Running In Place

Just One of The Many Reasons Christians Continue to Struggle with Lust

We’ve Got it All Wrong.

You’ve heard it said: when lust comes knocking at your door, don’t fight it—run from it. That command is biblical and good. But when it is reduced to a slogan and left unexplained, it carries an implication that many Christians never stop to question. In practice, it often teaches people not how to resist lust, but how to surrender the moment it appears. Lust is one of the most powerful temptations we face, and when believers are left unequipped to handle it, the outcome is predictable. The problem is not the command to flee. The problem is what we assume that command means.

The Hidden Implication

The message often given to young believers is that a fight against lust is a fight you cannot win. That is why they are told, “You must flee.” There is truth in this. Scripture does command us to flee from sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18). But my issue is not with the command itself, but rather with the implication attached to it. Modern Evangelicalism and Social Media have taken fleeing to mean not only running away, but the absence of any fight at all. That, however, is not biblical. Consider it logically: when lustful desires arise, how does one simply flee? A choice must still be made. Either give in, or turn away. And that act of turning away is itself a form of resistance. It is a fight, even if only for a moment. But if someone has been taught that they cannot fight, that they cannot win, how can they be expected to make that choice? How can they ever escape lust’s grip?

The common example given when telling someone to flee from sexual immorality is Genesis 39, the account of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, and it is a good one. When faced with temptation, Joseph does exactly that. But there is a detail often overlooked, a detail that challenges the entire “don’t fight” narrative.

Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. Then she seized him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside (Genesis 39:11–12).

Notice that Joseph is not merely presented with temptation. He is seized by it. The temptation is aggressive. This matters. Joseph is not standing at a distance, calmly choosing to leave. He is being grabbed, and in that moment, he must break free before he can run. Fleeing, in this case, is not passive. It requires resistance. If he attempted to flee whilst still being held back by Potiphar’s wife’s grip, he would only be running in place. This is where the modern misunderstanding begins to collapse. If a believer has been taught that fighting lust is hopeless, what happens when temptation does not merely appear, but takes hold? That moment demands action and resistance, and if they have already believed that resistance is impossible, they will surrender before they ever flee.

Is it Hopeless?

Don’t hear what I’m not saying. Merely fighting off lust is not enough. The second lust grabs you, you must resist, and the second you break free, you must flee, because if you stay and think you can just keep fighting it, you will fail. My point is not that you must only fight, nor that you must only flee. You must flee, but to flee, you must first fight, even if only for a second.

What does that actually look like? In the moment, the fight is immediate. Scripture says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). Lust isn’t something you manage; it’s something you kill. That means the second it shows up, you must reject it. No hesitation, no entertaining it. You cut it off right there. But that moment of resistance isn’t the end goal; it’s what gets you out. Once you break free, you flee. You completely remove yourself from the situation. Close the laptop, put the phone down, leave the room, do something else, go for a drive if you have to, but more important than any of that, you pray. You ask God to take that fleshly desire out of your heart and replace it with a Godly desire, and you say it out loud, not just in your head, training your mind so that when that moment comes again, your instinct isn’t to engage, but rather to turn to the Lord.

Then, after that moment is over, the fight continues, because if nothing changes, you’re going to end up right back there again. That’s why Scripture also speaks about cutting off what feeds the sin in the first place. In Matthew 5:29–30, Jesus says if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. He’s not calling for self-harm. He’s showing how seriously sin must be dealt with. You don’t keep feeding it and expect to win. Whatever is causing you to stumble, whether it’s habits, environments, or patterns, it has to go. And you don’t just remove sin, you replace it. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure… think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Your mind doesn’t stay empty; it moves, so you have to direct it. That’s the pattern: in the moment you resist, immediately after you flee, and over time, you cut off what feeds it and replace it with what is right. That’s what it means to fight, and that split second where you actually resist is what makes fleeing possible.