2:11 {9} Dearly beloved, {10} I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, {11} abstain from fleshly lusts, {12} which war against the soul;
(9) He returns to that general exhortation.
(10) A reason why we ought to live holy, that is, because we are citizens of heaven, and therefore we ought to live not according to the laws of this world, which is most corrupt, but of the heavenly city, although we are strangers in the world.
(11) Another argument: The children of God live not according to the flesh, that is, according to that corrupt nature, but according to the Spirit. Therefore fleshly actions should not rule us.
(12) The third argument: for although those lusts gratify us, yet they do not cease to fight against our salvation.
2:11 I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims. As sojourners (Revised Version). They were all, like the fathers (Heb 11:13), only pilgrims and sojourners on the earth, seeking for a better home. Hence they should
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, which would destroy their prospects of that home.
2:11 Here begins the exhortation drawn from the second motive. Sojourners: pilgrims - The first word properly means, those who are in a strange house; the second, those who are in a strange country. You sojourn in the body; you are pilgrims in this world. Abstain from desires of anything in this house, or in this country.
2:11,12 Even the best of men, the chosen generation, the people of God, need to be exhorted to keep from the worst sins. And fleshly lusts are most destructive to man's soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them. There is a day of visitation coming, wherein God may call to repentance by his word and his grace; then many will glorify God, and the holy lives of his people will have promoted the happy change.
