Verse 17

For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

Referenced Verses

  • Rom 8:5-8 : 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
  • Rom 8:13 : 13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
  • John 3:6 : 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
  • Rom 7:7-8 : 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said,“Do not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
  • Jas 4:5-6 : 5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says,“The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”? 6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says,“God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”
  • Eccl 7:20 : 20 For there is not one truly righteous person on the earth who continually does good and never sins.
  • Ps 119:20 : 20 I desperately long to know your regulations at all times.
  • Ps 19:12-13 : 12 Who can know all his errors? Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. 13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins; do not allow such sins to control me. Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant rebellion.
  • Ps 51:10-12 : 10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! Renew a resolute spirit within me! 11 Do not reject me! Do not take your holy Spirit away from me! 12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance! Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey!
  • Ps 65:3 : 3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, but you forgive our acts of rebellion.
  • Ps 119:4-6 : 4 You demand that your precepts be carefully kept. 5 If only I were predisposed to keep your statutes! 6 Then I would not be ashamed, if I were focused on all your commands.
  • Ps 51:1-5 : 1 For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! 2 Wash away my wrongdoing! Cleanse me of my sin! 3 For I am aware of my rebellious acts; I am forever conscious of my sin. 4 Against you– you above all– I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me. 5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
  • Matt 12:30 : 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
  • Matt 16:17 : 17 And Jesus answered him,“You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!
  • Matt 16:23 : 23 But he turned and said to Peter,“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”
  • Matt 26:41 : 41 Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
  • Ps 119:24-25 : 24 Yes, I find delight in your rules; they give me guidance. 25 ד(Dalet) I collapse in the dirt. Revive me with your word!
  • Ps 119:32 : 32 I run along the path of your commands, for you enable me to do so.
  • Ps 119:35 : 35 Guide me in the path of your commands, for I delight to walk in it.
  • Ps 119:40 : 40 Look, I long for your precepts. Revive me with your deliverance!
  • Ps 119:133 : 133 Direct my steps by your word! Do not let any sin dominate me!
  • Ps 119:159 : 159 See how I love your precepts! O LORD, revive me with your loyal love!
  • Ps 119:176 : 176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep. Come looking for your servant, for I do not forget your commands.
  • Ps 130:3 : 3 If you, O LORD, were to keep track of sins, O Lord, who could stand before you?
  • Luke 22:46 : 46 So he said to them,“Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation!”
  • Luke 22:54-61 : 54 Jesus’ Condemnation and Peter’s Denials Then they arrested Jesus, led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. 55 When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a slave girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said,“This man was with him too!” 57 But Peter denied it:“Woman, I don’t know him!” 58 Then a little later someone else saw him and said,“You are one of them too.” But Peter said,“Man, I am not!” 59 And after about an hour still another insisted,“Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said,“Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” At that moment, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. 61 Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him,“Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”
  • Gal 3:21 : 21 Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
  • Phil 3:12-16 : 12 Keep Going Forward Not that I have already attained this– that is, I have not already been perfected– but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let those of us who are“perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. 16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained.
  • Jas 3:2 : 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect individual, able to control the entire body as well.
  • 1 John 1:8-9 : 8 If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
  • Rom 7:10-25 : 10 and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual– but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. 15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want– instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. 21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 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.
  • Isa 6:5 : 5 I said,“Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”
  • Matt 5:6 : 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
  • Luke 22:33 : 33 But Peter said to him,“Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!”