St. Paul lists in today's Epistle the deeds of the flesh and the spirit. Each is opposed to the other. "The flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh."
We cannot serve the world and the flesh and still serve God. The world and our bodies were given to serve us. We are to be their masters, just as we are to serve God. There is a right order that has been established by God and as we stray from this right order it becomes inverted and far from being the masters of this world and everything in it, we become slaves and servants of the world.
This inversion of right order leads to chaos and eternal damnation. It reaches the point where men now believe that light is darkness and darkness is light; good is evil and evil is good.
When a man gives into his passions, his next temptation is to try and rationalize his sin and make it to really be no sin at all. When he gives into this temptation, he has succeeded in inverting right order. He has justified his sin. And by loving the sin and seeking out ways to accept it, he ends up serving it. His life then becomes a life of servitude to sin. All his time and energy is given over to this service. He must constantly try to rationalize the irrational. In this all-consuming servitude that he has willingly brought upon himself he finds that he has no time for God. He cannot serve God and mammon.
Also, in this inversion of right order man finds that he can not only ignore God but he must actively work against God. He begins by denying the teachings of God. He cannot accept the condemnations of his own actions so he must condemn the very condemnation. And in rejecting the words of God, it next logically follows that one must reject God Himself. In attempting to reject the words of God one in essence calls God a liar. He judges God and thus places himself above God and seeks to be the master of God. Thus we have the complete inversion: God becomes the servant of man, man is the servant of evil passions and whims of this world.
But, this inversion is only apparent. It is an illusion because man is never the master of God. He only imagines or acts as if he was, and this is only for a time. In eternity right order will be invariably established.
The flesh lusts against the spirit. As long as we dwell in this flesh we have a constant battle to fight. To deny this battle is to have given in to the enemy. To cease fighting is to have surrendered. To be completely free from temptation is to have given in to it. When the inversion is complete man becomes the servant of mammon.
But, men attempt to justify themselves saying that we must take care of our bodies. We are commanded by God to eat and watch out for our health, etc. This is true until it is taken to the extreme. We must remember to seek first the kingdom of Heaven knowing that if we do this, all that we need for our bodies will be given to us.
When we establish and maintain a right order in our lives we find that the struggle continues and grows as the spirit lusts against the flesh. The spirit shows us that there is no need for us to be solicitous for the things of this earth. There is nothing we can do about it. "Which of you by taking thought can add to his stature?" Or change his body? Let us not concern ourselves over these worldly things but concern ourselves about the eternal. We can do little to alter ourselves in this world, but there is much that we can do now that has profound effects in eternity.
Let us strive to adorn the soul with virtues and we will not have to worry about adorning our bodies here on earth. When our souls are beautiful it radiates outward through the body, and regardless of the poverty of the attire, we appear beautiful before both God and men. Let us therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and His justice and all that we need for our bodies and this world will be given us also.