When I was in college, one of my good friends was from Australia.
And people were fascinated by her accent. 🇦🇺
This was during the era when Crocodile Dundee was a very big deal—the Australian bushman from the wildly popular movies who could seemingly survive anything, including wrestling crocodiles.
So every once in a while, when people would ask my friend about Australia, she would casually tell them:
“Yah, my dad is Crocodile Dundee.”
And they believed her. 😂
Apparently an Australian accent was all the supporting evidence they needed.
But here is what has stuck with me all these years:
Crocodile Dundee wrestling those crocodiles. 🐊
That image is somehow etched in my brain when I think about our ongoing battle with sin.
Because if I’m being real, some areas of sanctification have felt a lot more like wrestling a crocodile than checking something off a list or working on some behavior modification.
🍽️ Letting food control me.
🧠 Learning to take my thoughts captive.
🗣️ Learning to control my mouth.
🙋♀️ Pride.
🤲 Selfishness.
Just a few of my crocodiles. 🐊
Areas where God has given me tremendous freedom—and yet places where I still have to remain awake and dependent upon Him.
And that is one of the tensions of the Christian life that I think we need to understand.
✨ You really can walk in increasing freedom.
Jesus changes people.
Patterns that once controlled us do not have to control us forever.
We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
We can learn to walk by the Spirit.
We can grow in self-control.
We can experience increasing freedom from things that once seemed impossible to overcome.
Sanctification is real.
But freedom does not mean we reach a point where we never have to contend with temptation again.
Crocodile Dundee didn’t wrestle one crocodile and announce,
✅ “Well, that’s taken care of.”
Crocodiles were part of the territory.
And temptation is part of ours.
Not because Christ hasn’t made us new and set us free.
Not because we’re doomed to remain enslaved.
But because until our sanctification is complete, there is still flesh to contend with.
📖 Scripture says:
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
—1 John 2:16
These three broad categories capture the sinful desires we all contend with. Let’s break them down.
────────── ✦ ──────────
🔥 The Lust of the Flesh
────────── ✦ ──────────
The desire to satisfy bodily appetites outside God’s good boundaries.
Sexual sin lives here.
But so do:
🍰 Gluttony
🍷 Drunkenness
🛋️ Comfort at the expense of obedience
🎁 Unchecked indulgence
😴 Laziness
Even perfectly legitimate appetites can become disordered when they start demanding to be served.
The issue isn’t simply wanting something good; it’s how that desire begins to govern us.
────────── ✦ ──────────
👀 The Lust of the Eyes
────────── ✦ ──────────
I see it. I want it.
💵 Money
🏠 Possessions
✨ Someone else’s lifestyle
👤 Someone else’s body
🚪 Someone else’s opportunities
🛍️ The next purchase
📈 The persistent belief that just a little more will finally be enough
────────── ✦ ──────────
👑 The Pride of Life
────────── ✦ ──────────
🏆 Recognition
📈 Status
👑 Power
✨ Being impressive
☝️ Being right
👏 Being admired
⭐ Being important
📣 Having influence
🎯 Getting my way
Different people have different crocodiles. 🐊
And one of the most dangerous things we can do is experience genuine freedom in an area and then mistake that freedom for invincibility.
The 17th-century Puritan pastor John Owen famously wrote:
“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
That is strong language.
But it comes straight out of the biblical picture of mortification—putting sinful patterns to death rather than making room for them.
And Scripture is equally clear about how we do that:
“…if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
—Romans 8:13
Notice those words:
🕊️ By the Spirit.
This isn’t white-knuckling Christianity.
It isn’t obsessing over ourselves.
And it certainly isn’t physically harming ourselves.
It is actively cooperating with the Spirit of God by saying “no” to our flesh as He forms Christ in us.
Galatians says:
“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
—Galatians 5:16
That means two things can be true at once:
✅ In Christ, sin is no longer my master.
And:
⚠️ I am still learning to walk in that freedom.
Those are not contradictions.
Freedom doesn’t mean temptation disappears or that I obey perfectly. It means I belong to Christ, and by His Spirit, I can resist sin and grow in obedience.
Maybe you’re beginning to resist a pattern that has controlled you for years.
Maybe you’ve experienced tremendous freedom—but still recognize situations that make you vulnerable.
Whether the struggle is fresh or the growth is well established, we remain dependent on Him.
We don’t have to be terrified of the crocodile.
But we probably shouldn’t let it become a house pet either. 😂🐊
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
—1 Corinthians 10:12
🧭 Where are you most easily tempted?
Where are you vulnerable?
What tends to weaken your defenses?
And where have you experienced enough freedom that you’ve stopped being watchful?
Freedom and vigilance belong together.
We walk with Christ.
We celebrate real transformation.
And when temptation shows up again, we don’t act shocked.
We know the territory.
We know Who is with us.
And by the Spirit, we keep wrestling. 🐊🕊️
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