Difficult and sometimes inglorious fight

We have heard many speakers say that the battle we fight against the old man who lives in us is undoubtedly the hardest. Difficult and sometimes inglorious.

Paulo de Tarso, the first and still the biggest spreader of the Christian message, stated the subject in more than one occasion. It can be seen it reading his letters to Christian community.

Let’s recall them in three different moments.

Here is the first, it is written to the Romans:

Because what I do I do not approve; for what I will do I will not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want, I consent to the law, which is good. So now it is not I who do this, but the sin that dwells in me.

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is no good; and the will is in me, but I cannot do good. Because I do not do the good I want, but the evil that I do not want this I do. Now if I do what I will not, I will not do it, but the sin that dwells in me. (Romans 7:15-21) [We added the bold]

The good I want to do, I do not do; the evil that I wish to avoid, this I do - this is a firm confession signed by the great apostle.

We understand by the term "good" the correction of attitudes, exemplary life, the practice of virtue, the dominion of unhappy inclinations. And by the term "evil," its opposite: undue attitudes, unjust examples, weakness in the face of inclinations, temptations, and addictions in general.

Indeed, the examples we know show that it is notorious in many people for the difficulty of overcoming an addiction that causes illusory and ephemeral pleasure. And there are countless of those who fail in the fight against cigarettes, alcohol, chemical addiction, gambling, or sexolatry.

Years later, in a second moment, in a letter sent to the Galatians, Paul shows us remarkable progress in this struggle:

I'm already crucified with Christ; and alive, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) [We added the bold]

It is not I who live in me, but the Christ - Paul's affirmation, revealing that he had succeeded in transforming the old man with his inclinations, vices and tendencies into a new man who not only knew and spread the good news, but he lived.

This victorious experience gave him the strength and authority to propose a similar behaviour to the Christians who heard him, then represented by the brothers of Ephesus:

And I say this, and I testify in the Lord, that ye walk no more as the other Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. Entangled in the understanding, separated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them, by the hardness of their heart; who, having lost all feeling, gave themselves up to dissolution, to avidly commit all uncleanness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if ye have heard him, and in him ye have been taught, as the truth is in Jesus; that, as for the former deal, put off the old man, which is corrupted by the lusts of deceit; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which according to God is created in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4: 17-24) [We added the bold]

That the example of overcoming and Paul's advice can have an impact on our lives, convinced that we are the battle is struggling, difficult and sometimes inglorious, but it is worth fighting for if we are to take flight towards the goal of perfection that the Creator has drawn for all of us.