Apostle Paul Rebukes Sin And Honestly Confesses His Own Struggle Against It.

Common Sense Commentary:  "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb.4:15.

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. 10:13.

In Bible days any communication, beyond shouting distance, required a long walk by someone. All communications were either verbal or written. Since they didn't have telephones, television, email or a postal department, either the communicator or a messenger walked or road a donkey or camel to deliver the message. The first verbally; the second by written message called an "epistle". Experience had taught communicants that messages, spoken verbally to a messenger, had a tendency to change meanings by the time it reached the addressee. For the sake of accuracy, the message had to be written down in letter (epistle) form and carried to the recipients. Fourteen of the 21 New Testament epistles were written by the Apostle Paul, mostly to churches. The delivery process was so arduous that most of those epistles grew quite long to save time and trips. Paul's epistle to the church in Rome, requiring a long sea voyage, is an example. That epistle is about 15 pages long in the average Bible and would have been a hand written scroll about 15 feet long. In that single letter, Paul covered a long list of subjects pertinent to that particular church. In chapter one he thoroughly rebuked the sins of "all ungodliness" including the sin of homosexuality. If you have ever been to Pompey, a Roman city preserved under millions of tons of volcanic ash, the art work revealed on the walls of the city depict the obsession of the average Roman with all kinds of sex, including homosexuality. So Paul, in Romans 1, after his introduction, spares not the Romans in his bold dissection of the sins they were most inclined to. But then, in this same letter, a few pages later, Paul honestly confesses his own constant spiritual battle with the fleshly temptations of sin, in Romans 7. So, as an Apostle of our Lord, Paul was no harder on the sins of others than he was honest about the temptations he himself struggled with ... in his flesh.

Read and compare these two sections of Paul's letter below:

Romans 1.... (The inexcusability of sin)
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie.... For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly .... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient...." Romans 1:18-28.


Romans 7.... (The two fold nature of humans)
 "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord....." Rom.7:14-25.