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 DIFFERENT STATES OF MIND DESCRIBED BY THE APOSTLE. 1. To be "carnally-minded," to "walk after the flesh," to "live after the flesh," to "mind the things of the flesh," are plainly convertible terms, all meaning, not a proper care for the welfare of the body, but the practical exhibition of that evil principle of fallen man which in the following verse is said to be enmity against God — not to be subject to His law; nay, to be necessarily hostile to it. Carnal-mindedness, therefore, consists in the presiding love and pursuit of those sinful objects of time and sense which alienate the heart from God, subdue it to the powers of death, and deliver it into the snare of the enemy of mankind, to be led captive at his will. 2. But "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." Spiritual-mindedness is a principle decidedly opposed to that which I have described — to pass through things temporal as not to lose the things eternal — to walk by faith, not by sight — to slight and scorn the pleasures of sin, animated by that sanctified ambition which seeks, through undeserved mercy, the recompense of an eternal reward — this is spiritual-mindedness. II. Such is the great contrast between the characters I have described; and vast as is the difference of these states of heart will also be that of THE ENDS TO WHICH THEY INFALLIBLY LEAD. 1. To be carnally-minded is death. To live after the flesh is a present death — a moral incapacity for the pursuits and duties of a heavenly and immortal life; it is to be dead in trespasses and sins. One thus minded is an alien from the commonwealth of the true Israel, a stranger to the covenant of evangelical promise, having no Scriptural hope, and without God in the world. He may be a living treasury of knowledge, capable of many impressions from religious objects, capable of performing many external duties: he may have a form of godliness, a name to live; but holy and spiritual things, in their predominant importance, strike not his mind nor possess his heart. 2. But to be spiritually-minded is life and peace. Carnal passions are subdued and mortified, and the Spirit is life, because of righteousness; it is capable of a spiritual existence." The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made the spiritually-minded man free from the law of sin and death. Like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so he is enabled to walk in newness of life." He is sensible of all the privileges and delights of a spiritual life. He is passed from the death of sin to the life of grace; and the death of the body shall be but the gate and entrance of endless being, both to body and to soul.Conclusion: 1. Learn we then from this Scripture the necessity of an entire renewal of the heart. To be carnally-minded is present death; and as well might the lifeless corpse gift itself with the powers of being and motion, as unassisted man restore himself to spiritual existence, and live by the exertion of his own energies to God and goodness. 2. Learn, also, how ill they judge, and how idly they dream of happiness, who prefer living after the flesh to living after the spirit. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.) 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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