For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
Description of regenerate and unregenerate
The word “flesh” is here to be taken not in the natural sense, but in the moral; and the word “Spirit” is here to be taken for the Spirit of grace and regeneration. First, the universality of these two states and conditions of men; and secondly, the contrariety. First, to take notice of the universality of these two states and conditions, as they do divide and make up the whole world; for so they do. All men living are one of these two. Therefore let us everyone search and examine ourselves in this particular, and observe how the case is here with us; whether we are such as are after the flesh, or which are after the Spirit. As there is not a middle place betwixt heaven and hell, so there is not a middle state neither betwixt sin and grace. This it may be much discovered by us according to the principles that prevail in us; by what we most delight in and give ourselves to. The second is in reference to the contrariety, in that they are opposed here one to the other (Galatians 5:17). The contrariety of these two sorts of persons one to the other is considerable in sundry particulars; as, first, the contrariety of their principles which they are carried by, and that is, of flesh and of Spirit (Galatians 5:17). There is a different law and rule and principle, which does act and move the servants of God than does other persons. Secondly, the contrariety of their aims and projects and designs. Those who have different and contrary ends which they do set down and propound to themselves, they must needs be contrary to one another. Thirdly, the contrariety of their courses and actions and conversations. This is another thing which makes up this contrariety to us as observable in them. The consideration of this point is thus far useful to us. First, as it gives an account of that enmity which is in the one to the other (Galatians 5:22; John 15:19). Secondly, we see here also how unsuitable it is for those who are good to have intimate society and familiarity with those who are evil. Thirdly, we have from hence a discovery likewise of the excellency of the kingdom of Christ, and of the efficacy and power of the gospel, which makes such an admirable change and alteration as we may observe it to do. This is the nature of conversion, to deliver us from the power of darkness, and to translate us into the kingdom of Christ, as the apostle expresses it to us there in that place in Colossians 2:13. The second is the difference of properties as belonging to these persons, and that is, that the former do mind the things of the flesh, the latter the things of the Spirit. First, to speak of the former, which is the property of all carnal and unregenerate persons, such as are yet abiding and continuing in the state of nature, and here expressed to be after the flesh. This is that which is here declared of them, as proper to them, that they do mind the things of the flesh. When it is said here that carnal persons do mind carnal things, and they that are after the flesh the things of the flesh, this minding it may admit of a various explication to us. First, they mind them in a way of apprehension, that is; they understand them, and know what belongs unto them; they are well skilled and expert in them. This is one property of carnal and worldly persons, that they are best seen and knowing in such things as these are. Worldly men are best able to judge of worldly matters; as for the things of the Spirit, matters of grace and holiness, here they are plainly ignorant and unlearned. Everyone is still most capable and apprehensive of such kind of matters as he hath a proper genius for and inclination to; now this have carnal persons to worldly things. Secondly, in a way of affection. They mind them, that is, they favour them and relish them and take delight in them. Worldly persons, their hearts are set upon the world, and it is the most delightful thing to them of anything else. Thirdly, in a way of contemplation. They mind them, that is, they think upon them; such things as these are the chiefest study and meditation, and which their thoughts are most exercised about. Fourthly, in a way of activity and contrivance. They mind the things of the flesh, that is, they lay out chiefly for it. They bend their chiefest study and endeavour to promote such things as these are. They seek opportunities for the flesh, and they seek how to accomplish and to improve these opportunities. Now, the ground of all this is two fold. First, that inward principle which does act in them and prevail in them. This is a sure rule, that everything doth after its kind. Nature it is a most certain principle wherever it is. Secondly, there is Satan also who has a further stroke and influence hereupon. He is the spirit that works in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2). He makes it his business to promote these things in them, by his suggestions and instigations and concurrences and assistances of them. The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us. First, as a sad discovery to us of the state and condition of the generality of people in the world. Secondly, we may learn from hence the necessity of regeneration and the work of the new creature, in order to a holy life to be led by us, and the freeing of us from the power and dominion of sin in us, because so long as men are carnal they will be sure to do carnal things. The second is the property of those who are spiritual and regenerate, and that is, that such as these they do mind the things of the Spirit; that is, heaven and heavenly things, grace and holiness. First, spiritual persons, they have their minds enlightened to discern of spiritual things. The reason why most kinds of people do so little