(Old Testament quotations/allusions are underlined. [Brackets] indicate a textual variant.fnWhen two (or more) different copies of an original manuscript disagree on any given word or phrase — addition, omission, word order, etc. — the disagreement is called a "textual variant". ~99% of existing textual variants are either minor (like spelling), obviously not original (often appearing only in a few late manuscripts), or don't affect meaning (like "Jesus Christ" vs. "Christ Jesus"). The ~1% that remain do not affect any central doctrine of Christianity. The BOS Bible only marks significant textual variants that affect the meaning; smaller variants that do not affect meaning won't be marked for readability. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.fn"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings — agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. An asterisk (*) indicates a verb in the Greek perfect tense.fnThe Greek perfect tense signifies a completed action in the past with a result and/or an ongoing state that extends into the present. For example, Hebrews 12:2 says in part: "He *sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"; the verb for "sat" is in the perfect tense, indicating that He sat down once (completed action in the past), and also that He remains seated until the present moment (ongoing state).)
The law, sin, and death
(Parallel teachings: 2 Corinthians 3:1–18; Galatians 3:19–25)
- 1 Or don’t you know, brothers – for I speak to men knowing the law – that the law has authority over a man for as long asfn“as long as” is literally “as long as the time” he lives?
- 2 For the married woman is *bound by law to her husband while he’s living. But if the husband dies, she is *severed from the law concerning the husband.
- 3 So then, if she becomes joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But she is free from the law if the husband dies, so she’s not an adulteress though having become joined to another man.
- 4 So then my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of the Anointed for you to become joined to another, to the One who was raised from the dead so that we might bear fruit to God.
- 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in our limbs to bear fruit to death.
- 6 But now, we were severed from the law, having died to the things which we were bound to, in order for us to serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
- 7 Therefore, what will we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I didn’t recognize sin except through the law, for I hadn’t even been aware of covetousness except that the law was saying: “You shall not covet.”fnquotation/allusion to Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21
- 8 But having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin brought about all sorts of covetousness in me, for apart from the law, sin is dead.
- 9 Yet I was once alive apart from the law, but having come, the commandment revived the sin and I died.
- 10 And the commandment that was to result in life for me, this was found to result in death.
- 11 For having taken an opportunity through the commandment, sin thoroughly deceived me; and through it, put me to death.
- 12 So then the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Desiring to do good but not doing it
(Parallel teachings: Galatians 5:16–26)
- 13 Therefore, did something good become death to me? May it never be! But it was sin – so that it might be revealed as sin – bringing about death in me through what’s good so that sin might become sinful beyond excess through the commandment.
- 14 For we *know that the law is spiritual but I’m fleshly, having been *sold under sin’s authority.fnquotation/allusion to Isaiah 50:1
- 15 For I don’t understand what I bring about. For what I desire, this I don’t do. But what I hate, this I do.
- 16 But if what I don’t desire, this I do, I agree with the law that the law is good.
- 17 And now I no longer bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me does.
- 18 For I *know that good doesn’t dwell in me (that is, in my flesh). For the desire to do good is present in me, but the bringing about of good isn’t.
- 19 For I don’t do the good that I desire, but the evil that I don’t desire, this I practice.
- 20 And if what I don’t desire, this I do, it’s no longer I who bring it about, but the sin dwelling in me.
- 21 Therefore, I find the principle that despite me desiring to do good, evil is present in me,
- 22 for I delight in the law of God in accordance with the inward man.
- 23 But I see another law in my limbs, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin existing in my limbs.
- 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from the body of this death?
- 25 But thanks be to God through Jesus the Anointed our Lord! So then, I myself indeed serve God’s law with my mind, but sin’s law with my flesh.
Next: Romans chapter 8
Previous: Romans chapter 6
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