I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles.

For I don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want -- instead, I do what I hate.

But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want!

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

Your obedience is known to all and thus I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.