I’m not Jesus!
Unlike Jesus I was born into sin. I have sinned. My mind and my body have memories of those sins.
I’m born again. I am a new creature. Yet I have not received my redemptive body. The dying carcass that my Spirit man dwells in, still has the memory implants of the past. While I have forgiven myself and have placed them out of my mind, there are times when the memories are stirred by events in this present world.
Romans 8:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
I serve the law of God with a human mind. A fallible instrument flawed because it is not yet redeemed.
Romans 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Romans 14:5 tells me that I have to use this imperfect mind to make my way in the Way. I don’t always get it right. Even when I try to do good, the flesh is there, rebelling against God as it is still alive. That’s why Paul said in Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Did you ever try to do a good deed and have your efforts thrown back in your face or backfire? Even if you are responding in faith to what you are convinced is a calling from God, the flesh is there. God knows your heart and doesn’t measure the results nearly as much as the effort. We don’t always see the fruit of our effort. God may use our fleshly responses to convict others in their hearts for all we know.
Romans 2:1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
We see and recognize in others those things which we ourselves are guilty of doing. If when you do good and you are judged by another, know that the flesh is exposed and they who judge you see a reflection of themselves.
1 Peter 2:11-12 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Do not tire in doing good.