Answer: . . . that I should renounce . . . all the sinful lusts of the flesh.

Your first two enemies are outside you. The third is inside. You see him or her every time you comb your hair, put on your dress, or brush your coat, in front of your looking-glass.

YOUR THIRD ENEMY IS YOURSELF.

“Lusts” is an old-fashioned, word which simply means your bodily wants; such as sleep, food, drink, love, water (outside as well as inside). Of course these are not wrong. Our Lord on earth was tired, hungry, thirsty: he loved to be with children and his mother and his friends.

But what you and I must rememfeer is that our bodies are good servants but bad masters; like horses, or fire. If we let them run away with us, be “boss,” there will be accidents, or worse; and our good bodily wants become “sinful lusts.” Hunger changes into greed; sleep to sloth; thirst to drunkenness; love to impurity.

You and I must never forget that all through this life, because we are Christians, there are certain things that our bodies are not allowed to do or say, or our minds to think; though this does not alter the fact that they are often waiting to do, say, and think them.

We have to learn - and the sooner we begin, the better - to say No to our bodies; to keep them under control ; to “refuse to follow or be led by” their good wants if these seem to be changing into wrong wants (i Corinthians 9, 24-27).

To sum up: I have promised and vowed not to be a slave of the devil and the world (outside me), and the flesh (inside me). And perhaps my hardest enemy to beat is the third.