what I can't do and don't tell me what I must do!!!" The law of the renewed mind in Christ is, "Please tell me what I must do and please warn me against that which I must not."

The Christian man is already, but not yet. We are made new, but we live in old bodies. We have new minds which are being trained in righteousness and old habits well-versed in jumping through wicked hoops.

We live in tension like no others. Those who do not serve Christ do not have the Spirit tugging them in God's direction. They do what they want. They may feel bad or feel bad when the get caught or wish the consequences weren't so severe, etc... But they do not fear God or repent before Him of their inordinate affections.

Christians embrace the tension, fight the good fight, die to self, live for God, flee the slavery of the old man, flee to the slavery of Jesus Christ, decommission as an enemy combatant and enlist as a soldier in the service of your new Commanding Officer: Jesus Christ.

There will be slavery and their will be enlisted service. If you are a slave to sin, you are free to righteousness, a soldier fighting on the front lines against godliness. If you are a slave to righteousness, you are free from sin, a soldier fighting on the front lines against darkness. 

Romans 8:6-8
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.