So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
Parallel translations
- WEB I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
- KJV I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
- NKJV I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
- NASB I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
- NLT I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul discerns a principle: when he wants to do good, evil is right there with him. Sin is an ever-present reality in his experience.
Overview
Paul identifies a 'law' or settled principle operating in his life: the constant presence of evil alongside the desire for good. This is the consistent pattern of the inner conflict he has been describing. Naming it as a law prepares for the contrast between competing laws in the verses that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Eph 6:11–13Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.
- Rom 7:23But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
- Rom 6:14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
- Rom 8:2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Ps 119:133Order my steps in Your word; let no sin rule over me.
- Heb 2:17For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.
- Rom 6:12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
- Zech 3:1–4Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
- Ps 119:37Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.
- John 8:34Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
- Heb 4:15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.
- 2 Pet 2:19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
- Ps 65:3When iniquities prevail against me, You atone for our transgressions.
- Luke 4:1Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
- Ps 19:12–13Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.
- Ps 40:12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- Isa 6:5–7Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Rom 7:25Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
- 2 Chr 30:18–19A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, provide atonement for everyone
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 7:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.