Is lust a sin?

And he (Paul) seems to me to speak of “fornication, uncleanness, passion, desire” as the same, namely fornication: by means of all these expressions drawing us away from that thing. For in truth this is “a passion”; and like as the body is subject to any affection, either to fever or to wounds, so also is it with this. And he said not Restrain, but “Mortify” (put to death), so that they never rise up more, and “put them away.” … So, in truth, is it with the passions; they make the soul unclean; they make the soul, which is immortal, passible.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians 8

This human cupidity, however, which is a vice, has for its author man, or man’s deceiver, but not man’s Creator. It is indeed that “lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 3.21

Well known from Cicero and others, is the threefold division made by Epicurus; for he made this difference between lusts; he made some natural and necessary, some natural and not necessary, and some neither natural nor necessary. But John, well knowing the insubordination ( ἀταξία )of the human heart unhesitantly condemns the lust of the flesh, because it always flows out immoderately, and never observes any due medium. He afterwards comes gradually to grosser vices. The lust of the eyes He includes, as I think, libidinous looks as well as the vanity which delights in pomps and empty splendor.

John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles 1 John 2.5

From the prohibition of worldly love or lust; it is not ordained of God: It is not of the Father, but is of the world, v. 16 . This love or lust is not appointed of God (he calls us from it), but it intrudes itself from the world; the world is a usurper of our affection.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on First John 2.4

For not only he who in act commits adultery is rejected by Him, but also he who desires to commit adultery: since not only our works, but also our thoughts, are open before God.

Justin Martyr, The First Apology 15

Do ye not consider that both for our words and thoughts an account is demanded of us, and we take no heed even to our actions. “For whosoever looketh on a woman,” saith He, “to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her.” ( Matt. v. 28 .) And yet they who must be accountable for a mere idle look, refuse not even to lie rotting in the sin itself.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 43

The lesser righteousness, therefore, is not to commit adultery by carnal connection; but the greater righteousness of the kingdom of God is not to commit adultery in the heart. Now, the man who does not commit adultery in the heart, much more easily guards against committing adultery in actual fact.

Augustine of Hippo, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.12

But because among us there is such a shameful mess and the very dregs of all vice and lewdness, this commandment is directed also against all manner of unchastity, whatever it may be called; and not only is the external act forbidden, but also every kind of cause, incitement, and means, so that the heart, the lips, and the whole body may be chaste and afford no opportunity, help, or persuasion to inchastity. And not only this, but that we also make resistance, afford protection and rescue wherever there is danger and need; and again, that we give help and counsel, so as to maintain our neighbor’s honor.

Martin Luther, Luther's Large Catechism 8.14

We are here taught, that there is such a thing as heart-adultery, adulterous thoughts and dispositions, which never proceed to the act of adultery or fornication; and perhaps the defilement which these give to the soul, that is here so clearly asserted, was not only included in the seventh commandment, but was signified and intended in many of those ceremonial pollutions under the law, for which they were to wash their clothes, and bathe their flesh in water. … All appetites to them, all lusting after the forbidden object; this is the beginning of the sin, lust conceiving ( James i. 15 ); it is a bad step towards the sin; and where the lust is dwelt upon and approved, and the wanton desire is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel, it is the commission of sin, as far as the heart can do it; there wants nothing but convenient opportunity for the sin itself.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 5.6

But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her—with the intent to do so, as the same expression is used in Mt 6:1; or, with the full consent of his will, to feed thereby his unholy desires. hath committed adultery with her already in his heart—We are not to suppose, from the word here used—"adultery"—that our Lord means to restrict the breach of this commandment to married persons, or to criminal intercourse with such. The expressions, "whosoever looketh," and "looketh upon a woman," seem clearly to extend the range of this commandment to all forms of impurity, and the counsels which follow—as they most certainly were intended for all, whether married or unmarried—seem to confirm this.

Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Matthew 5

In sins, the Fathers say, there are four stages, the first-motion, the struggle, the consent, and the act: the first two of these are not subject to punishment, but in the two others the case is different. For neither is the first impression nor the struggle against it to be condemned, provided that when the reason receives the impression it struggles with it and rejects the thought. But the consent thereto is subject to condemnation and accusation, and the action to punishment. If therefore anyone is assailed by the lust for a woman, and is overcome so that he would perform the act with her, he has given consent, indeed, but to the work he has not come, that is, he has not performed the act, and it is manifest that the grace of God has preserved him; but he shall not go off with impunity. For the consent alone is worthy of punishment.

