24. 1. If a person wills and does good before he refrains from evils as being sins, the good that he does is not good. That is because he is, prior to that, not in the Lord, as we said above. So for example, if someone gives to the poor, aids the needy, contributes to churches and shelters, is of service to the church, the country, and his fellow citizens, teaches the gospel and makes converts, is just in his judgments, honest in his business dealings, and upright in what he does, and yet regards evils as being hardly sins, such as instances of fraud, adultery, hatred, blasphemy, and the like, then he cannot help but do good that has evil within it; for he does those things of himself and not from the Lord. Thus he himself is in the deed, and not the Lord, and every good that has the person himself in it is defiled with his evils and has regard to himself and the world.

On the other hand, those same deeds recounted above are inwardly good if a person refrains from evils as being sins, such as instances of fraud, adultery, hatred, blasphemy, and the like; for he does those deeds from the Lord, and they are called deeds “done in God” (John 3:19-21).

92. No One Can Refrain from Evils as Being Sins So as to Turn Away from Them Inwardly Except by Battles Against Them

Everyone knows, from the Word and from doctrine drawn from the Word, that a person’s inherent character from birth is evil, and that as a result he is led by an inborn urge to love evils and to be carried away into them, so as to want to take revenge, for example, to defraud, to defame, and to commit adultery. And if he does not think these are sins and on that account resist them, he does them whenever the occasion offers and his reputation does not suffer a loss of honor or material gain. Moreover, if the person has no religion, he does them with delight.