Evelyn Waugh is the author of such literary classics as A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. He possessed a scathing wit, and numerous other personal flaws we won’t enumerate here.
After flirting with agnosticism, Waugh converted to Catholicism. Yet he still struggled. One day a woman asked him, “Mr. Waugh, how can you behave as you do and still remain a Christian?” He replied, “Madam, I may be as bad as you say, but believe me, were it not for my religion, I would scarcely be a human being.”
Even for those who possess a genuine belief in Jesus, there’s no guarantee that they won’t behave badly. The classic passage on this internal battle comes from the quill of the apostle Paul himself. “I am all too human,” he wrote, “a slave to sin. . . . I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (Romans 7:14,19).
He continued: “There is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (vv.23-24). Paul satisfied his own rhetorical question: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (v.25).
Followers of Christ are transformed in an instant, but they don’t “arrive”—not in this life, anyway. One of Jesus’ closest friends, the disciple John, summed it up this way: “We are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is” (1 John 3:2).
More:
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me (Philippians 3:12).
Next:
Have you truly taken your struggles to God and asked for His help with them? What might He be teaching you through your weakness? What is the danger of believing that you have somehow “arrived” spiritually?
Basilica on July 23, 2010 at 1:21 am
BEHAVING BADLY As a humans,we all possessed some atom of flaw and imperfection because of adamic nature in us. Meanwhile, we can overcome this evil nature through rebirth into God’s kingdom and depending always on leading of the Holy Spirit.
lindagma on July 23, 2010 at 6:34 am
Our leaning to sin… or not sin, will be largely dictated by which animal we feed. Do we indulge in questionable entertainment, watch raunchy sit-coms on TV, pick up rag magazines… or do we get encouragement with material from the warriors of our time.. Max Lucado, Joe Stowel, read Christian fiction, etc… Do we have a daily personal Bible study, attend a weekly Bible study, pray over everything… you are what you eat as the saying goes. Even so, there will always be the struggle. Paul struggled as committed as he was. That’s what Heaven is all about… no more struggle.
tony rodriguez on July 23, 2010 at 9:06 am
THERE’S TWO SPIRITS THAT BEAT WITHIN MY CHEST ONE IF FOUL THE OTHER IS BLESSED, ONE I LOVE AND ONE I HATE BUT THE ONE I FEED WILL DOMINATE.
tony rodriguez on July 23, 2010 at 9:04 am
AFTER READING THIS AND REALIZING THAT (DEPENDING ON WHAT TRANSLATION) THE WORD” I ” IS USED MORE THAN 20 TIMES. I IN MY FLESH CANNOT FOLLOW THE THINGS OF GOD. THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT ARE CONSTANTLY AT WAR. HOWEVER GALATIANS 2:20 SAYS ” I ” HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST AND ” I ” NO LONGER LIVE BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME AND THE LIFE THAT ” I ” LIVE IN THE BODY ” I ” LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. HE GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME AND I IN RETURN MUST COMPLETELY GIVE MY SELF BACK TO HIM. AMEN HALLELUJAH!
hayakwah on July 23, 2010 at 9:50 am
as many as believe to them were given the power to be children of God. therefore how do we believe.
the way we can believe is by loving Christ, and we love Him by obeying what He told us to do and not to do. It is when we had done this that we believe Him, As christians, we have to live base on the name we bear, we are the ambaserdors of heaven, we are the army of Christ therefore we shldnt be conformed to this world. We should live an exempted and holy lives to show God that we are pleased with his gift of eternal life. Love everybody and you will be like your Heavenly Father
Bryan B on July 23, 2010 at 9:55 am
I agree with the other post. We can feed the sinful nature within us by our thoughts, actions, and deeds. Or, we can choose to focus on those things (prayer, devotions, studying the Word, listening to Christian music/sermons) which are pleasing to God and help to strengthen our walk with the Lord.
Philippians 4:8 says it the best “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
hello on July 23, 2010 at 10:15 am
Deall all,
I have been reading this whole Chapter 7 of Romans but not really understand the meaning of it. Can someone help me to clarify, i feel is too hard to understand especially verse Romans 7:11.
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”* 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. 9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, 10 and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.
13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.
jcam74 on July 23, 2010 at 11:45 am
Hello, I will try my best to explain what Paul is saying. The Law exposes our sinful nature. Satan uses the Law againsts us though deception, lies and deceit. The Law is impossible to follow because of our nature to sin. The Law is good because it points us to Christ and helps us realize we are in need of a savior. Because we now have Jesus as our savior we are given God’s grace that pardons our sin. Just because we have grace doesn’t give us a right to keep sinning as Paul states in the previous chapter. We must rely on Jesus to be our strength and if we do that we can overcome because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I hope that helps you out.
ROSHAN on July 24, 2010 at 8:21 am
Total surrender to our God is the only way to defend the flaming arrows of the Evil one. Sometimes i feel, we just have to totally ignore the devil’s schemes and listen only to the sweet inner voice of our Christ.
tim gustafson on July 26, 2010 at 8:56 am
Sorry I missed out on this good conversation last week. I was tending to a sick family. … and also being sick myself!
cuddles on July 26, 2010 at 5:58 pm
God is everywhere but Satan and, is tools i.e.drink, drugs, pornography etc. are everywhere too. God wants us to do his work by helping victims of these. To do that we have to expose ourselves to this world and all that is in it. God knows we may stumble and fall at times that’s why Christ has covered our sins. Our lives are to be a living sacrifice so we can help those more vulnerable than ourselves.