Read: Romans 7:14-20
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate (Romans 7:15, NRSV).
Don’t you wish you knew what was behind this statement? This is really one of those times when I find myself asking, “What brought THAT on?” I’m imagining the apostle Paul in all sorts of situations—some of them unsavory. Oddly, those are the ones that make me like him a little more.
Any time we delve into a New Testament epistle, it’s important to remember that we are reading someone else’s mail. And since twenty-one out of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament ARE letters, that’s a lot of snooping.
Still, as Bible professor Peter Enns points out, the fact that these letters are included in the canon means that “we are supposed to read these letters—and not only read them, but find some way to draw them into our own lives.” Which is not to say we can just “drag these letters into our own life as is. We have to work at finding the connection between them and now.”*
Sometimes, finding that connection means doing some homework. Take, for instance, this verse from just a few chapters later in the book of Romans: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). That’s a lovely verse…until it isn’t. If your particular politician is competent, wise, responsible, and sane, this verse is great. But what if they aren’t? We don’t have to work too hard to imagine what that might feel like. Do we still have to assume that an appalling politician’s leadership is “instituted by God”? It’s bad enough dealing with such people without granting them divine authority.
Enns suggests that we would do well to remember Paul’s context before we attempt to apply such verses to our own. The letter is written to first-century Christians in the city of Rome, after all. It was a place that was notoriously dangerous for both Christians and Jews. Paul himself ended up as a prisoner—and ultimately a martyr—there. So, maybe in this context, Romans 13:1 is “a word of wisdom for the church to keep a low profile and not to stir up trouble” (Enns, p. 259).
Having said all of this, however, I’m not sure we need too much context to help us get the gist of Paul’s I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate lament. The context of that statement seems to be, well, the human experience. We don’t need to know the particulars to understand what he’s talking about. We’ve all been there.
One of my favorite lines from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is this one: “Alice generally gave herself very good advice…though she very seldom followed it.”
Who’d have thought it. Alice and Paul are on the same page.
Ponder: How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? What’s that about?
Pray: Inspire our good intentions, O God. Strengthen our attempts to fulfill them. Forgive us when we fall short.
*Peter Enns, How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Good News (New York: HarperCollins, 2019), pp. 254-255.