regard the things of the Spirit, is indeed because they do so little know the things of the Spirit, nor understand that excellency which is in them. That which men do not know, they do not desire. Secondly, as spiritual persons have an enlightening of their understanding to discern these things; so they have a touch also upon their hearts to suit with them, and to correspond unto them. Thirdly, they have, moreover, the Spirit of God Himself dwelling and abiding in them, who is a faithful monitor to them and exciter of them to that which is good. The use of this point to ourselves may he drawn forth into sundry particulars. First, as it calls us to search and examination of our estate in this respect, and to see how it is indeed with us. There is nothing more necessary for Christians, and those that profess religion, than to be able to make it out to themselves that they are such as are truly regenerate and after the Spirit. So again, as for the affection to these things; let us examine that. Men are then said to mind those things indeed when they savour them, and have some relish of them. Now, how is it to this? Alas! there are a great many people that do it not at all. The Word and the sacraments and prayer and the communion of saints, it may be they are present at them, and in a formal and customary manner partakers of them, but they relish no sweetness in them at all. And so likewise for contemplation. What are the things which we chiefly meditate and think upon in our greatest retirements, when we are solitary and alone by ourselves? Is it these things of the Spirit; yea, or no? “O how I love Thy law!” says David, “it is my meditation all the day” (Psalms 119:97). Again, for counsel and contrivance and design. How is it here? What is the business which we do most of all study, and endeavour and beat our brains about? Is it the great things of the world, how to improve ourselves and enlarge ourselves here; or is it to get grace into our hearts? (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
The things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit
I. “The things of the flesh” are the bodily appetites, sympathies, and propensions. These are its great forces moving its members and organs. These are--
1. Good when subordinated to the interests of the soul. When they are controlled by a holy intelligence they are blessed handmaids to the Spirit.
2. Bad when they are allowed to hold empire over the soul. This they do in all unrenewed natures; the curse of humanity is when the body rules the intellect and conscience too. “What shall we eat; what shall we drink?” etc.
II. The things of the Spirit are its moral intuitions, rational dictates, intuitive longings, and varied powers of thought and sentiment. These are--
1. Good when they control the things of the flesh, when they hold the body in absolute subjection--use it as an instrument.
2. Bad when they are devoted to the things of the flesh. They are often thus devoted; souls are everywhere prostituted to animalism. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The opposition between the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit
I. As human to Divine (Matthew 16:23).
II. As earthly to heavenly (Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:2).
III. As sin to holiness (Galatians 5:19-23). (Archdeacon Gifford.)
Minding the things of the flesh
It is not necessary that you mind all the things of the flesh in order to constitute you carnal man. It is enough to fasten this character upon you, that you have given yourself over to the indulgence or the pursuit even so far as one of these things. A sinner may not be a debauchee, and neither the one nor the other may be an aspiring politician. But whatever the reigning passion may be, if it have the effect of attaching you to some one object that is in the world, and which with the world will terminate and perish--then still your mind is in subjection to an idol, and the death of the carnally minded is your inheritance and your doom. Be not deceived, then, ye men, who, engrossed with the cares, and observant of all the sobrieties of business, are not addicted to the influences of dissipation; nor ye, who, heedless of wealth’s accumulations, can mix an occasional generosity with the squanderings of intemperance and riot; nor ye, who, alike exempted from sordid avarice or debasing sensuality, have yet, in pursuit of an ascendency over the mind and the measures of your fellow men, made power the reigning felicity of your existence; nor yet even ye, who, without any settled aim after one or the other of these gratifications, fluctuate in giddy concern from one of the world’s frivolities to another. None of you mind all the things of the flesh; yet each of you mind one or the other of these things, and that to the entire practical exclusion of the things of the Spirit from the preference of your habitual regards. We do not charge you with a devotion of heart to all these things in the world which are opposite to the love of the Father, any more than we charge you with idolatrously falling in obeisance to all the divinities of a heathen polytheism. But still, if only one of these divinities be your God, there were enough to constitute you an idolater, and to convict you of a sacrilegious disavowal of the King who is eternal and immutable. And so, your one earthly appetite, though free from the tyranny of all the others; your habit of ungodliness, though it be the only one that breaks out into visible expression in the history of your life--of itself renders you a carnal man; of itself drives you from the spiritual territory; of itself proves that you are still one of the children of this world; and that you have not passed from death unto life. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
