God never intended us to love by trying hard in our own strength.

Romans 7:23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. We are continuing to learn from and be encouraged by Paul’s teaching regarding the Law. Let’s remember that the context of all of these verses in chapter 7 is that Jesus Christ has set us free from the Law of God. Since he cited the tenth of the Ten Commandments, we know that is what was on his mind as he wrote this section of his letter. However, he didn’t want his readers to think that he did not think that the Law was not holy, righteous, and good. Rather, he wanted them to see that the Law alone was never intended to produce fruit for God or bring life. In fact, it will do just the opposite, it will aggravate sin and bring it to life resulting in death. In this verse, Paul described the war that was waging in his life. On one side, there was the principle of sin in his body. That principle of sin waged war against the principle of righteousness that was in his mind as a result of the new birth and the presence of the Holy Spirit in his inner man. What was the result? As long as he tried in the flesh to do the good by looking at the Law, he found that the power of sin was greater than the power of the fleshly mind. Paul was showing how his body, with indwelling sin, and the Law relate to one another. In vs. 14 he had stated that he was “of flesh” and in vs. 18 he said, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” By “in the flesh”, he meant in a mortal body. That mortal body was sold into bondage to sin with Adam’s first sin. So now that he was a Christian, now that he believed in Jesus and his heart had been committed to righteousness (6:17), the introduction of the Law spotlighted a war raging within him. The new Paul was a prisoner in a body of sin. I can’t wait to get to tomorrow’s verse, but I will restrain myself, and draw encouragement from today’s verse. For now, we are encouraged that God’s plan for us to live righteously and to love those He puts in our paths is not that we try hard to do the right thing. The Law will only highlight how weak, sinful, and fruitless we are living in these bodies of sin. The strength, righteousness, and fruitfulness that we long for comes from the inner man, where our spirits are joined with the Holy Spirit. From that union inundated by the love of God, love for God and others flows. Meditate on this, and let the wonder of living to love with Jesus encourage your soul. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com