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Read the Bible

English Standard Version

Romans 7:19

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Conscience;   Depravity of Man;   Good and Evil;   Justification;   Man;   Sin;   Stoicism;   Scofield Reference Index - Flesh;   The Topic Concordance - Evil;   Flesh;   Law;   Sin;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Evil;   Goodness;   Sin;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Evil;   Flesh;   Law of Christ;   Sexuality, Human;   Sin;   Spirituality;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Adoption;   Law;   Sin;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Sanctification;   Sin;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Death;   Freedom;   Human Free Will;   Romans, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Justification, Justify;   Law;   Liberty;   Man;   Romans, Epistle to the;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Demon;   Free Will;   Goodness (Human);   Law;   Lust;   Regeneration;   Regeneration (2);   Romans Epistle to the;   Sin;   Sin (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - 11 To Desire, Will, Purpose;   30 To Do, Practise;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Saul of Tarsus;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Pauline Theology;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Yeẓer Ha-Ra';  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for February 15;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
King James Version (1611)
For the good that I would, I do not: but the euill which I would not, that I doe.
King James Version
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
New American Standard Bible
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
New Century Version
I do not do the good things I want to do, but I do the bad things I do not want to do.
Amplified Bible
For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
Legacy Standard Bible
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
Berean Standard Bible
For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.
Contemporary English Version
Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong.
Complete Jewish Bible
For I don't do the good I want; instead, the evil that I don't want is what I do!
Darby Translation
For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do.
Easy-to-Read Version
I don't do the good that I want to do. I do the evil that I don't want to do.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For I doe not the good thing, which I would, but the euil, which I would not, that do I.
George Lamsa Translation
For it is not the good that I wish to do, that I do: but it is the evil that I do not wish to do, that I do.
Good News Translation
I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.
Lexham English Bible
For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I do.
Literal Translation
For what good I desire, I do not do. But the evil I do not desire, this I do.
American Standard Version
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise.
Bible in Basic English
For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do.
Hebrew Names Version
For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice.
International Standard Version
For I don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do.
Etheridge Translation
For the good that I will to do, I do not; but the evil that I will not to do, that do I.
Murdock Translation
For I do not perform the good, which I would perform; but the bad, which I would not perform, that I do perform.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For the good that I woulde, do I not: But the euyll which I woulde not, that do I.
English Revised Version
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise.
World English Bible
For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Weymouth's New Testament
For what I do is not the good thing that I desire to do; but the evil thing that I desire not to do, is what I constantly do.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For Y do not thilke good thing that Y wole, but Y do thilke yuel thing that Y wole not.
Update Bible Version
For the good which I want, I do not: but the evil which I do not want, that I do.
Webster's Bible Translation
For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
New English Translation
For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!
New King James Version
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
New Living Translation
I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
New Life Bible
I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I am always doing the sinful things I do not want to do.
New Revised Standard
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For not, the good that I wish, I do, but, the evil that I do not wish, the same I practise.
Douay-Rheims Bible
For the good which I will, I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do.
Revised Standard Version
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For I doo not yt good thinge which I wold: but that evill do I which I wolde not.
Young's Literal Translation
for the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I do not will, this I practise.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I fynde not. For ye good that I wyll, do I not: but the euell which I wil not, that do I.
Mace New Testament (1729)
for the good that I purpose to do, I do not: but the evil which I resolve against, that I do.
Simplified Cowboy Version
I don't do the right thing. I usually do the wrong thing.

Contextual Overview

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Romans 7:15 - what Romans 7:18 - for to will Philippians 3:12 - I had 1 Peter 3:11 - do

Cross-References

Genesis 7:2
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate,
Genesis 7:3
and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:6
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.
Genesis 7:9
two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
Job 12:15
If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
Jeremiah 3:23
Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
2 Peter 3:6
and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For the good that I would, I do not,.... The apostle here repeats what he had delivered in Romans 7:15 to strengthen and confirm this part of his experience; that though he had a will to that which was good, yet he wanted power, and had none of himself to perform; and therefore often did what he would not, and what he would he did not.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the good ... - This is substantially a repetition of what is said in Romans 7:15. The repetition shows how full the mind of the apostle was of the subject; and how much inclined he was to dwell upon it, and to place it in every variety of form. It is not uncommon for Paul thus to express his intense interest in a subject, by placing it in a great variety of aspects, even at the hazard of much repetition.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. For the good that I would I do not — Here again is the most decisive proof that the will is on the side of God and truth.

But the evil which I would not — And here is equally decisive proof that the will is against, or opposed to evil. There is not a man in ten millions, who will carefully watch the operations of this faculty, that will find it opposed to good and obstinately attached to evil, as is generally supposed. Nay, it is found almost uniformly on God's side, while the whole sensual system is against him.-It is not the WILL that leads men astray; but the corrupt PASSIONS which oppose and oppress the will. It is truly astonishing into what endless mistakes men have fallen on this point, and what systems of divinity have been built on these mistakes. The will, this almost only friend to God in the human soul, has been slandered as God's worst enemy, and even by those who had the seventh chapter to the Romans before their eyes! Nay, it has been considered so fell a foe to God and goodness that it is bound in the adamantine chains of a dire necessity to do evil only; and the doctrine of will (absurdly called free will, as if will did not essentially imply what is free) has been considered one of the most destructive heresies. Let such persons put themselves to school to their Bibles and to common sense.

The plain state of the case is this: the soul is so completely fallen, that it has no power to do good till it receive that power from on high. But it has power to see good, to distinguish between that and evil; to acknowledge the excellence of this good, and to will it, from a conviction of that excellence; but farther it cannot go. Yet, in various cases, it is solicited and consents to sin; and because it is will, that is, because it is a free principle, it must necessarily possess this power; and although it can do no good unless it receive grace from God, yet it is impossible to force it to sin. Even Satan himself cannot do this; and before he can get it to sin, he must gain its consent. Thus God in his endless mercy has endued this faculty with a power in which, humanly speaking, resides the salvability of the soul; and without this the soul must have eternally continued under the power of sin, or been saved as an inert, absolutely passive machine; which supposition would go as nearly to prove that it was as incapable of vice as it were of virtue.

"But does not this arguing destroy the doctrine of free grace?" No! it establishes that doctrine.

1. It is through the grace, the unmerited kindness, of God, that the soul has such a faculty, and that it has not been extinguished by sin.

2. This will, though a free principle, as it respects its nilling of evil and choosing good, yet, properly speaking, has no power by which it can subjugate the evil or perform the good.

We know that the eye has a power to discern objects, but without light this power is perfectly useless, and no object can be discerned by it. So, of the person represented here by the apostle, it is said, To will is present with me, το γαρ θελειν παρακειται μοι. To will is ever in readiness, it is ever at hand, it lies constantly before me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not; that is, the man is unregenerate, and he is seeking justification and holiness from the law. The law was never designed to give these-it gives the knowledge, not the cure of sin; therefore, though he nills evil and wills good, yet he can neither conquer the one nor perform the other till he receives the grace of Christ, till he seeks and finds redemption in his blood. Here, then, the free agency of man is preserved, without which he could not be in a salvable state; and the honour of the grace of Christ is maintained, without which there can be no actual salvation. There is a good sentiment on this subject in the following words of an eminent poet:-

Thou great first CAUSE, least understood;

Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that thou art good;

And that myself am blind.

Yet gave me in this dark estate

To see the good from ill;

And binding nature fast in fate,

Left free the human will.

POPE'S Universal Prayer.


 
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