Naughty Law

For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.

- Romans 7:5

What does Paul mean when he talks about the law arousing our sinful passions? He goes on...

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

- Romans 7:7-10

Is the lesson that we, like little children, will only sin once we know that something is sinful?

Almost makes me wish God might have applied a little selective reverse psychology - "You must eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and none of the other fruit"... except that a) it is not in God's nature to lie and b) such a command would have redefined what sin was anyway. Oh well...