When the LORD saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time,

The odor of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, "Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.

Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.

Can any human being be really pure? Can anyone be right with God?

And we drink evil as if it were water; yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

Can anyone be righteous or pure in God's sight?

I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through. Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind.

For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others.

For from the inside, from your heart, come the evil ideas which lead you to do immoral things, to rob, kill,

all these evil things come from inside you and make you unclean."

As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins.

Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death.

Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin.

Those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the Spirit tells them to, have their minds controlled by what the Spirit wants.

And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it.

But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to---if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

A person is born physically of human parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.

What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions;

they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God.

I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate.

I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.

Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

How I hope that I shall be faithful in keeping your instructions!

I will eagerly obey your commands, because you will give me more understanding.

I want to obey your commands; give me new life, for you are righteous.

Go away from me, you sinful people. I will obey the commands of my God.

Hold me, and I will be safe, and I will always pay attention to your commands.

For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.

because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.

I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself.