Note 108 — Chapter XVI
Reading edition
See J. B. Mozley's Lectures, etc., ix, x.
[109] Exod. xx. 17.—Observe here that great fact of Christian doctrine; that desire, bias, gravitation away from God's will, is sin, whether carried into act or not. Is not St Paul here recalling some quite special spiritual incident?
[110] Ἀφορμὴν λαβοῦσα διὰ τῆς ἐντολῆς.
[111] Ἐμοὶ is slightly emphatic; as if to say, "at least in my case."
[112] For this meaning of θέλειν see the closely parallel passage, the almost sketch or embryo of this paragraph, Gal. v. 17.
[113] Read not οὐχ εὑρίσκω, but simply οὔ.
[114] Again ποιῶ and πράσσω, as in ver. 16.
[115] In itself, the phrase ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος is neutral. By usage it attaches itself to ideas of regeneration. See 2 Cor. iv. 16, Eph. iii. 16.
[116] Αἰχμαλωτίζοντα: "Making me prisoner of war." Observe the present tense, which indicates not necessarily the full success of the strategy, but its aim.
[117] The Greek equally allows the rendering "out of this body of death."
[118] Read χάρις τῷ Θεῶ.