¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

 ¹³Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Those verses typify the argument in Christian circles for a bunch of different reasons. One way that Christians live those verses out is from their own will, instead of understanding those verses as the yang to the inner struggle against one's own nature they see that battle as a means to hate themselves. In the end that's the main thing that stops Christians from loving other people or themselves. They take Paul's divine wisdom as a blanket condemnation on a part of themselves by learning examining how much they screw up. It's weird how Christians find a way to use those verses as a way to measure themselves when the idea that we should measure ourselves at all is completely antithetical to the Gospel. The Gospel says that GOD LOVES US and accepts us and that he is the only capable of measuring us at all. By measuring I mean judging. So when human beings fail in whatever way we do there is grace and love capable of transforming our consciousness, soul, and body away from our failure. Yet I meet Christians that struggle w/ that simple truth. Hell I struggle w/ it at times.  Yet  Human beings fail if anything that seems to mark our nature as much as our successes. 

The path of Love the mystics walk is as complex as others that don't walk this path. They are just as confused on this point as the others. You have folks in the Orthodox camp saying one has to war w/ their fleshly nature, the same thing w/ most of the monks and desert fathers and for that matter evangelical Christianity. That path is annoying, it works but it usually leaves the adherent w/ some severe self-hatred issues and in some way truncates loving themselves or their humanity (ie their sexuality) in a way that builds connection in community. There is another path, one that actually brings wholeness and healing between the flesh and the spirit.

That path involves learning to love and embrace all the conflicting energies the fears and anxieties the flesh generates. It means learning to love your enemy your flesh by turning the other cheek and seeing the need underneath the clinging and needy ego.When I use that word I don't mean ego from the Freudian sense but the self that is constantly grabbing, searching and seeking some form of validation.YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

If one has any hope of loving the world the way the greats did ie JESUS, Buddha and others did then the only way is to learn to love their shadow selves and embrace the new that is born in love when one unites w/ God.

p