Anonymous (NPNF), The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods 4.3.4

Do not fear that such emotions or imaginations will be imputed to you as sins, if your will in no degree associates itself with them; for there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh.Rom. viii. 1. For to walk after the flesh is to agree to the will of the flesh; and the Apostle gives the name of the flesh to every vicious feeling in soul or body, when he says, The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.Gal. v. 17.

Anselm of Canterbury, The Devotions of Saint Anselm 8.6

And this infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, "Φρόνημα σαρκὸς", which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.

Church of England, Thirty-Nine Articles 9

But not only is that temperance worthy of praise which moderates food, but also that which moderates lust. … So that Paul teaches temperance even in marriage itself; for he who is incontinent in marriage is a kind of adulterer, and violates the law of the Apostle.

Ambrose of Milan, Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 15

It is, however, one thing for married persons to have intercourse only for the wish to beget children, which is not sinful: it is another thing for them to desire carnal pleasure in cohabitation, but with the spouse only, which involves venial sin. For although propagation of offspring is not the motive of the intercourse, there is still no attempt to prevent such propagation, either by wrong desire or evil appliance.

Augustine of Hippo, On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.17

I call all desires irregular and sinful that are not sanctified: 1. by the holy institution, or by being within the protection of marriage; 2. by being within the order of nature; 3. by being within the moderation of Christian modesty.

Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.3.1

Lust riseth up, restrain thy members; what can it do now that it hath risen? Restrain thou thy members; yield not thy members instruments of iniquity unto sin; arm not thine adversary against thyself. … How to conquer, it knoweth not.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 80

For though a man possess all, yet if he have not the mastery over this (lust), he forfeits all claim to true philosophy, he is in bondage to the more tyrannical and shameful passion. Contempt of glory; this it is that is sufficient to teach all that is good, and to banish from the soul every pernicious passion. I exhort you therefore to use the most strenuous endeavors to pluck out this passion by the very roots; by no other means can you have good esteem with God, and draw down upon you the benevolent regard of that Eye which never sleepeth.

John Chrysostom, A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 4

The enjoyment of unclean pleasure. … Cleanse thy heart from all the pollution of fleshly delight, shut out unclean thoughts from thy mind, if thou wilt escape the foulness of this mire.

Anselm of Canterbury, The Devotions of Saint Anselm 3.9

I do not deny that the lust of the flesh includes carnal lust. But it takes in more. It takes in all the corrupt desires with which the believers are more or less infected, as pride, hatred, covetousness, impatience. … Neither do I demand that you should get rid of the flesh, but that you should control and subdue it.”

Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 5:16

Make it your rule again not even to look at a woman ( Job xxxi. 1 ), or to go up into the theatre, or to trouble yourself with the beauty of other people whom you see about. … And this is why Christ chastised the man who looks unchastely upon a woman ( Matt. v. 28 ), that He might free us from greater labor, before the adversary became strong, bidding us cast him out of the house while he may be cast out even with ease.

John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14

For he ought to have not only his soul but even his eyes in restraint, so that no chance mishap may bring a blush to his forehead. For “whosoever looketh on a woman to desire her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Thus adultery is committed not only by actual committal of the foul deed, but even by the desire of the ardent gaze.

Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 2.50

Art thou curiously looking after women’s beauty, and dost thou not shudder at thus doing despite unto the temple of God? Doth the church seem to thee a brothel, and less honorable than the market-place. For in a market-place indeed thou art afraid and ashamed to appear to be looking after any woman, but in God’s temple, when God Himself is discoursing unto thee, and threatening about these things, thou art committing whoredom and adultery at the very time in which thou art being told not to do this. … It were better for such men to be blind; it were better to be diseased, than to abuse thine eyes for these purposes.

John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 73

If he requires chastity, he condemns every thing which is opposed to it. Therefore, if you aspire to obedience, let not your mind burn within with evil concupiscence, your eyes wanton after corrupting objects, nor your body be decked for allurement; let neither your tongue by filthy speeches, nor your appetite by intemperance, entice the mind to corresponding thoughts. All vices of this description are a kind of stains which despoil chastity of its purity.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion II.8

My child, be not a lustful one; for lust leadeth the way to fornication; neither a filthy talker, nor of lofty eye; for out of all these adulteries are engendered.

Anonymous (ANF), The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 3.3

There are, then, three affections which drive men headlong to all crimes: (1) anger, (2) desire, and (3) lust. On which account the poets have said that there are three furies which harass the minds of men: anger longs for revenge, desire for riches, lust for pleasures. But God has appointed fixed limits to all of these; and if they pass these limits and begin to be too great, they must necessarily pervert their nature, and be changed into diseases and vices.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes 6.19

Is it not a sin in married persons to exact from one another more than this design of the “procreation of children” renders necessary? It is doubtless a sin, though a venial one.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 3

Why “with truth”? Because lust is a mockery and a lie: wherefore the prophet says, “My loins are filled with mockings.” ( Ps. xxxviii. 7 .) The thing is not pleasure, but a shadow of pleasure.

