Tuesday: The Flesh or the Spirit
“They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:5-6). Dwell on these texts. What basic message comes through from them? What do they say to you about the way in which you are living your life?
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“After,” here, is used in the sense of “according to” (Greek kata). “Mind” here means to set the mind on. One group of people sets their minds on fulfilling natural desires; the other sets their minds on the things of the Spirit, to follow His dictates. Because the mind determines actions, the two groups live and act differently.
What is the carnal mind unable to do? Rom. 8:7-8.
To have one’s mind set on fulfilling the desires of the flesh is, in reality, to be in a state of enmity against God. One whose mind is thus set is unconcerned about doing the will of God. He or she even may be in rebellion against Him, openly flouting His law.
Paul wishes especially to emphasize that if you are apart from Christ, it is impossible to keep the law of God. Again and again Paul returns to this theme: no matter how hard one tries, apart from Christ one cannot obey the law.
Paul’s special purpose was to persuade the Jews that they needed more than their “Torah” (law). By their conduct they had shown that, in spite of having the divine revelation, they were guilty of the same sins of which the Gentiles were guilty (Romans chapter 2). The lesson of all this was that they needed the Messiah. Without Him they would be slaves of sin, unable to escape its dominion.
This was Paul’s answer to those Jews who couldn’t understand why what God had given them in the Old Testament was no longer enough for salvation. Paul admitted that what they had been doing was all good, but that they also needed to accept the Messiah who had now come.
| Look at your past 24 hours. Were your deeds of the Spirit or of the flesh? What does your answer tell you about yourself? If of the flesh, what changes must you make, and how can you make them? |
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Eventhough I have a lot of responsabilities and work to do through out the day, I must have the counciousness that Christ can be with me all the time! In spite of my tendencies to the flesh, with Jesus I can be spiritual! Thank God for His Son and for His Spirit that can lead me in my earthly journey.
When we look at Romans 8:6 Plz notice that We all have a sinful nature. What does Paul mean when he writes "the mind of sinful man is death?" This refers to the choice of attitudes. Will we choose to follow our sinful nature and be governed by it, or will we choose to follow the Holy Spirit and be governed by Him?
Ronald I am sorry to spoil your wonderful comment. I don't subscribe to this theology of choice. I am convinced when one is one in Christ it means the other spirit prevailed rather than the choosing. If it was a matter of choice Jesus would have told Peter that instead of saying he has prayed for him because Satan desire to sift him like wheat.
I googled up verse 6.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
"FOR"--a mere particle of transition here like but or now.
"TO BE CARNAL MINDED"--literally, the mind or minding of the flesh (Margin); that is, the pursuit of fleshly ends.
"IS DEATH"--not only ends in , but even now is carrying death into its bosom, so that such are "dead while they live" ( 1 Timothy 5:6 ,Ephesians 2:1 Ephesians 2:5 ).
"BUT"-- mere particle of transition to the opposite.
"TO SPIRITUAL MINDED"--the mind or minding of the spirit ; that is, the pursuit of spiritual objects.
"IS LIFE AND PEACE"--not life only, in contrast with the death that is in the other pursuit, but "peace"--the very element of the soul's deepest repose and true bliss.
Anele, I am not sure just what you mean in your second sentence. I rather think the problem of interpreting your comment is mine, but doesn't free choice mean that it is our choice as to whether we choose to follow Jesus or not. The Holy Spirit does not coerce nor does it go where it is not wanted.
Joshua appears to think that we have choice:
I forgot to include Paul's calling Acts 9:5&15 show clearly that it's election not personal choice. No wonder why Paul does not mention 'choice'.
Mark the choice of gods Joshua presented to the idolaters.
Anele, I don't think God does anything involving our personal salvation against our will. This would imply that we must give consent.
In order for God to motivate our thoughts and feelings and to influence our character He must have our consent. This consent implies a choice on our part to let Him into our thinking process.
Once He is in we have the possibility of thinking His thoughts and feeling His feelings. Without our consent for this to happen we are stuck with selfishness to motivate us. With our consent God can do Miracles with our thinking and feeling such that we can have His character in place of our "old man" of sin.
"Carnal-mindedness" is a product of the motivation of selfishness. "Spiritual-mindedness" is the product of the motivation of God's Spirit of Love.
The product of "carnal-mindedness" is sin. The product "Spiritual-mindedness" is law abiding.
It is God's will that all would be saved. That leaves us with the final choice as to whether God's Spirit is allowed to give us the motivation of His Love. Of course this requires that we are willing to let the old motivation go in favor of the new motivation.
I believe this is the choice that we have to make. Other choices follow as the result of the the mind we have developed due to the primary motivation we have chosen or due to selfish motivation we have without choosing.
Joshua said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve."
Paul is giving us a choice of life or death. Romans 8:6. Jehovah spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy 30:19. Christ also gives us a choice, “ if you love Me keep My commandments.” Think about the great controversy for a while. If God and God the Son would have eliminated Lucifer and his followers instead of casting them out of heaven. He would have eliminated choice. And even though the tempter would be gone, it would have left the universe with the risk of doubt in God to set in again. He didn’t because that is not the God He is. When we are caught up in the air and taken to heaven for a thousand years. The devil will be chained to this earth with no one to tempt. After the thousand years in heaven, with the books of the sinners open we and the universe will see Gods justice and grace not through a glass darkly, but pellucid. Then sin and all those who have chosen sin will be eliminated, while we are safely in the Holy City the earth will be cleansed and we will continue to live with Christ throughout eternity. Check out: Thessalonians 4:14-18, and Revelation 7, 14, 20, 21. Check out Paul’s words in Thessalonians 4:14, “If you believe”, implys a choice. By the way Christ choose Paul only because he choose Him. Paul had a choice to reject Christ, but he saw the error of choosing to continue in sin and choose Christ.
Minding the things of the flesh and of the spirit are at war with each other. In my situation living my life I have stuff. The picture showed cars, travel, money, vanity mirror and things. Now that I have all this stuff am I in the flesh or can I be in the spirit?
Hi David, Christianity is a choice. How we make that choice makes the difference. You can seek money, car and so on and that could be our first priority, but God promises to us is seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added; we never know what God has in store for us. All He asked for is obedience. I have my own struggles were I am not doing enough for Christ my focus is off, but I ask God for mercy because it is His desire that none of us perish but we all have the opportunity to eternal life.
I have lost focus and am praying for spiritual intervention. Today's lesson have brought me back to the point of consciousness. I am discouraged but God is working on me. The church, the church, the church and Lord have mercy. Help me Lord.
Karin; if you keep looking to the church it will surely disappoint you. Remember that the church is filled with people like you and I and we are also sinful. They will truly disappoint you sometime. We must look to God, to Jesus and the Holy Spirit they can be our only spiritual guides… Royce
This has to be THE or ONE of the strongest challenges for Christians since we have about 7000 waking minutes each week in our schedules.
The assault on the spirit of worldly idea & items that crowd out spiritual & devotional/mission/outreach oriented time.
"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." 1 Cor 10:13
I teach that God's thought replacement therapy is essential for victory in this battle for the mind.
Paul taught about this later in Chapter 13.
"But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and make no provision for [indulging] the flesh [put a stop to thinking about the evil cravings of your physical nature] to [gratify its] desires (lusts)." Rom 13:14
The word "clothe" is obscure and needs explaining.
Clothing (eg garment, robe) is often used by bible writers as a metaphor for character - and by implication character development.
The least effective way to change behaviour is to focus on what you don't want to do. The most effective is to keep focussing on what you do want to do and then you have more capacity to resist the temptations to do what you don't want.
From a Christian perspective, focussing on emulating Christ needs to be an ongoing conscious, intentional focus for the purpose of progressively (re)developing our character in harmony with the 'good work in us' that the Holy Spirit is sent to empower us to undertake. In this way we ongoingly clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
This verse is essentially parallel to Peter's 'submit to God and resist the devil'.
My apology Maurice typing error.
I am not sure how many times Jesus told his disciples that they did not choose him but he chose them. Let's dig deeper into John 6:39, 65 ,15:16&19. This is not a choice but election.
Yes I understand that Anele, but that does raise the issue: does God call some and not others? The call is for "whosoever":
I don't see God electing some and not others. Or am I misreading what you are saying?
Thanks Maurice. Let's wait for chapter 9.
It's all about CHOICE! The choices we make can either condemn us, or save us. I believe that we choose to sin, and I also believe that we can choose to be saved on the merits of Christ's sacrificial death, and by God's grace, and Christ expects us to make this stand or commitment, which is also a matter of choice and not coercion! Jonah chose not to go to Nineveh, a choice that was not imposed or made for him. Paul chose to follow Christ after he was struck off his horse on the road to Damascus. He could have chosen not to heed God's calling to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, and his choice was not made for him, but by him.
Gilbert, I think there are only two important (primary) choices. That is the choice of selfishness (status quo) or the choice of God's Love (supernatural) to motivate our thoughts and feelings. All other choices follow the character of the primary choice we make in any issue of life.
Thanks Don, I fully concur! The primary choices are either for the Spirit or for the flesh!