The carnal and spiritual mind
I. The marks of the carnally minded.
1. They “mind the things of the flesh.” The “flesh” is the body, man’s animal nature, the seat of sensual appetite and passion. It is through the organs and the senses of the flesh that we engage in the activities of the world, and participate in its enjoyments or sorrows. “The things of the flesh,” therefore, are all the things of this present life, apart from any connection with that which is unseen and eternal. These are summed up in chap. 1, as “the creature,” which is worshipped and served rather than the Creator. They are spoken of by John as “all that is in the world” (1 John 2:15-16). This “all” is further defined as “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”--covetousness, sensuality, and ambition. To “mind” these things is to think a great deal about them, to set our affections upon them, and to satisfy our souls with their possession (Luke 12:16-20).
(1) The things of the flesh may be guiltily minded, even when the objects of our pursuit are such as may be lawfully desired. Who can complain of our addicting ourselves honestly to the toils of business, or enjoying in moderation the pleasures of the table and the home? To the Christian man they are blessings and means of holiness; to the carnally minded they are curses and snares.
(2) It is not necessary to mind all the things of the flesh in order to be carnally minded. There may be pursuits and pleasures which you hate; but if there be others in which you immerse yourself, it is enough to stamp you as a carnal man. You need not sail on every sea to be a voyager on the water; and so you need not follow after every wickedness to be a child of the devil.
(3) Carnally mindedness refers not to occasional impulses or feelings, but to the habitual bent and disposition of the soul. The carnal man may be, at times, the subject of good desires, and may form good resolutions; while the spiritual man may often have to struggle with the lusts of the flesh, and be for a moment cast down by them. Our real character may be determined by--
(a) Our secret meditations (Proverbs 23:7).
(b) The crises of our history. There are times which compel us to show whether we love God or the world most.
(c) The practical outgrowth of our principles and disposition. We are known by our fruits (1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:10).
2. “To be carnally minded is death.”
(1) Their present state is one of death. The soul is devoid of those affections, experiences, joys, in which the true life of a spirit consists.
(2) Hence their doom in the future is to be banished from God forever. They sow to the flesh, and of the flesh reap corruption. This is the “second death.”
3. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” True, there may be no full consciousness of this, but still it is there ready to be brought out when occasion arises. A man may hate his neighbour and yet not discover his resentment for years; but at length that neighbour may confront him in some such form as shall instantly bring it out.
4. “It is not subject to His law, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” And why? Because they are still unforgiven as to past offences; and because also, in all seeming goodness, there is the total lack of a true and acceptable purpose.
II. The marks of the spiritually minded.
1. They mind the things of the Spirit.
(1) The things which He has revealed, or the spiritual gifts which He has imparted--all that concerns us spiritually and in relation to eternity, in contradistinction from all that concerns us only materially and temporally (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).
(2) All the joys, states, and experiences of our spiritual nature which are produced within us by the realising contemplation of those sublime and enduring realities. Justification, forgiveness, the sense of that forgiveness, sanctification, advancement in the knowledge of God, the peculiar privileges of Divine sonship, together with all the gladdening prospects of ultimate glory.
2. He who minds the things of the Spirit shows it by making constant efforts to acquire them. He takes pleasure in meditating upon them, in conversing about them, and in listening when others describe them. Then he must needs read about them in the Word of God, and must be frequently found in closest communion with God. “To be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
(1) It is “life,” inasmuch as it quickens the soul in its nobles attributes, awakens it to its highest functions, and fills it with its purest pleasures. Not to be spiritually minded leaves the mind of man but partially developed, and shuts up its most Godlike faculties in darkness, torpor, and neglect.
(2) Must not such a state be one of “peace”? The carnal mind can have no peace. It is troubled from both within and without. (T. G. Horton.)
The carnal and spiritual mind
I. The text divides men into two classes and only two. The test of these two classes is the bent and inclination of their minds towards carnal or spiritual things. It is important to determine to which we belong. We cannot do so by any conventional test.
II. The test is carried into the inner man.
1. It is “minding” the things of the flesh or spirit that determines character; what a man is rather than what he does. God looks at the heart, and no outward act can deceive Him.
2. “Minding the things,” etc., includes the exercise of the affections.
