Ephesians 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Are you like me? Do you still have desires of both the flesh and the mind? The fact that we have these desires is not nearly as important as what we do about it. Fulfilling those desires is what counts. Do those desires direct your actions? Will you do anything to have what you desire?

What if I have lust for my wife? Is that the same as desire or is it desire which has no consideration for the object of my desire? It is when we fail to consider the importance of relationships that we move from having sin and fulfilling sin. That example of our spouses is the easiest to relate to in this world. The principle exist in all relationships.

How about your relationship with God? Has He identified those things which place your relationship with Him at risk? It is important to understand that relational risks change, not because God changes, because we know He does not, but because we change. How can that be?

When you have a baby you place diapers on that child because they do not have control over their own body. You don’t expect it. As the child grows they find the mess is uncomfortable for them and they practice as taught to identify how to control those issues. As they grow older they may have accidents. You understand, you are gracious, just as God is gracious with us. Then as they are matured and those moments of total embarrassment occur, it is a sign not of lack of will, but of being sick. Action can be taken to remove the illness. You do not ignore the disease without serious consequences.

Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Submission nullifies fulfillment.

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

I’ll have none of it, says Jesus. You are all one and none is different.

We label people and things. Do we like to be labeled? I am a Christian and that is an identity, I identify with Christ. Yet it is a label. The world calls me Christian as an insult because that label represents something dangerous to them. That is the danger in labels, that judgment is attached.

Hatred and resentments get attached to labels also. What one group means for good in their own label stirs up strong negative emotions in others. Same label, two opposing emotions. The label does no cause derision it only identifies it.

Daniel 7:28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

Since Jesus is changing our countenance and it is a matter of the heart, of what use do labels serve? If I use a label with good intention, that use is no longer under my control, I’ve released it. I meant it for no harm but the wounds happen anyway.

Mark 3:25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

We are one body not a thousand labels.