John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 9

But because that Continence is of larger desert, but to pay the due of marriage is no crime, but to demand it beyond the necessity of begetting is a venial fault, but to commit fornication or adultery is a crime to be punished; charity of the married ought to beware, lest whilst it seek for itself occasion of larger honor, it do that for its partner which cause condemnation.

Augustine of Hippo, On the Good of Marriage 6

For even thefts themselves are more lightly punished by law than crimes of lust: they are, however, both sins, albeit the one lighter, the other heavier; so that a theft which is committed of concupiescence is held to be lighter than an act of lust which is committed for doing a good turn.

Augustine of Hippo, Against Lying 19

Now, what sins are trivial and what heinous is not a matter to be decided by man’s judgment, but by the judgment of God. For it is plain that the apostles themselves have given an indulgence in the case of certain sins: take, for example, what the Apostle Paul says to those who are married: “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer: and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.” Now it is possible that it might not have been considered a sin to have intercourse with a spouse, not with a view to the procreation of children, which is the great blessing of marriage, but for the sake of carnal pleasure, and to save the incontinent from being led by their weakness into the deadly sin of fornication, or adultery, or another form of uncleanness which it is shameful even to name, and into which it is possible that they might be drawn by lust under the temptation of Satan.

Augustine of Hippo, The Enchiridion 78

Nevertheless some acts of lust are mortal sins, while some movements of pride are venial: since the words quoted from Gregory are to be understood as comparing vices in their genus and not in their particular acts. Reply to Objection 4: A circumstance is the more effective in aggravating a sin according as it comes nearer to the nature of sin. Hence although fornication is less grave on account of the greatness of its incentive, yet on account of the matter about which it is, it has a greater gravity than immoderate eating, because it is about those things which tighten the bond of human fellowship, as stated above.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Suppl..Q65.A4

On the contrary, Gregory (Moral. xxxi, 45) places lust among the capital vices. … Therefore it is evident that lust is a capital vice.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q153.A4

Consequently, when these kisses and caresses are done for this delectation, it follows that they are mortal sins, and only in this way are they said to be lustful. Therefore in so far as they are lustful, they are mortal sins.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q154.A4

I answer that, When the lower powers are strongly moved towards their objects, the result is that the higher powers are hindered and disordered in their acts. Now the effect of the vice of lust is that the lower appetite, namely the concupiscible, is most vehemently intent on its object, to wit, the object of pleasure, on account of the vehemence of the pleasure. Consequently the higher powers, namely the reason and the will, are most grievously disordered by lust.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q153.A5

As the Philosopher himself says (Ethic. vii, 6), the reason why it is more shameful to be incontinent in lust than in anger, is that lust partakes less of reason; and in the same sense he says (Ethic. iii, 10) that "sins of intemperance are most worthy of reproach, because they are about those pleasures which are common to us and irrational minds": hence, by these sins man is, so to speak, brutalized; for which same reason Gregory says (Moral. xxxi, 17) that they are more shameful.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q73.A5

According to the Philosopher (Ethic. vi, 5), intemperance is the chief corruptive of prudence: wherefore the vices opposed to prudence arise chiefly from lust, which is the principal species of intemperance. Reply to Objection 2: The constancy which is a part of fortitude regards hardships and objects of fear; but constancy in refraining from pleasures pertains to continence which is a part of temperance, as stated above ( Q[143]) . Hence the inconstancy which is opposed thereto is to be reckoned a daughter of lust.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q153.A5

Lust is a fire in the soul: those that indulge it are said to burn. It consumes all that is good there (the convictions, the comforts), and lays the conscience waste. It kindles the fire of God's wrath, which, if not extinguished by the blood of Christ, will burn to the lowest hell. … Burning lusts bring burning judgments.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 31.2

Note, Adultery is an exceedingly sinful sin, for it is the rebellion of a vile lust, not only against the command, but against the covenant, of our God. It is the violation of a divine institution in innocency, by the indulgence of one of the basest lusts of man in his degeneracy.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 8.1

Of all sorts of sin, none are more injurious to the soul than fleshly lusts. Carnal appetites, lewdness, and sensuality, are most odious to God, and destructive to man's soul. It is a sore judgment to be given up to them.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Peter 2.2

Lust and greed between them are the occasions of most of the sins of men. Stop these fountains, and the streams of evil would shrink to very small trickles. These twin vices attract the lightning of God's wrath, which 'cometh' on their perpetrators, not only in some final future judgment, but here and now.

Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 2.2.7

Is there any one here that has yielded to some lust of the flesh, some appetite, drunkenness, gluttony, impurity, or the like, and has so sold himself to it, as that that part of the divine image, the power of saying ‘I will,’ has pretty nearly gone? I am afraid there must be some who, by long submission to passion, have lost the control that reason and conscience and a firm steady purpose ought to give.

Alexander Maclaren, Luke 2.25

Even the lawful needs and desires of the body become sinful and deathful if the body is allowed to rule. … And to let his unredeemed body govern him, is to fall far below the very beasts: for he lets sin reign in his mortal body, when he lets the lusts of the body control his decisions.

William R. Newell, Romans Verse-by-Verse 8

Universally inherent was the virus of lust—the dregs which are formed out of milk contain it—(dregs) fitted (for so doing), in that even the waters themselves had not yet been bathed. But when the Word of God descended into flesh,—(flesh) not unsealed even by marriage,—and “the Word was made flesh,” —(flesh) never to be unsealed by marriage,—which was to find its way to the tree not of incontinence, but of endurance; which was to taste from that tree not anything sweet, but something bitter; which was to pertain not to the infernal regions, but to heaven; which was to be precinct not with the leaves of lasciviousness, but the flowers of holiness; which was to impart to the waters its own purities—thenceforth, whatever flesh (is) “in Christ” has lost its pristine soils, is now a thing different, emerges in a new state, no longer (generated) of the slime of natural seed, nor of the grime of concupiscence, but of “pure water” and a “clean Spirit.”

Tertullian, On Modesty 6

For in Paradise the flesh did not lust against the spirit, nor was there this struggle there, where was peace only; but after the transgression, after that man was loth to serve God and was given up to himself; yet not so given up to himself as that he could so much as possess himself; but possessed by him, by whom deceived; the flesh began to lust against the Spirit.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 80

That, therefore, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, that there dwelleth not in our flesh good, that the law in our members is opposed to the law of the mind, is not a mingling of two natures caused of contrary principles, but a division of one against itself caused through desert of sin. We were not so in Adam, before that nature, having listened to and followed its deceiver, had despised and offended its Creator: that is, not the former life of man created, but the latter punishment of man condemned.

Augustine of Hippo, On Continence 21

Adam was made by God: but when he consented to the devil, he was begotten of the devil; and he begat all men such as he was himself. With lust itself we were born; even before we add our sins, from that condemnation we have our birth. For if we are born without any sin, wherefore this running with infants to baptism that they may be released?

Augustine of Hippo, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7

For although conjugal chastity makes a right use of the carnal concupiscence which is in our members; yet it is liable to motions not voluntary, by which it shows either that it could not have existed at all in paradise before sin, or if it did, that it was not then such as that sometimes it should resist the will. But now we feel it to be such, that in opposition to the law of the mind, and even if there is no question of begetting, it works in us the incitement of sexual intercourse; and if in this men yield to it, then it is satisfied by an act of sin; if they do not, then it is bridled by an act of refusal: which two things who could doubt to have been alien from paradise before sin?

Augustine of Hippo, On the Holy Trinity 13.18

Then began the flesh to lust against the Spirit, in which strife we are born, deriving from the first transgression a seed of death, and bearing in our members, and in our vitiated nature, the contest or even victory of the flesh.

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 13.13

Lust requires for its consummation darkness and secrecy; and this not only when un lawful intercourse is desired, but even such fornication as the earthly city has legalized. … For even shameless men call this shameful; and though they love the pleasure, dare not display it.

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.18

Although, therefore, lust may have many objects, yet when no object is specified, the word lust usually suggests to the mind the lustful excitement of the organs of generation. … What friend of wisdom and holy joys, who, being married, but knowing, as the apostle says, “how to possess his vessel in santification and honor, not in the disease of desire, as the Gentiles who know not God,” would not prefer, if this were possi ble, to beget children without this lust, so that in this function of begetting offspring the members created for this purpose should not be stimulated by the heat of lust, but should be actuated by his volition, in the same way as his other members serve him for their respective ends?

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.16

Human nature, then, is without doubt ashamed of this lust; and justly so, for the insubordination of these members, and their defiance of the will, are the clear testimony of the punishment of man’s first sin. And it was fitting that this should appear specially in those parts by which is generated that nature which has been altered for the worse by that first and great sin,—that sin from whose evil connection no one can escape, unless God’s grace expiate in him individually that which was perpetrated to the destruction of all in common, when all were in one man, and which was avenged by God’s justice.

