Doing what you do not want ...

Thursday, Nov 12, 2015. When you deal with the biblical texts, you observe over and over again that they have a deep meaning which opens up to yourself in situations where you are faced with some kind of challenge or trouble. I have a particular example in mind which I am struggling with … let us have a look.

Focus of Life …

The focus of our life as Christians should be God himself, his love, his grace, his wonderful character, his creativity. God is good, and God is fantastic. Jesus called the disciples his friends - they have gone with him through great times and bad times. He taught them all he knew and continues to do so through the Holy Spirit. And as a Christian I am living with him, working with him, longing to be with him, being with him … and I am experiencing the power of his holy spirit.

At the same time, I am struggling with keeping focus. I am struggling with the things in this world. I am struggling with some people, having bad experiences. And I am not doing what I want to do. There were many evenings where I sat together with my wife at late dinner time, and I said that I struggle to do what I want to do. I am not calm and take things in a peaceful way. I am upset about some peoples behavior, which I feel to be ignorant and destructive, and I am struggling to keep a constructive attitude.

How do you bring these things together? You could tell yourself: as true Christian you have to be full of joy and peace. But I am not - joy comes, but not all the time, and there are these many moments where I do not do what I want to do. If I could just command myself and I would be able to do what I commend! But I am not. But then, you read Romans 7, the letter of the apostle Paul, and his words about exactly this type of struggle. It is a 100% hit, the bible in its best form, for those who are at this particular situation with their life. Please have a look!

The letter: Romans 7 …

12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 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 agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.3 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, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although 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 me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7, 12-25)

People have discussed heatedly whether Paul mans that our nature is the physical body only, or whether he more thinks of our whole being, the natural one, including our body and our mind. I think that Paul tries to make the distinction, but it is not physis versus mind, but non-spiritual life versus spiritual life, and both include our body and our mind.

One key point here is leading us back to real joy: salvation has already taken place. Jesus Christ is our deliverer, our salvation, our help. We struggle, and we fail. But we are saved in and through all of this by God's grace in Christ Jesus. There is a strong force guiding us back into life, active all the time, day by day, minute by minute. It is holding us, keeping us and changing us. ... more texts