¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.^(A)

¹⁷ For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.^(A)

¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

²⁰ Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.^(A)

² For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature,^[a] able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.^(A)

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal,^[a] but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ^[b] has laid hold of me.^{(A) 13} Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold^[c] of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,^{(B) 14} I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly^[d] call of God in Christ Jesus.^(C)

Marks of the True Christian

⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good;

⁷ but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.^{(A) 8} If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

²³ save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.^[a](A)