I suppose nobody knows for sure who made up the old adage, 'The battleground of the mind'. The phrase gives insight to an ongoing internal conflict that every human encounters. It is a war that begins at a very early age; a war that is waged until there is a complete surrender to one side, or another. I have selected a very specific word to illustrate the intensity of the mental warfare that every believer faces in their daily walk with the LORD, Jesus Christ. And it is a very unique word rarely heard preached from Christian pulpits. As the title of this message suggests, the word is concupiscence.
For the benefit of those who have never heard the word pronounced properly it is:
Con (rhymes with on, sounds like 'cone') - cu (like the letter Q) - pi (puh) - sence (sounds like sense).
After reading varying definitions I have settled on this one: An intense, disordered human craving for worldly, sensual and physical pleasures. In short, strong sexual desires.
Some theologians and philosophers associate concupiscence with covetousness, but Paul, stated them as each being uniquely different. Paul's use of concupiscence expressly conveyed the idea of 'evil sexual desires'. This is the mental playground of the mind that leads an individual to a reality that convinces them to commit the physical acts of adultery, fornication, whoremongering, inordinate affection and other depraved sexual acts. Covetousness is a very different theatre of mental warfare in the same way that World War II was fought in the Pacific against Japan vs. the distinctively separate European War against Nazi Germany and its allies. These two states of mind are two specific enemies, or if you will allow, entities. I say 'entities' because the prince of this world exploits weakness where it is found. His agents operate along the path of least resistance. We often observe conflicts within ourselves as divergent from one or the other but occurring simultaneously.
Paul uses concupiscence exactly three times in the New Testament.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. (Romans 7:8)
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: (Colossians 3:5)
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: (1 Thessalonians 4:5)
Most modern day scholars consider the word archaic, or at best, formal. I submit to you that the word is an extraordinary means to emphasize the remedy that Paul prescribed to the church at Corinth.
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
I will not engage in an expository explanation of Paul's writings here. Hopefully, you will study the scriptures for yourself. In simple terms, my understanding of concupiscence is a fundamental difference between sin, which is common to us all, and evil, the mind field where the desolate souls of those carried away by their sexual desires inflict physical, mental and emotional damage to their victims.
If you will win the battle of your mind you must discard intense cravings like they are grenades thrown to destroy your soul. To descend into the moral depravity that seems to infect much of our 21st century society is to lose yourself in a quagmire from which you might never return. The greater truth is that there are only two sides in this spiritual war for the mind. There are those who are on the LORD's side and everyone else.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth until life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:14)