Article November 8, 1993 Issue

"What manner of spirit" are we?

As Christians we need to overcome evil with good.

Wilhelm Kirchhoff

Original in German

How we yearn to live as children of God, to express only goodness, to not injure our neighbor or let ourselves get carried away into making thoughtless remarks. But it isn't easy to keep control over oneself when, to all appearances, one has been wronged. We may indeed want to return good for evil, but often something within keeps us from doing so. We could say, with Paul, "The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."

Paul termed this resistance to good "the carnal mind." He clearly recognized this resistance of the mortal, or carnal, mind as no part of man's true nature, for he continues, "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Rom. 7:19, 20; 8:7).

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