"The entrance of thy words giveth light (Psalm 119:130)."
The Sin Nature
One thing that is true for all of us is that we have an innate desire to do those things that are contrary to the will of God. This applies to Christians and non-Christians alike. The Bible refers to this phenomenon as the "sinful nature" or, in more literal translations, as "the flesh."
The Bible tells how this came about in Romans 1:18-32. The following is from the NIV version (Italics added).
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
"For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want." {Galatians 5:17 NIV}
The sin nature manifests itself in different ways in different people.
The devil endeavors to get us to yield to our sinful natures. However, our sin natures exist, independently, of the devil.
As Christians, we have both the responsibility and the ability to not yield to our sinful natures: "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12-14 NKJV)."
Not yielding to the sin nature involves not only our behavior, but our thinking as well: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." {Romans 8:5 NKJV}
The Bible commands us not to entertain sinful thoughts associated with our sin natures:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NASB)."
One of the best ways to accomplish this is to recite Scripture, preferably out loud—and then do what the Scripture says.
Two examples follow:
". . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right . . . think about these things." {Philippians 4:8 NASB}
"I will set nothing wicked before my eyes . . ." {Psalms 101.3 NKJV}
Scripture has intrinsic power, in and of itself: "For the word of God is living and active . . . (Hebrews 4:12 NASB)."
More information is available on this website. It is especially recommended that you review the series entitled Stopping Spiritual Attacks.
The Bible provides additional portraits of the contrasting lifestyles of those who yield to their sinful natures and those that don't. One such portrait follows.
"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-25 NIV)."
"So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will (Romans 8:6-7 NLT Italics added)."
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