From my experience I’ve come to understand that one of the greatest battles that people fight is 
against themselves. As a Christian I believe there is a conflict between that which is good and evil. I am a house divided against
its self. I ought to desire that which is holy and on days I long for the most uncleanly things. I desire to love others and so frequently find I only love myself. We are called to lay our lives down for others and yet I so often awake to the distracting urge to serve myself. We ought to praise God and my first instinct is to praise myself. Forgiveness is one of the very pillars of the faith and I find myself vengeful and vindictive.
We as a people, a body (Christians as a whole), are to preserve and build up those things that are good and often times we have been the instigator of evil. We are many called to be one and so often we selfishly divided ourselves. We are to give joyfully to those in need and we at times force them to qualify and quantify their need. The body is told to build on solid foundations of rock, and we build and build and build-we do. Magnificent towering things we construct only to look down and find the sand beneath our feet is shifting. We have built, apart from the blessing of God.
And as we confront these things, as we come face to face with the ugliness of man, we must come to the same conclusion as the Apostle Paul: that while we long to do what is good, there is also within us a part that longs to do evil [Romans 7]. Despite our purest desires we find “evil lies close at hand”. Writing in response to an editorial he read in the newspaper with the head line “What’s Wrong with the World Today”, a well known author wrote back: “In regard to your question ‘what’s wrong with the world today’…I am. Sincerely yours…” Christians are not above reproach; we are what is wrong with the world as much as anyone else. We may desire to and even do great works at times but we are just as wretched as the whole lot.
To borrow from Eliot, it is here in this moment of conflict that Love, comes riding on a horse. In this moment of internal contradiction we find ourselves asking as Paul did, “who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” For what hopeless creatures are we if when given the Truth we still find that we are enslaved to ourselves, our bodies, and its dark desires. Even those of unbelief-the un-churched, de-churched, and otherwise experience this.
I recall in the early years of my college career desiring good, as best I could while still being of selfish motives. I longed to care for others and be the one to listen to their problems. I wanted to be someone who gave life to others-whom others wanted to be around. I wanted to help those in need. And I continued to find that despite my hardest efforts, I was the very thing keeping me from becoming those things. This is a truth revealed to all in creation, not merely those who are found in Christ.
In light of these things, I believe this conflict should inspire two paths of response. First, the unbeliever or the skeptic should find within him a stronger desire, almost a hunger, to further investigate and understand that point of conflict within him (that while we may desire to do good, we consistently battle ourselves and own desires…putting ourselves before others, even the people we love most). For it is apathy to do nothing when you see within yourself an obstacle between what your moral heart tells you that you ought to be and where you find yourself to truly be.
Second, I believe this conflict should spur Christ followers to anxiously desire and long for the return of Christ, for it only the Rapture that will free us from the law of sin and its battle within us. This conflict should also ignite in us a longing to be nearer to the presence of God in the word (the very thing that has so clearly brought this conflict to light) and in prayer. We are not to merely experience this and passively wait upon freedom. For God has purposed these things into our existence to draw us nearer to him-to cause a panting in our soul for the presence of God. These feelings of conflict and turmoil are to spur us to action that we might further attain the righteousness portrayed by Christ as we actively await his return.
Scripture:
Romans 7:
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 8:
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we a wait for it with patience.