thinking bible.

You asked

what current societal rules or expectations inadvertently highlight or even provoke 'sinful' desires?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Romans 7:7-8

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

The apostle Paul is writing to Christians in Rome, grappling with the relationship between God's law (specifically the Jewish Torah) and sin. He's exploring whether the law itself is problematic, or if its role is to illuminate humanity's inherent struggle with sin.

How does naming something as 'forbidden' or 'wrong' in our society shape our understanding of it, and sometimes even our desire for it?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

  • James 1:13-15

    This passage describes temptation as coming from our own desires, not from God, leading to sin and death.

  • Galatians 3:19

    Paul states that the law was added because of transgressions, suggesting its purpose was to highlight sin.

  • 1 John 2:16

    This verse identifies 'the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life' as desires that are not from God.

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