13. Does this mean that something that is good brought death to me? No, it was sin that used the good command to bring me death. This shows how terrible sin really is. It can use a good command to produce a result that shows sin at its very worst.
14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am so human. Sin rules me as if I were its slave.
15. I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate.
16. And if I don’t want to do what I do, that means I agree that the law is good.
17. But I am not really the one doing the evil. It is sin living in me that does it.
18. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it.