Arresting the Flesh To understand the relationship between godly attitudes, thoughts, and actions, consider this analogy. If a policeman sees someone who's about to violate the law, he will arrest that person. Similarly, godly attitudes and thoughts produced by the Word act as policemen to arrest the flesh before it commits a crime against the standard of God's Word. But if they aren't on duty, they can't arrest the flesh, and the flesh is free to violate the law of God. The analogy teaches that right attitudes and thoughts must precede right practices.
Pure behavior produces spiritual peace and stability, but sinful behavior produces instability.
That is true not only in the millennial kingdom, where Christ one day will rule the earth in righteousness, but also in the life of the believer. Contentment, comfort, calm, quietness, and tranquility accompany godly conduct, which is based on God's Word. As godly habits are cultivated by the power of God, bad habits will diminish and the believer's life becomes more and more stable. The Philippian believers had the Old Testament books to go to, but the entire New Testament hadn't been completed at the time Paul wrote this letter. Since they may have had access to only a minimal amount of written revelation in the New Testament, the believers looked to the apostles as their source of truth until all the New Testament books were brought together.