No matter how awesome you battle plan or how ingenious your general, a conflict can only be won by trained troops. If the soldiers run in the face of danger, don’t listen to orders, or don’t follow orders; if they get into arguments that distract them from their duties, they are doomed.
Soldiers can’t expect to do well without weapons and armor, but also weapons and armor will be wasted if the soldiers aren’t trained to constantly care for their equipment.
Likewise, sports. The greatest coach in the world cannot bring a team to victory if the players won’t exercise or practice.
Solomon knows that God has given the law. But he also knows that you can’t follow it naturally. No, I’m not talking about “the natural man,” I’m talking about the impossibility of relying on habits and impulses alone to guide you in a course of action.
Any course of action.
God made us this way. Sin had nothing to do with it at this level. If all humans were supposed to do one and only one thing throughout history, then it could have been wired into us. But God had more diversity in mind. So we can shape ourselves (or commit to shapelessness). We can drive ourselves (or be driven by forces outside our control).
And since this is the way we are, submitting to God’s commands takes a similar form. You can’t decide not to lust after a woman in your heart without mapping out and practicing certain responses with your neck, face, and eye muscles when you are walking across the mall and the Victoria’s Secret store is along your path. Oh, you can “decide” all you want. But until you’ve got your body parts working in formation, it will be a fruitless promise. “Let not him who puts his armor on boast as he who takes it off.”
I was talking to one of my sons about some of these concepts. He watches more basketball than I do. He told me that he’s noticed that some players, when they disagree with the referee, simply cannot shut up and end up getting their whole team penalized.
Here are people who have forced their bodies into shape doing amazing things and yet they are unable to overpower their own mouths?
You are not just a soldier in God’s army, you are a heavenly host. Your eyes, hands, feet, and mouth are your soldiers. Your soul is your drummer keeping time. You need to get him to slow down if he is prone to charge at the wrong occasion.