Romans 7:18

An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh, for the desire to do good is present in my heart, but the ability to carry it out [consistently] is not.

Cross References

Matthew 15:19

For evil thoughts, murder, extramarital affairs, sexual immorality, stealing, perjury, slander --- [all these] come from a person’s heart,

Luke 11:13

If then you know how to give good gifts to your children, even though you are sinful [human beings], how much more [likely] is it that your Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

John 3:6

Whoever is born from human parents is a human being; and whoever is born from the Holy Spirit is a spiritual being.

Romans 13:14

But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make any plans for satisfying the strong desires of your flesh [i.e., your appetites for sinful pleasures].

Romans 7:15

For I do not [really] understand what I am doing; I practice what I do not want to and I hate what I do. [Note: This highly controversial section (verses 14b-25) is here viewed as the struggles of the apostle Paul after his conversion, and by extension, of all Christians. See Bruce, pages 150ff; Murray, pages 255ff; Lard, pages 236ff].

Romans 7:19

For I do not do the good [things] I want to, but I practice the evil [things] I do not want to.

Romans 7:25

Thank God [that I can be rescued] through [the power of] Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I personally [try to] serve God’s law with my mind, but [all too often] I serve the law of sin with my flesh [i.e., submitting in weakness to my human desires].

Romans 7:5

For when we were in the flesh [i.e., before conversion], our sinful desires, aroused by [the restrictions of] the Law of Moses, worked in our bodies to produce activity that led to [spiritual] death.

Galatians 5:17

For what your body wants is in conflict with what the Holy Spirit wants [for you], and what the Holy Spirit wants conflicts with what your body wants, for these [two desires] are contrary to one another, so that you do not [always] do what you [really] want to.

Galatians 5:24

And those persons who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified [i.e., put out of their lives, Col. 3:4ff] the sinful cravings of the body, along with their passionate desires.

Philippians 2:13

for it is God who is at work in you, both to motivate the desire and to carry out what pleases Him.

Philippians 3:12

[It is] not that I have already arrived at the goal [of spiritual maturity], or have already been made perfectly [righteous], but I am pushing onward in order to take hold of what Christ Jesus took hold of me for [i.e., to receive all that Christ intended for me].

Titus 3:3

For we [Christians] were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various kinds of [evil] desires and [sinful] pleasures. [We used to] live in malice and envy, hating people and being hated by them.

1 Peter 4:2

So then, you should no longer live the rest of your lives [to satisfy] the sinful desires of your body, but to do what God wants.