Feed the Dog? Or Serve the Master?

When speaking of the struggle within a believer to do what's right, have you ever used the analogy of the Two Dogs? There's a Bad Dog and a Good Dog and whichever one you feed grows bigger and stronger than its fellow and dominates it. The Christian person must "feed the right Dog," the Good Dog, if they want to overcome the sin of the Bad Dog and live righteously. Sound familiar? Maybe you've not used this analogy yourself but have read of it, or heard it taught, or preached, even, from the pulpit. I know I have - quite a number of times.

Do you know, there is nothing like this analogy used anywhere in Scripture to describe the struggle within that the believer faces daily in walking with God? The closest one might come in Scripture to a parallel to the Two Dogs analogy is what the apostle Paul described of his struggle to live a holy, obedient life before God in chapter 7 of his letter to the Roman Church.

Romans 7:15-23
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

In this passage, Paul described two "laws" - not dogs - at war within himself: the "Law of Sin" in his members (or body), and the "Law of the Mind" with which he served (or desired to serve, anyway) the Law of God. His struggle, Paul admitted, wasn't going very well. In fact, he ended chapter 7 on a note of despair:

Romans 7:24
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

We'll get to Paul's route to victory over the "body of this death" in a minute but first consider how Paul framed up the internal struggle of the believer. The struggle wasn't over which "dog" to feed, but over what "law" he would serve.

Just as in chapter 6 of Romans, Paul speaks of his losing battle with the "Law of Sin" in terms of being under its power as a slave or prisoner (vs. 23). In Paul's mind, there was no "dog" waiting to be fed, relying upon the choice of the "feeder" for its "sustenance." No, instead, the "Law of Sin" was aggressively compelling Paul to sin, acting upon him very powerfully, quite apart from what Paul, in his mind, desired. If the "Bad Dog" actually existed within Paul, it wasn't waiting, chained in a corner, for Paul to feed it, but had him by the throat, strong and dangerous already, needing no feeding at all!

This is a radically different situation than the Two Dogs analogy describes, don't you think? The question isn't "Which dog do I feed?" but "How do I get this crazy animal off of me?!" It's a pretty serious mischaracterization of the inner struggle the believer faces, to assert that the believer stands between two Dogs, equally capable of choosing either of them. This isn't the picture Paul painted, that's for sure!

Okay. On to the remedy Paul laid out in chapter 8 of his epistle to the Roman Church. You probably won't be surprised at this point when I tell you that the secret of Paul's spiritual victory didn't turn on which "dog" he fed. In chapter 7 and chapter 8, Paul made it really clear that, in-and-of himself, in the power of his flesh, he had no capacity whatever to resist the "Law of Sin in his members." In fact, his natural, human, fleshly impulse was to let the "Bad Dog" drag him around by the scruff of his neck deeper and deeper into sin!

Romans 7:18
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Romans 8:6-8
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Left to himself, Paul's natural inclination was to "feed the Bad Dog" all the time. He goes so far as to say that his choice of which "dog" to feed was no choice, actually, at all! By nature, he would always feed the "Bad Dog," the "Dog of the Flesh."

Hopefully, at this point, you can see how badly flawed the Two Dogs analogy is.

Using Paul's description, there are two sorts of "mind": the mind set on the flesh, the fleshly mind, and the mind set upon the Spirit, the spiritually-minded mind. All of us are naturally, apart from Christ, of the former, fleshly mind. This can only be changed by the work of the Spirit, who, in response to our trusting in Christ as our Lord and Saviour, comes to dwell in us (Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), in so doing making us spiritually-alive, "spiritually-minded" people.

Romans 8:9-14
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Here, then, is the route to freedom over the "Law of Sin": being indwelt by the Spirit and thus given new spiritual life, by whose power we are able to "put to death the deeds of the body." At this point, though, the Two Dogs thinking often creeps back in. The route to freedom is interpreted as: I have been given power from the Spirit and I will use it to deny myself, my flesh, and live righteously. I have the power to "feed the Good Dog" now and so I will.

This isn't, however, actually correct. There's a subtle twisting of Paul's words here to fit the Two Dogs analogy that is enabled, or fostered, by a moralistic, me-centered conception of how the Christian life works. The thinking is that the Spirit funnels His power into the believer and then the believer uses that power to God-honoring ends. And so, the Christian stands between the Two Dogs, empowered now to choose the "Good Dog" if he wants.

Do you see who is key to the choosing between right and wrong, good and evil? Who is the crucial agent in how the Christian chooses to live? Not the Holy Spirit; the Christian. So long as the believer thinks they are merely in possession of God's supernatural power and it is ultimately up to them how they will utilize His power, they stand at the center of their Christian living, choosing constantly between "dogs."

In his writing, Paul, though, puts a big crimp in this conception of Christian living.

Romans 8:13-14
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Did Paul write, "By the Spirit's power" the believer puts to death the deeds of the body? No, it is by the Spirit himself, not merely by his supernatural power, by which the believer is able to put to death the deeds of the body. Reinforcing this truth, Paul expanded upon what he meant: "all who are being led by the Spirit...". It is the Spirit-controlled person, the one living as a submitted "slave of righteousness," as God's "bond-servant," who by the Spirit is transformed in their desires and thinking such that they put to death the deeds of the body. Paul puts a really fine point on this in his letter to the Philippians:

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

God at work in the Christian in the Person of the Holy Spirit doesn't just give power to the Christian to use as they think best, but himself alters what they want to do so that they want what he wants, moving with him joyfully and willingly into the new person he makes them to be.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Lord, the Spirit.

Here, too, Paul points again to the Spirit as the agent of our transformation, not to us and our "choosing between dogs." Our "job" is to allow the Spirit to orient us constantly upon Christ, filling our mind and heart with him, and as he does, he conforms us to our focus.

And so, we return to the beginning of this post, looking again at Paul's words to the Roman Church:

Romans 6:12-18
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Hopefully, its a bit clearer to you now that the means to a holy life isn't to think of walking with God as a matter of "feeding the right dog," but, convinced of your own utter inability to choose consistently and persistently to "feed the right dog," a matter of living in submission to God, the Master, of yielding to Him, to the Spirit, in everything and so being changed by him, conformed more and more to Jesus by the Spirit's work.