<p>2:3 <i>Among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by our natural condition destined to be children of God&rsquo;s wrath, even as the others</i>- See on :2. The contrast drawn in this section is between how believers were before baptism, and the status they are now in. The &quot;we&quot; here are different to &quot;the others&quot;, the world generally. Our status as being the children of wrath has now been changed, as we no longer live in the lusts of our flesh. So it would be wrong to think that &quot;children of wrath&quot; refers to some natural condition we are born into by nature and can only get out of by ceasing to be human. &quot;Children of...&quot; is a Hebraism that doesn't refer to natural birth as children. The children of peace or of a town mean the people associated with that thing or place. So &quot;children of wrath&quot; doesn't mean we are born into a situation where God is as it were mad with us. The wrath of God is not upon every foetus conceived or baby born. His wrath refers to His condemnation of sin actually committed in thought or deed. But we are not now related to that, since we are now in Christ with His status and righteousness counted to us. We are not sinners by nature; for all we posit about human nature we state about the Lord Jesus, who was of our nature, and was all the same holy and undefiled before God in His life.</p><p>We don&rsquo;t sense enough, perhaps, that this world is not just passively disinterested in God. All outside of Christ are active enemies towards Him, subjects of God&rsquo;s wrath (Eph. 2:3,15). This isn&rsquo;t how we tend to see the world around us. But to the first century believer, it was clearly so. The greatness of the gulf that divides was clearly felt. Our world is (overall) more tolerant than it has ever been; but let&rsquo;s not forget that the ruling powers are &lsquo;satan&rsquo;, an embodiment of the flesh. All around is subtly articulated enmity against true spirituality and the cause of Christ. The more we see that, the more we will realise how close we are to each other who are the other side of the great divide, &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo; along with us. What differences of emphasis and personality there may be between us we will more naturally overlook. &nbsp;The world is therefore seen by God as actively sinful. For the man who does not accept salvation in Christ, &quot;the wrath of God <i>abideth </i>on him&quot; (Jn. 3:36)- it isn't lifted. We are therefore subject to the wrath of God until baptism (Eph. 2:3). It doesn't seem or feel like this. And yet God experiences this sense of anger with sin, albeit unexpressed to human eyes. But it need not &quot;abide&quot; on us, we need not remain by nature the children of wrath- for we can come into Christ.</p>