Romans 7:5
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
To be in the flesh is to have sinful desires at work in the bodily members in connection with the law, producing fruit that leads to death. By contrast, through Christ people become dead to the law and serve in newness of spirit, bringing forth fruit to God. When those in the flesh wilfully disregard God's law, the threatened judgments upon every transgressor do not move them to love and obey it. In stubborn perversity they hate the law because it condemns their wicked course, and their rebellion becomes more decided and pronounced until it yields fruit ending in death.
Parents who profess to be Christians yet fill the home with criticism, censure, contention and lack of sweet peace bring forth fruit unto death in their children. That fruit is children with no desire to serve the Lord or to be such Christians, made skeptics and unbelievers and despisers of truth, who fear their parents without loving them as they should and are driven from the truth unless God's Spirit appeals to their hearts. Loving influence from father and mother that binds children from their earliest years would lead them to obedience to the truth. Professing Christians in the church can bring forth only fruit leading to death, unlike true Christians who bring forth fruit to God's glory so the difference from worldlings is plainly seen. That deadly fruit is poisonous fruit from plants God did not plant, dangerous sentiments brought into the church as the garden reclaimed from the wilderness of sin, which the Son of God who controls the church will have rooted up.