Marriage and Virginity
is being loved, because it is being cared for. For no one ever hates one's own flesh (Eph 5:29), as the apostle himself says. Elsewhere he also says, Therefore I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but the law of sin with my flesh (Rom 7:25). Those who have ears to hear, let them hear it: Therefore I myself—I with my mind, I with my flesh, but I—serve the law of God with my mind, but the law of sin with my flesh. How did he serve the law of sin with his flesh? Was it by giving consent to the desires of the flesh? Not at all! But it was by having feelings of desire there that he did not want to have, but which he had nevertheless. By not consenting to them with his mind, however, he served God's law and kept his body from becoming a weapon for sin.
20. So we have bad desires within us, but if we do not consent to them our lives are not bad.
We have within us inclinations to commit sin, but if we do not give in to them we do no evil action, although we do not accomplish any good by having them. The apostle made both things clear: there is no good achieved by having this desire for evil, nor is anything wrong done as long as one does not give in to this bad desire. The first he makes clear when he says, I have the desire to do good, but I do not have the ability to bring the good to completion (Rom 7:18), and the second when he says, Walk with the spirit and do not carry out the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). In the first text he does not say that he does not have the desire to do good, but that he does not have the ability to bring the good to completion; and in the second text he does not say that we should not have the desires of the flesh, but that we should not carry them out. Evil desires come to exist in us, when we have a liking for things that are not allowed; but they are not carried out when sensual desires are kept in check by a mind obedient to God's law. Good is done, when the thing that wrongly attracts us is subdued by good desires and is not done; but the good is not fully accomplished, as long as the flesh is subject to the law of sin and sensuality is aroused and entices, however much it is held in check. There would be no need for it to be controlled if it were not aroused. One day good will be perfected, and evil eliminated; the one will be present to its utmost, and the other not at all. We deceive ourselves, however, if we think this is to be hoped for in this mortal life. It will happen then, when there is no death; it will happen there, where life is eternal. In that world and that kingdom there will be consummate good and no evil; and love of wisdom will be perfect, and continence will have nothing to do. So the flesh is not evil, if it is devoid of the evil, that is, the defect, with which human nature is impaired, not because it was made badly but because it has acted badly. In both respects, namely soul and body, it was created good by