Teachings

January 2021 – Week 1

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.  If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.  For I delight in the law of God according to ^rthe inward man.  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!^[1]

Earlier in this chapter, Paul uses the analogy of marriage, specifically a woman who is bound to her husband, to illustrate the power of the law over our lives.  The apostle's accounting is succinct: "But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.^[2]"  Death releases the sacred bonds of marriage to her husband and she is free to marry another.

There are many who hate white people because they are white. Black people are hated because they are black. No other reason is required. A conclusion is reached without a logical premise. In science, an outcome occurs through a conclusion reached through a process of logical thinking.  It would seem (regarding racial hatred) that the outcome is established before the investigation begins. In such a context, we don't have to actually know the person individually. We simply develop a self –perception on how we want to cluster a group, and carry out the perception. 

We see this daily, even in the most progressive of venues. "African American community" for instance, is simply a way to categorize a group of people into a "single-think" process for those within and without this "community".  The result – 31% of the so-called "communities of color" are corralled into an unrealized, sanitized, "Jim Crow" context.  This far and no further.  The integration of people stops at the border of these communities that bear no social definition.                        

We live in this present world with the complete knowledge of ever-present evil. We know that it is there and can sometimes, in certain events, mumble the words "that's pure evil". When we live with hate in our hearts, we are bound by the marriage of that hate.  You are not free.   Those in bondage are forever guarded by those who are not. We are not free. Maybe we can contemplate within ourselves just how dark does something have to be before we call it out for what it presents – evil.   But while evil is present, it is not omnipresent. The cross of Jesus Christ broke this chain.  This same Jesus is everything, and in all things. Can you embrace the love that only He Provides?