The Good I Want, The Evil I Don’t
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Romans 7:19
If it weren’t so sad, it would be funny. I order a salad for lunch and then have dessert. I buy organic catsup and chicken or beef with no hormones or antibiotics, as I drink a can of chemical filled Diet Pepsi.
I am inconsistent.
This is an old problem with me. When my son was just two years old, he and his three-year-old sister fought over a balloon. I, in a no uncertain terms, Mom tone of voice, informed him that he would NEVER have another one. His sister immediately started to cry. He calmed just as quickly as she started, put his hand on her shoulder and consoled her, “Don’t worry, she’ll forget.”
Wow! A two year old had already figured me out!
Spiritual Inconsistency
Where else do I do this? Paul’s words from Romans 7:19 ring true to me. I do the evil I don’t want to do and I do not do the good I know I ought to do. Paul makes the point in this chapter that the Law of God is for our good, kind of like organic foods!
I love that Paul tells us that the law is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12). It is convicting, so we want to find fault with it. The truth is that it’s the law that shows us what is unholy, unrighteous, and evil about ourselves. God uses the law to show us our sin and make it obvious to us that we need a Savior. Then, He sent One, Jesus, the Christ!
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25
Revealing Truth
I don’t think my eating habits are terribly sinful. But, I do wonder if they reveal something about me that I can apply to the spiritual aspects of my life. At the very least, they remind me that I am not the consistently good person I would like to think I am.
They tell me how inconsistent (wretched) I can be. I love God. I love His Law/Word. But, am I, consistently, a living witness for Jesus Christ? Or, like organic food, do I talk about the pure and holy One while I, in the other hand, hold my Diet Pepsi in the form of some idol I am protecting?
Are we doing the good we want – or the evil we don’t want?