Mortifying Abnormal Traits
Covetousness springs from acquisitiveness abnormally developed. Strife comes from abnormal combativeness. Jealousy arises from an abnormal love of approbation. Now if these things exist in the individual, what is his duty?—“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” “If ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” All such abnormal tendencies and traits should be repressed, crucified, slain. It is the abnormal traits of a man's character which unbalance him and lead him to sin, or “miss the mark.” The Spirit of God is given to every child of God, that these traits may all be brought into harmony, that the weaker may be cultivated, the stronger repressed, and that the individual may become a perfect, well-balanced man in Christ Jesus, “of sound mind.”