Victory over the Flesh Before Higher Battles

And so, when the desires of the stomach and the palate have been overcome by these considerations, and when we have been declared, as in the Olympic contests, neither slaves of the flesh nor disgraced by the brand of sin, we will be judged worthy of the contest in higher struggles as well. Leaving lessons of this kind behind, we may be trusted to enter the contest against the spiritual forces of wickedness, against which only victors, and those allowed to compete in a spiritual conflict, are counted worthy to struggle. For this is, so to speak, the most solid foundation of all the conflicts: that first of all the impulses of fleshly desire should be destroyed. For no one can compete by the rules unless his own flesh has been overcome. And one who does not compete by the rules certainly cannot take part in the contest, or win a crown of glory and the grace of victory. [a]

But if we have been overcome in this battle, proved, as it were, to be slaves of fleshly lusts, and so showing the marks of neither freedom nor strength, we will at once be driven back from the conflicts with the spiritual hosts as unworthy and as slaves, in utter shame. For “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” And the blessed apostle will say to us what he said to those among whom sexual immorality was reported: “No temptation overtakes you except what is human.” For if we do not seek strength of mind, we will not deserve to be tested in the harder contest against the wickedness on high, if we have been unable to subdue our weak flesh, which resists the spirit. Some, not understanding this text of the apostle, have read the verb as a wish instead of a statement, in the subjunctive mood instead of the indicative: “Let no temptation overcome you except what is human.” But it is clear that he meant it not as a wish but as a declaration or a rebuke.