III. Man really is what his nature is. The prevailing instincts of the heart determine the external habits of life. Character is determined from within, not from without. A man may live in a church all his life. This will not make him a saint. You may sow wheat and barley and flax in the same soil and under the same conditions, softened by the same shower, warmed by the same sun; but these influences only lead to the development of the different species according to their own intrinsic natures. Circumstances may repress the outward manifestation of character as a man may avoid worldly amusements from a sense of impropriety, etc.; but such abstinence does not prove him to be a spiritual man.
IV. The practical application of this principle. In regard to--
1. Prayer.
2. Reading the Bible.
3. Christ.
4. The world and the things of the world.
5. The unseen world. (P. Strutt.)
Carnal and spiritual mindedness
I. The antithesis of carnal and spiritual mindedness (verse 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. 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 (verses 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 (Psa 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 verse 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.)
The carnal and the spiritual
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.)
The contrasted characters; or, the carnally and spiritually minded
We have here depicted--
I. Those to whom the Christian liberty has not come.
1. Their moral state and character. They are in the flesh. Hence they “mind the things of the flesh,” The flesh has bound down the mind to its sole service (Philippians 3:19; Colossians 3:2; Romans 13:14). Under the dominion of this law they walk (Ephesians 2:2), What, then, is this strangely fascinating power? The term (σάρξ) properly denotes the fleshy part of living animal bodies. It is also sometimes used for the whole human person. And it is clearly used here and elsewhere for fallen and sinful human nature (John 3:6-7; Romans 7:18; Galatians 5:17-21). But why?
(1) Not because our Lord or His apostles held our physical nature to be in itself sinful. In Adam the flesh was as spotless as the spirit, and Christ, “who was made flesh,” was nevertheless sinless (Romans 1:3; Joh 1:14; 1 John 4:2-3; Hebrews 7:26).
(2) Not because sin was supposed to affect the physical constitution only. For it is obvious that the physical part of man, by itself, is altogether incapable of sin. A mere animal cannot transgress a moral law. Sin properly pertains, not to the body, but to the soul (Micah 6:7).
(3) But because--
(a) Sin first found its access to the human will through the medium of bodily sense.
(b) By means of this it still maintains its dominion within the soul.
(c) Man suffers his spiritual faculties, by which the animal nature ought to be governed and transformed, to be delivered over in servitude to the flesh.
2. To be in this sinful condition “is death” (Romans 7:9; Luke 15:24; 1 John 5:12; John 5:40, John 6:53; Ephesians 2:1-5; Romans 6:1-23; Colossians 3:1-4; Romans 7:9-13; Romans 7:24). Man’s true life is not animal, but spiritual. If he attains not to this, or by transgression forfeits it, he does not really live. And so long as he is content with earthly good, he is perpetually sinking down into the “second death.”
3. This state, with its consequent course of life, is death because it is “enmity against God”--is directly subversive of His appointment and order. The true life of intelligent beings must consist in conformity to the Creator’s purpose and arrangements. The carnal mind being of necessity the very antithesis of God’s order, it is not, it never can be, subject to God’s law.
II. The characteristics of those to whom the Christian liberty has come.
1. Their whole course of life is determined and regulated by the Spirit. The new Spirit of life, imparted to them in Christ, has set them “free from the law of sin and death.” They are, indeed, still in the body, but the flesh is but a tabernacle and organ of the spirit. For they now live in the Spirit--“mind” the things of the Spirit, and “walk” according to the Spirit. Not, indeed, that they neglect the body, or despise all earthly good, but even while occupied with mundane things they learn to make them helpful to their true spiritual interests.
2. To be thus spiritually minded--
(1) Is life. It not only tends to, but springs from, and promotes life.
(2) Peace. The carnal mind is at war with God--with all the Divine plans, purposes, and arrangements--and is therefore evermore fruitful of discord and misery. But the “spiritual” mind brings man into harmony with God, and with nature, physical, intellectual, and moral. Then, too, the things with which the spiritual mind is preoccupied, are so serenely Steadfast and sure, as to communicate something of their own placid character to the soul of him who thus lives in familiar fellowship with them.
Conclusion: Observe--
1. That there is no hope of securing the salvation of any man while he continues contented with “the things of the flesh.” The first thing needful is to work in him a living conviction that his present course of life is vain, foolish, and wicked.
2. That the new life in the Spirit can be sustained only by continued attention to its interests. “They that are after the Spirit” do mind “the things of the Spirit,” and such “minding” is “life and peace.” (W. Tyson.)
