15. I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do the good I want to do, and I do the evil I hate.
16. And if I don’t want to do what I do, that means I agree that the law is good.
17. But I am not really the one doing the evil. It is sin living in me that does it.
18. Yes, I know that nothing good lives in me—I mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is not spiritual. I want to do what is good, but I don’t do it.
19. I don’t do the good that I want to do. I do the evil that I don’t want to do.
20. So if I do what I don’t want to do, then I am not really the one doing it. It is the sin living in me that does it.
21. So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me.