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.20

Nevertheless this lust, of which we at present speak, is the more shameful on this account, because the soul is therein neither master of itself, so as not to lust at all, nor of the body, so as to keep the members under the control of the will; for if they were thus ruled, there should be no shame. But now the soul is ashamed that the body, which by nature is inferior and subject to it, should resist its authority.

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.23

Far be it, then, from us to suppose that our first parents in Paradise felt that lust which caused them afterwards to blush and hide their nakedness, or that by its means they should have fulfilled the benediction of God, “Increase and multiply and replenish the earth;” for it was after sin that lust began. It was after sin that our nature, having lost the power it had over the whole body, but not having lost all shame, perceived, noticed, blushed at, and covered it. But that blessing upon marriage, which encouraged them to increase and multiply and replenish the earth, though it continued even after they had sinned, was yet given before they sinned, in order that the procreation of children might be recognized as part of the glory of marriage, and not of the punishment of sin.

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 14.21

The truth is, both the evil of shameful lust can exist without marriage, and marriage might have been without it. It appertains, however, to the condition of the body (not of that life, but) of this death, that marriage cannot exist without it though it may exist without marriage. Of course that lust of the flesh which causes shame has existence out of the married state, whenever it urges men to the commission of adultery, chambering and uncleanness, so utterly hostile to the purity of marriage; or again, when it does not commit any of these things, because the human agent gives no permission or assent to their commission, but still rises and is set in motion and creates disturbance, and (especially in dreams) effects the likeness of its own veritable work, and reaches the end of its own emotion.

Augustine of Hippo, On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.42

That concupiscence, however, which we have to be ashamed of, and the shame of which has given to our secret members their shameful designation, pudenda , had no existence in the body during its life in paradise before the entrance of sin; but it began to exist “in the body of this death” after sin, the rebellion of the members retaliating man’s own disobedience. Without this concupiscence it was quite possible to effect the function of the wedded pair in the procreation of children: just as many a laborious work is accomplished by the compliant operation of our other limbs, without any lascivious heat; for they are simply moved by the direction of the will, not excited by the ardour of concupiscence.

Augustine of Hippo, On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.26

For, according to Augustine (De Nup. et Concup. i.), it is lust that transmits original sin to the offspring. Now lust implies inordinate concupiscence, not entirely subject to reason: and therefore, if the fomes were entirely taken away as to personal corruption, it could not remain as to the corruption of nature.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q27.A3

The second thing to be observed is a certain deformity of excessive concupiscence, which in the state of innocence would not have existed, when the lower powers were entirely subject to reason.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I.Q98.A2

On the contrary, Augustine says (Retract. i, 15): "Concupiscence is the guilt of original sin." … Now the whole order of original justice consists in man's will being subject to God: which subjection, first and chiefly, was in the will, whose function it is to move all the other parts to the end, as stated above (Q[9], A[1] ), so that the will being turned away from God, all the other powers of the soul become inordinate.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q82.A3

Since, in man, the concupiscible power is naturally governed by reason, the act of concupiscence is so far natural to man, as it is in accord with the order of reason; while, in so far as it trespasses beyond the bounds of reason, it is, for a man, contrary to reason. Such is the concupiscence of original sin.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q82.A3

Hence too we ought to learn, how dreadful is the contagion of sin, which defiles, in some measure, the lawful order of nature. I do own that child-bearing is not unclean, and that what would otherwise be lust changes its character, through the sacredness of the marriage relation. But still the fountain of sin is so deep and abundant, that its constant overflowings stain what would otherwise be pure.

John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. 1 5.21

Therefore all that incites us to attach ourselves to the creatures is bad; since it prevents us from serving God if we know Him, or from seeking Him if we know Him not. Now we are full of lust. Therefore we are full of evil; therefore we ought to hate ourselves and all that excited us to attach ourselves to any other object than God only.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées 7

There are some that see clearly that man has no other enemy than lust, which turns him from God, and not God; and that he has no other good than God, and not a rich land.

Blaise Pascal, Pensées 10

When the divines of that corrupt church, in a Pelagian spirit, denied that the sinful principle in our fallen nature, which they called "Concupiscence," and which is commonly called "Original Sin," had the nature of sin at all, they were triumphantly answered from this chapter, where—both in the first section of it, which speaks of it in the unregenerate, and in the second, which treats of its presence and actings in believers—it is explicitly, emphatically, and repeatedly called "sin." As such, they held it to be damnable.

Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Romans 7