Romans 8:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Intending to speak of future benefits, the Apostle first frightens them with the grievous and evil consequences of the fleshly life. He says, 'If you live according to the flesh, you will die.' Here he means immortal death, that is, punishment and torment in Gehenna. Better still, if one examines carefully, the one who lives according to the flesh is dead even in this life, as we already explained to you in the preceding discourse.

'But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.' Do you see that he speaks not of the body's nature, but of fleshly deeds? He did not say, 'If by the Spirit you put to death the bodily nature, you will live,' but 'the deeds.' And not all deeds, but evil ones. This is clear from what follows, where he says, If you do this, you will live.

How could this be possible if he were speaking of all deeds in general? To see, hear, speak, and walk are bodily deeds. If we put such deeds to death, we shall so remove ourselves from life that we will even incur the charge of self-murder.

What deeds, then, does the Apostle command us to put to death? Those that lead to vice and incline toward evil. They cannot be killed except by the Spirit. By killing other deeds, one can even kill oneself, which is not permitted. But these deeds are put to death only by the Spirit.

If the Spirit appears, every disturbance grows calm, every passion is subdued, and nothing rises up against us. Have you noticed how the Apostle exhorts us by future blessings, as I said above? He proves that we are debtors not only because of what has already been done for us.

The benefit of the Spirit, he says, consists not only in His having forgiven us our former sins. It also consists in His making us unconquerable by sin in the future and granting us immortal life. After this, pointing to a new reward, he added: 'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God' (Rom 8:14).

I have said this in order, by the Apostle's words, to restrain your free will from evil and turn it toward good. You must not glory in man, that is, in yourselves rather than in God, when you live not according to the flesh, but put to death the deeds of the flesh by the spirit.

'Everything God has done for us,' says Chrysostom, 'was done not by debt, but by grace alone. On the contrary, everything we do for God after this is not a gift, but a debt. He gives this to be understood when he says, You were bought with a price (1 Cor 7:23), You are not your own (1 Cor 6:19), and Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves (2 Cor 5:14). He confirms the same here with the words, We are debtors, not to the flesh. Let the flesh also be an object of care, but we must not make it mistress of our life. It must go behind, not ahead. It must not direct our life, but receive the law of the spirit.'

St. Chrysostom says: “When the Apostle was about to speak of future benefits, he first frightened them with the grievous and evil consequences of carnal, passionate life.

He speaks thus: ‘For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.’ Here he means immortal death, that is, punishment and torment in Gehenna.

But if one examines this carefully, the man who lives according to the flesh is dead even in this present life.”

Blessed Theophylact combines both in a brief expression: “By death here he means not only immortal punishment, but he also calls the life spent on earth in evil deeds death.”

“But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” The spirit is life in God, with zeal to please Him through fidelity to His commandments and with estrangement from the earthly.

The spirit was breathed into our nature and always requires such a life. But by the fall it was suppressed, and its power was taken away.

The grace that comes through faith in the Lord is joined to this spirit. It restores it to its rights and gives it power to govern the whole conscious and free life of man.

It directs this life according to its own nature, toward God. Whoever has been counted worthy of this, by this grace-filled spirit, puts to death the deeds of the flesh.

These are not only outward deeds, but also inward ones. They are the actions and movements of passionate and pleasure-loving self-pleasing in general.

So it is. Yet because this does not become a law of nature, but is maintained by free will, the Apostle says, “If by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.”

He considers this the work of free will, whose inclinations are followed by grace. Grace is always ready to help and to supply our spirit with power that mortifies the passions.

He says, “you put to death,” giving us to understand that this work is not accomplished once for all. Once for all it is established only in resolve.

That resolve is never to indulge the passions of self-pleasing, neither in great things nor in small. Yet it does not destroy the possibility that the movements of these passions may appear.

The Apostle says: whenever these movements of desire, passion, and flesh appear, put them to death by driving them away and cutting them off.

For their cutting off is their mortification. They appeared, and they are no more when they have been driven away and cut off.

They appear again, and you drive them away again, and they will not exist. Thus throughout your whole life, he says, put to death the deeds of the flesh.

“They are mortified when they cease. For they no longer exist as soon as they cease” (Ambrosiaster).

Earlier, from the words of Venerable Hesychius, it was already indicated how this is accomplished. As soon as a passionate movement or thought appears, thrust it away with aversion.

Then turn in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that passionate thing which troubles you will at once depart. This is the mortification of carnal deeds by the spirit.

“Such deeds of the flesh are mortified only by the Spirit. As soon as the Spirit appears, all disturbances grow still, all passions are subdued, and nothing will rise against us.

The benefit of the Spirit consists not only in forgiving our former sins, but also in making us henceforth unconquerable by sin and in making us worthy of immortal life” (St. Chrysostom).

If the matter proceeds in this way with you, he says, then “you will live.” He means eternal life.

For such life in the spirit, always mortifying the deeds of the flesh, is the seed of eternally blessed life. That life is revealed there only in its power and brightness.

Yet it begins here, when the grace of the Spirit of God raises our spirit and gives man strength to live not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Once it has begun, it also ripens. In the measure of its ripeness it passes over there.

Here it is not visible, being hidden now by the disorders of outward life, now by inward struggles. Yet under the cover of this invisibility, it is always ripening.

There it will shine forth in its brightness. This is what “you will live” means, if here you live by the spirit and by the spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh.