Why am I such a fool...

[BibleStudent100]

On 5/21/2023 at 10:11 PM, Jabre7 said:

Sure, all of this is only ever in thought, I never would risk binding for sure myself in word, but my point still stands...could this all just be compulsions and not binding even if it's disrespectful to give in, or am I just so foolishly impulsive I truly don't care about consequences for things like this?

Jabre, your fight against yourself reminds me of the same struggle that the apostle Paul describes: the “fight” carried on now by each one who tries to make over his personality, to become fully pleasing to God. He says: “What I wish, this I do not practice; but what I hate is what I do. . . . The good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. . . . The one working it out is no longer I, but the sin dwelling in me.” (Romans 7:15-20) Through inheritance, all humans have been brought forth “with error,” in sin. (Psalm 51:5) Also, all have added to that sin during their own course of life, the environment wrongly influencing them, be that video games, an inclination to view violence in movies and games or to view sex in movies or games.

Even today a person can genuinely get rid of the things that he has ‘picked up’ from his environment, with the help of God’s Word, His spirit and his own association with God’s servants. But it is different with the things that come through his genetic makeup, that are a part of him, physically and mentally. True, he can fight these faults with considerable success, for the apostles tell us that we can ‘make our minds over,’ “put on the new personality,” ‘produce the fruits of the spirit,’ “hold a good conscience” and ‘maintain fine conduct.’ (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:24; Galatians 5:22, 23; 1 Peter 3:16; 2:12) But we cannot completely wipe out these bad inherited tendencies merely through such effort. The apostle said of his situation: “Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, with my mind I myself am a slave to God’s law, but with my flesh to sin’s law.”—Romans 7:24, 25.