The Soul's Conflict and Victory Over Itself by Faith

Richard Sibbes’ unique Bible commentary discusses how various passages in scripture explain the human condition; the soul, the believer’s relationship to the divine, and their battles with sin.

For Sibbes, the Biblical lore explained much about the difficulties of living, the challenges each person must face, and endeavouring to reconcile the qualities of the soul with the eternal nature of the heavenly divine. Through devotion to God and spurning the influence and temptations of Satan, Christian believers can attain greater happiness and fulfillment, together with a capacity to cope with the difficulties inherent to life.

Traversing the Bible and psalms, Sibbes reveals lessons on soul nurturing from a variety of sources; of particular interest is the book of Ecclesiastes, which is a frank explanation of the human condition. Sibbes is keen to demonstrate strategies which observant and moral people use to fend off sin and the misfortunes of succumbing to it. Mastering such conflicts and cleaving to a closer relationship to the Lord is the prevailing theme of this work: lessons delve into topics such as building trust in God, and disdaining the personal qualities which would undermine spiritual development.