Referring to the sons of disobedience, Ephesians 2:3 says, “Among whom also we all behaved ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Here we see that, as sons of disobedience, we were also the children of wrath. God was angry with us. Because of our disobedience we were under God’s wrath.
The children of wrath behaved themselves in the lust of their flesh. Thus, three evil things dominate the life of the children of wrath: the age of this world outside them, the ruler of the aerial authority above and within them, and the lust of the flesh in their fallen nature. Before we were saved we, as children of wrath, all behaved ourselves in the lust of our flesh.
As we behaved ourselves in the lust of our flesh, we did the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts. The word “desires” in Ephesians 2:3 refers to our likes. In the past we did certain things simply because we liked to do them. The likes of the flesh refer to evil things, and the likes of the thoughts refer to things that may be somewhat better. Both are a sign of being deadened in the spirit (Eph. 2:1), especially in the conscience. When someone is deadened in his spirit, he does whatever his flesh and his thoughts like to do. This is a picture of the children of wrath, which we were before we were saved.
Even worse than being sinners, sons of disobedience, and children of wrath, as unbelievers we were children of the Devil (1 John 3:10). Being sinners and practicing sin are matters of life and nature. Men, as the fallen descendants of Adam, are born children of the Devil, the evil one (John 8:44), possessing his life, partaking of his nature, and living in sin automatically and habitually. Practicing sin is their life.
The children of the Devil, brought forth by him as the old serpent (Rev. 12:9), are “serpents, brood of vipers” (Matt. 23:33; 3:7). This means that the children of the Devil have a serpentine nature. Because our human nature was fully poisoned by the old serpent, before we were saved we were a brood of vipers. No matter how good or refined a person may seem to be, his sinful nature is serpentine. In the sight of God, all unbelievers are serpents, the offspring of the Devil, full of the poison of the old serpent.
The children of the Devil do the desire of their father the Devil. The Lord Jesus said, “You are of your father the Devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44). The Devil, an evil father, has brought forth sinful children, who do his desires. Because we were born of the Devil, we have his evil nature. The sins we commit are the outward expression of this nature. Sin is an act that expresses the devilish nature; it is an issue of the devilish nature within us.
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