Romans 7:15 – What I am hating this I am doing

For what I am effecting I know not, for not what I will, this I am putting into practice, but what I am hating, this I am doing.

It is a sad account of the personal inability to accomplish what the law indicates. Despite good intentions (“what I will”). To understand what Paul is referring to when he writes “what I am hating this I am doing,” we must go back to verse 7. There he is referring to the commandment “you shall not covet”. That command is not about outward behavior, because such commands a person can usually easily obey. But with desire it is about the inner self and about what goes on in a person.

In addition, that commandment is also negative: “you shall not covet …”. Taken as an assignment, this is like telling a child: you should not want to eat from this cookie jar. Even if the child can hold back and won’t eat from the cookie jar, it will be all the more eager to do so. Because the ban suggests that it is attractive. Therefore, the commandment “you shall not covet” can only be fulfilled in someone who knows it is not a command! It’s a promise – GOD fulfills it!

Delen: