Romans 8:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In saying this, he does not ascribe to the flesh a mind of its own. No. He points to the grosser inclination of the mind and gives it a name taken from the worse part of man. In the same way, he often calls the whole man, together with the soul, flesh.

“But the minding of the spirit.” Here again he speaks of spiritual-mindedness, as he also writes below: “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is” (Rom 8:27). He shows the many blessings that flow from it for the present life and the future life.

Compared with the evil produced by carnal-mindedness, spiritual-mindedness brings far greater good. The Apostle expressed this by saying, “life and peace.” “Life” is opposed to what was said before, “the minding of the flesh is death.” “Peace” is opposed to what is said afterward, because after saying “peace” he added, “because the minding of the flesh is enmity against God,” which is worse than death.

Then, showing why carnal-mindedness is death and enmity, he says, “For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.” But do not be troubled when you hear, “nor indeed can it be,” for this difficulty is easily resolved.

By carnal-mindedness the Apostle here means an earthly, coarse thought, attached to worldly things and evil deeds. He says that this cannot submit to God. What hope of salvation would there be if, once evil, it were impossible to become good?

But this is not what the Apostle says. Otherwise, how did Paul himself become so great? How did the thief? How did Manasseh? How did the Ninevites? How did David rise after his fall? How did Peter come to himself after denying Christ? How was the prodigal son numbered among the flock of Christ? How did the Galatians, who had lost grace, regain their former blessedness?

Therefore the Apostle does not say that it is impossible for an evil man to become good. He says that it is impossible, while remaining wicked, to submit to God. But one who changes can certainly easily become good and submit to God.

He did not say that man cannot submit to God. He says that an evil act cannot be good. This is the same as saying that fornication cannot be chastity, and vice cannot be virtue.

Thus, when Christ says in the Gospel, “A bad tree cannot bear good fruit” (Mt 7:18), He does not deny the possibility of passing from vice to virtue. He only says that remaining in vice cannot bear good fruit.

He did not say that a bad tree cannot become good. He says that, while remaining bad, it cannot bear good fruit. That what is bad can change, Christ showed both here and in another parable, when He spoke of tares becoming wheat. For this reason He forbids them to be pulled up, “lest, while gathering the tares,” as He said, “you also uproot the wheat with them” (Mt 13:29), that is, the wheat that will come from them.

Thus the Apostle calls vice carnal-mindedness, and spiritual-mindedness he calls the grace given and the activity approved by a good will. Here he is not speaking at all about essence and nature, but about virtue and vice.

What you could not do while under the law, the Apostle says, you can do now. You can walk straight and rightly, if you receive help from the Spirit. It is not enough not to walk according to the flesh. One must walk according to the Spirit.

For our salvation requires not only turning away from evil, but also doing good. This will happen if we hand the soul over to the Spirit and persuade the flesh to know its own place. In this way we will also make it spiritual. Likewise, if we give ourselves to negligence, we will make the soul carnal.

“But after the fall, he no longer existed according to the spirit, though the spirit remained in him. It gave its voice, but it was not heard. Such are all who have not yet risen from the fall.

“Man begins to be according to the spirit only after receiving grace, when he has been regenerated. Then the spirit enters its proper rank, takes strength, and governs everything in man. By itself it determines the norm of his life. Such a man has only this care: to be ceaselessly in God by the spirit and to direct everything toward what pleases Him.”

The one who is according to the spirit and maintains spiritual-mindedness stands in living union with the Source of every life. He is filled with every true life. This life attunes all the manifestations of his own life, both inward and outward, to one thing. It brings into it harmony and peace, than which man cannot imagine anything more beautiful, sweet, or delightful.

By contrast, carnal-mindedness, life at a distance from God and in forgetfulness of Him, is a life of pleasure-loving self-pleasing, moved and disturbed by passions. It impoverishes human nature and introduces discord into it, which dissolves and corrodes it. Both are felt as a torment resembling the agony of one dying.

“The soul of the carnally minded man does not incline toward God and divine things. This failure of the soul to incline toward the divine is the extreme lightest limit of hostility against God. The extreme heaviest limit is an active rising up in rage against the divine order.

“Disobedience to the law of God is generally the distinctive mark of carnal-mindedness. Carnal-mindedness, while it remains such, cannot submit to the law of God. For as soon as it submitted, it would cease to be carnal-mindedness.”

Concerning this weakness, St. John Chrysostom says: “Do not be troubled when you hear, ‘nor indeed can it be.’ This difficulty can still be easily turned aside. By carnal-mindedness the Apostle means here a mind that has become earthly, attached to worldly things and evil deeds.

