Romans 7:25
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 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.
The verse describes a divided inner life in which a person inwardly chooses loyalty to God's law while still pulled by fallen nature toward wrongdoing. The law can expose sin and drive the sinner to see the need of a Saviour, but it has no power itself to free from sin; freedom and power to obey come only through Jesus Christ and the renewing work of the Spirit in the heart. This very warfare against sinful promptings shows the Holy Spirit at work, and the believer must keep fighting continually, gaining victory as human weakness is joined to divine strength so that Satan cannot conquer the allegiance of mind and heart. Because God's law is served with the mind, the mind must be kept clear and vigorous in a healthy body by temperance, self-denial of appetite, and refusal of whatever weakens or clouds mental power, including harmful indulgences like tobacco. A mind wholly occupied with grasping the world and serving self, or fed with worthless reading instead of Scripture, cannot serve God's law, as shown when earthly work and thoughts are carried into the Sabbath and holy time is taken for self.
Inner Conflict and Deliverance
The verse describes the divided experience of the repentant sinner, in whom inwardly the mind serves the law of God while the flesh serves the law of sin. The law exposes sin and brings the sinner to see Christ as the only remedy, but it has no power in itself to deliver from sin. Deliverance and a life of obedience come only through Jesus Christ and through the Spirit.
This inward warfare within, as Paul recounts it of himself, is evidence that the person is accepting the Holy Spirit. The Christian still feels the promptings of sin and must wage a constant war against it, yet with the mind serves God's law and can receive victory through Jesus Christ, as human weakness is joined to divine strength by His help. Through Christ God transforms human nature and gives new spiritual life, so that truth taken into the heart works there to purify the character and His law can be obeyed. Serving the Lord God with the mind comes in this way as truth is applied to the heart and purifies character, and those who so serve are loved by the Father even as He loves His obedient Son.
The same struggle also pictures the state in which sin has undisputed possession of the whole man, ruled by the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. There is no true peace in that condition, though the person may appear self-satisfied, but only unrest and spiritual conflict, a strife between sin and reason and between grace and nature. To the struggling soul divine things may be opened, and he may break the spell by arising in the power and assurance that comes from faith in Christ, but unwillingness to humbly admit wrong fastens him more firmly in deception. The mind and heart enlisted in Christ's service and serving God's law cannot be conquered in allegiance by Satan, so that though he may afflict and persecute Christ's followers, even when they are tortured or killed their faithfulness to God's law wounds the great rebel.
Serving God's Law with Mind
The law of God is served with the mind, so comprehending the truths of God's word and the object of living requires knowing oneself and relating rightly to life and health with a sound mind in a sound body. The mind must be kept clear and strong with healthy brain and nerve power to discern sacred and eternal things, for a diseased body causes a disordered brain and hinders the work of sanctifying grace upon the mind and heart. Any wrong course that weakens or beclouds the mental powers so that perceptions are not clear to discern the value of truth wars against eternal interest. Preserving physical strength by denying and restraining appetite and being temperate in all things fits the mind for that service, while overwork and harmful habits that damage the body impair the service due to God.
Beclouding the mind by indulgence of animal appetite and passions weakens the moral powers until the sacred and the common are placed on a level. That indulgence leads to backsliding, impatience, faultfinding, envy, jealousy, hatred, malice, separation of brethren, lack of the grace of God and self-control, and reproach upon God's cause. Reason and the mental powers are gifts from God for serving, honoring, and worshiping the Creator. Injuring the body and weakening or destroying those powers with poisonous herbs such as tobacco hinders their use in God's service, while beneficial herbs may be used when needed.
When the mind grasps for as much of this world as possible and is wholly occupied with things of earth and serving self, it is serving the world and cannot serve the law of God. Then the commandments of God are not kept. This is seen in not keeping the Sabbath, by carrying the work of six days into the seventh and taking an hour and even more of holy time off the commandment.
Service to God is given with the mind, and God claims human thoughts as His own. Therefore it is sin in His sight to give the mind to light reading and magazines that fill the mind with trash. The mind is to be fed with the Bible as food for the soul and used to study what the Word of God says about the conditions of salvation.