---
title: Romans 7:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-7-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-7-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 7:15
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 7:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "For I do not understand what I am doing. For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate."

## JW Usage

JWs read Romans 7 as Paul's pre-conversion reflection — the struggle of a man under law before receiving the spirit. The passage is treated as historical rather than describing the ongoing experience of a Spirit-indwelt believer. Pastoral application of "what I want to do, I do not do" to a baptised brother fighting pornography is therefore limited.

## Protestant Usage

Romans 7:15-25 is Paul — apostle Paul, the inspired writer of fourteen New Testament letters — describing the inner war of the Spirit-indwelt believer. "What I want to do, I do not do; what I hate, I do". Paul's testimony is not "I never struggled" but "I struggled and was rescued by Christ" — verse 25, "Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!" The man fighting pornography in the JW congregation is in Paul's category. Romans 8:1 follows immediately: "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". The architecture is confession of struggle → no condemnation → walk by the Spirit (Romans 8:4). The Watchtower's tribunal escalates from the same struggle to reproof; Paul's letter escalates to grace.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Pornography and Judicial Escalation — From Tribunal to Throne](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/pornography-judicial-escalation.md) — 1 Corinthians 10:13 — A way of escape, not a way of removal [Sanctification]