The War Within

15

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

16

And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.

17

In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

18

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

19

For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.

20

And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21

So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

22

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.

23

But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

24

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

25

Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.