Hand in Glove

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him … – Colossians 1:21-22

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. – Romans 8:6-8

I have done bad things.  I do both fewer and less these days – that is, fewer bad things and those are less bad (mostly).   While disobedience is to be avoided, our real problem is defiance, a mindset that refuses to accept our status as branches drawing life from the Vine.  We start thinking that, because we are walking around in a seemingly separate cloud of atoms, we are somehow independent and able to act according to our own intentions and desires. 

We are alienated in our minds.  We can’t really be independent anymore than a marionette could walk around without strings or Kermit the Frog could sing without a little help from his friends.  I could try duct-taping my gloves to the chainsaw, but I don’t think they would cut much wood.  When your glove fetches a beer from the refrigerator, your hand is usually going to be in it.  

From God's point of view, the flesh -- that is, our old nature --  never accomplishes anything of lasting value.  The "glove" of the physical body can be animated by either the old fleshly nature or the new spiritual nature.  We should set our minds accordingly.