“The Apostle says that this cannot submit to God, but he does not say this of man in general. Christ also says in the Gospel, ‘A bad tree cannot bear good fruit’ (Mt 7:18). He did not say that a bad tree cannot become good. He says that, while remaining bad, it cannot bear good fruit.”

As people of the flesh cannot serve the spirit, because the Spirit of God is not in them (cf. Gen 6:3), so, conversely, people guided by the spirit cannot live carnally, that is, live for sin. For the Holy Spirit lives in them and guides them into all truth.

Here, among other things, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. Catholics base on this their teaching about the procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son. But here there is not even a hint of the Spirit’s procession from the Son.

He is called Christ’s Spirit because He is given to us for the sake of Christ’s merits and through His intercession. “I will ask the Father,” Jesus Christ said, “and He will send you the Spirit, the Comforter, who proceeds from the Father. He will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26; 15:26).

St. John Chrysostom says: “The Apostle does not call the Spirit Christ. Rather, he makes clear that the one who has the Spirit is not only called Christ’s, but even has Christ Himself within him. It is impossible for Christ not to be where the Spirit is.

“Where one of the Persons of the Trinity is, there is also the whole Trinity. Thus the Trinity is indivisible in Itself and united in the closest manner.”

Such is the structure of the carnal and the spiritual. In the former, the soul does not incline toward what is lawful. The latter think only that everything should be lawful, in accord with the will of God and pleasing to God. Therefore only these can fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, the goal of the law, that we should be holy.

Those who are according to the flesh are not simply those who bear flesh. They are those who live in pleasing the flesh, making provision for the flesh in its desires (see Rom 13:14). The subject is not the nature of the flesh, but the carnal disposition of man.

“This does not incline toward an accusation of the flesh,” says St. Chrysostom. “As long as it keeps its own rank, nothing improper occurs. But when we give the flesh free rein, and it transgresses the limits set for it and rises up against the soul, then it ruins and corrupts everything. It does this not by its own nature, but because of excess and the disorder that comes from it.”

Yet the expression “those who are according to the flesh” is very strong. It indicates such immersion in carnality that it is as though, apart from the flesh, nothing remains in man. With our human eye we do not see many such people. However much someone may be given over to the flesh, his soul still shows itself active in some way, and sometimes even the spirit natural to man.

But does not the eye of God see all the fallen in this way? Such is the law of the fall: the one who has fallen from the spirit no longer remains even in the soul, but is cast down to the very bottom, into the flesh. Carnality appears as the governing principle even in those who live by the soul, such as scholars, artists, and people of affairs. Carnality is the background, and everything else is the various figures drawn upon this background.

“Minding” here does not signify only thoughts or a manner of thinking. It means the whole inward order: thoughts, cares, plans, sympathies, actions, and even dreams and imaginings. It is the moving, governing, and ordering principle of everything.

“Those who have given themselves over to carnal desires have all their care and concern only for them” (Oecumenius). “Those who have surrendered themselves to immoderate slavery to the flesh always care only for the things of the flesh” (Blessed Theophylact). “Only what delights the flesh is sweet to them” (Ambrosiaster).

Those who are according to the spirit are those who live by the spirit in God. They think on divine things, desire divine things, and are consoled by divine things. They are moved by the fear of God and guided by the promptings of conscience, enlightened by the commandments. All this occurs through the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be according to the spirit is the norm of human life according to man’s creation. But after the fall, man no longer existed according to the spirit, though the spirit remained in him. It was in him, but did not possess determining power. It gave its voice, but it was not heard. Such are all who have not yet risen from the fall.

Man begins to be according to the spirit only after receiving grace, when he has been regenerated. Then the spirit enters its proper rank, takes strength, and governs everything in man. By itself it determines the norm of his life. Such a man has only this care: to be ceaselessly in God by the spirit and to direct everything only toward what pleases Him.

“Those who have submitted themselves wholly to the Spirit both think and do everything spiritual” (Blessed Theophylact). The life of the soul and the life of the body are not suppressed or stifled. Rather, having been set within their natural boundaries, they too are directed toward what is pleasing to God. Through this they are spiritualized, and the whole outward life of man is also spiritualized in all its relations.

Thus those who are according to the spirit do not forget the things of the flesh, but spiritualize them. Those who are according to the flesh forget the spiritual. Or perhaps one may say that they too do not forget, but make them fleshly.