Romans 8:5-6 For 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.… I. THE ANTITHESIS OF CARNAL AND SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS (ver. 5). 1. The contrasted classes. (1) They that are after the flesh. "The flesh" means the body (Job 4:15; Job 21:6); the present life (Philippians 1:24); all that in religion is outward (chap. Romans 4:1; Galatians 3:4); corrupt, vitiated human nature with all its sinful habits (John 3:6; Romans 7:18). This last is its signification here. To be after the flesh — (a) We need not live in profligacy. Passions may be dormant, while not provoked. Dynamite is harmless till fired. The particles of clay may temporarily subside from muddy water till the liquid is agitated again: then fresh discolorations arise. (b) Nor indulge in every form of evil. In the mountain range of a man's iniquity certain peaks may start sheer above the general level of the chain. (c) Nor flagrantly wicked in any one thing. If only the mind be steeped in frivolities, forgetful of anything but self-gratification, we are in the flesh. (d) We may even experience longings after nobler soul attainments (Matthew 19:16-22). Just as there are manifold depths of complete submersion, at six or sixty fathoms, so there are souls not far from the kingdom of heaven (Mark 12:34), others as whited sepulchres (Matthew 23:27), others "of your father the devil" (John 8:44). (2) They that are after the Spirit. (a) Such are renewed in heart. The change they have experienced is deeper than reformation. They are not like irised minerals whose surface is made gleam with all rainbow colours while the centre is lustreless, opaque. (b) They desire unreserved consecration to God's service. (c) Their portrait is drawn in the Beatitudes. 2. Their different conduct. (1) Those after the flesh mind worldly advantages, honours, pleasures. Deeds often beautiful adorn them. The soldier dies, leading a forlorn hope for his country. A daughter withstands temptation, and toils herself into a premature grave that her aged parents may have a roof and bread. But no nature can transcend the principles of its own life. Water cannot rise naturally above its own level. (2) Those after the Spirit mind what is holy, despite many impulses of disposition and training. Like the sunflowers, which turn after the light, they try to keep looking to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Note — (a) We may know our spiritual position by observing what things we mind. A bar of steel, by what it "minds," will show whether it is magnetised or not. Our conduct, like the hands of our watches, tells out the unseen movements within. (b) The old nature cannot be sanctified, it must be crucified (Galatians 5:24). II. THE DIFFERENT RESULTS OF SUCH ANTITHETIC POSITIONS (vers. 6-8). 1. The consequences are — (1) That to be carnally minded is death. This is — (a) Alienation from all godliness and spiritual movements, as physical death is separation from activities of bodily existence. The heart chords of the carnally minded never respond to the Spirit's touch, as no plays of thought or feeling flit over the pallid face of a corpse though touched by the friendliest hand. Yet the spiritually dead are neither incapacitated for, nor insensible to, sensual pleasures (Philippians 3:9; 2 Peter 2:13). (b) Not so much negation of spiritual comforts as positive hunger of unsatisfied desires, desolations consequent on indulged passions. Cain (Genesis 4:13), Esau (Genesis 27:34), Judas (Matthew 27:3), felt it to be so. (c) Always takes hold on eternal perdition. The tap root of the sin tree strikes into the inmost recesses of human nature (Romans 6:23). Present soul death is prophetic of future. (2) To be spiritually minded. (a) Life, the complete opposite of death (Ezekiel 37:1-7), including delight in God, power for good, conformity to Christ's character, holy activity, and eternal felicity. At present this life is subject to many fluctuations, dishealths, languors; but as given of the Spirit and hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) it is deathless (Romans 5:17; John 14:19). (b) Peace. This is not exemption from all disquietudes, but in spite of them; like a river flowing amid dark cliffs with its curves lit up, and its ripples glancing in the sunlight, the peace of the believer, luminous in the shining of God's reconciled countenance, courses on, diffusing comforts, serenities, joys. In contrast with the wild tumult of fleshly lusts this peace signifies the harmony grace establishes between the sinner and his God, his fellow men, and the several parts of his own being. It counterworks the soul's anxieties on the chief grounds whence they arise. It is a peace the world knows not of (Isaiah 59:8), and cannot take away (John 14:27). It is a distinct fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7). 2. Why the consequences are so. (1) Carnal mindedness is death, "because the carnal heart is enmity against God." The hatred quiescent for a time may be very intense, as Saul's against David (1 Samuel 26:4). The flame lies latent in flint till the applied steel evokes it. Vesuvius is not always in active eruption. The strength of this enmity is evidenced from the fact that the only time when man got an opportunity of striking at God he struck at Him in the person of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23). The carnal heart "is not subject to the law of God." From the very necessity of its nature it "cannot be" (Romans 7:14), and such enmity against the God of all life can mean nothing else than death. (2) Since they that have their habitat within the sphere of fleshly influences as fishes have theirs within the waters — cannot please God. Neither in their more manifestly sinful ways, nor the common transactions of daily life (Proverbs 21:4), nor their most solemn services (Psalm 15:6; Isaiah 1:13-15; Isaiah 66:8; Genesis 4:5). What can the Divine displeasure mean but death? Note — (a) The primary cause of man's indifference to gospel truth and ordinances. The dead are deaf. Scientists love to hear of inventions, social reformers of philanthropies, merchants of commerce, because they are alive to these things. (b) Heaven would be no felicity for any unregenerate soul. Its sorest misery is in meeting with God in the glory of His holiness (Revelation 6:16). (c) The believer's peace will be proportionate to his minding the things of the Spirit. The growing stream floats more and larger burdens on its bosom. (d) The unmitigated dogmatism of ver. 8 should lead us to repentance. Better that a man should not be born than not please his God (Matthew 26:24). (e) The measure of our pleasing God is the measure of our Christianity (Hebrews 11:5; John 8:29; 1 John 3:22). (James Gage, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For 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. |
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