The contrast between the carnally minded and the spiritually minded
I. External. Two classes of character evident.
1. The one busied about earthly things, and governed by their corrupt inclinations.
2. The other caring for heavenly things, and therefore denying themselves that they may please God.
II. Internal. This difference is essential; in the heart.
1. The one is spiritually dead.
2. The other is alive unto God, and enjoys His unspeakable peace. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The contrast between the unconverted and the regenerate
appears--
I. Is their character.
1. The one is sensual.
2. The other spiritual.
II. Is their experience.
1. The one experiences death and misery.
2. The other life and peace.
III. Is their relation to God.
1. The one is an enemy, and cannot please God.
2. The other a friend, and enjoys communion with God.
IV. Is their prospects.
1. The one must perish, for he is none of Christ’s.
2. The other shall live forever, for he shall be quickened from the grave. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Nature and spirit
Whatever these words may mean one thing is clear--the apostle does teach a radical difference between the physical and the spiritual natures of man. Some philosophers teach that there is no difference between matter and mind; that the operations which we call mental or spiritual, and those which we recognise as physical, are all produced by the same forces, This denial of the distinction between the physical and the spiritual realms, which makes thought only a chemical function, and conscience nothing but a hereditary affection of the nervous system, Paul does not justify. Which is nearer right? Let us hear what a philosopher (Mr. W.T. Harris, of Concord) says about--
I. The law of natural things. “The world of nature, to which man is enslaved by his bodily wants and necessities, is a world of selfishness and cruelty. The means of gratification for one body are obtained and used at the expense of another.” Is not that true?
1. Every natural thing grows at the expense of something else. The sand of the beach is worn from the rocks of the shore by the action of the waves. But what the beach gains the cliffs lose. The corn grows out of the earth, but only at the expense of the soil in which it grows, and of other plants, that stand stunted under its shadow. Just so the body of the animal lives and grows at the expense of other living things.
2. The law of natural growth is the law of all movement or manifestation of physical power. Every force that is expended is borrowed. If I drive one croquet ball against another, the force imparted to the second one is lost by the first one. The fire burns, but it is only as the wood gives up the heat that was latent in it. The oxygen of the air and the carbon of the wood unite to produce the flame; and whatever force is in the flame existed before the fire was kindled.
3. The great physical law which the philosophers call the law of the correlation of forces, or the conservation of energy, governs all these changes. Every steam engine is an example of the conversion of heat into motion; every hot axle is an instance of the conversion of motion into heat; every machine belt from which the spark flies to the knuckle shows heat converted into electricity; every building set on fire by lightning shows electricity converted into heat. What is lost by one form is gained by another.
II. The law of spiritual things. “The law of spirit is harmony, and not mere contention. All spiritual struggle must have reconciliation for its object. The equal shall look in the face of equal, and through mutual recognition each shall reinforce the other. Thus each is doubly strong; strong in himself and strong in his friend. Combination is the great principle of spirit, and its forms are numerous in the practical and in the theoretical world.” This statement will also be verified by your experience.
1. You and I sit down hungry to a scanty meal. There is barely enough for one. If my needs are satisfied you get nothing; if you are filled I must go hungry. But you and I sit down with eager minds to talk about some moral or spiritual truth. It is a truth known to me, but unknown to you, and in our conversation you gain from me this truth. Have I deprived myself of anything in imparting to you this truth? On the contrary, I have gained by giving.
(1) I have a stronger hold upon the truth than I had. If I give a man my coat I have one coat the less; but if I give a man my thought it is less likely now that I shall part with it. I have not only a stronger hold upon it, but a greater joy in it. Two faggots burn more freely than one; and my enthusiasm, in the pursuit and possession of this truth, is rekindled when you take fire.
(2) Truth grows in the mind itself by communicating it. Not only do the mental, like the bodily powers, gain strength by exercising them; there is a kind of increase here to which the body affords no analogy. The most productive mind is the most prolific mind. Production fertilises the intellect. It is when the mind is paying out its wealth most lavishly that its revenues are largest.
2. Other spiritual gifts besides knowledge follow in their growth the same law.
(1) Hope is increased by imparting it. If I have strong confidence in the success of any enterprise, and if I succeed in inspiring others with my confidence, it is not at any expense to my own expectation. The same thing is true of--
(2) Courage. A brave man inspires others to heroism, but his own courage is not diminished when it enters into other souls; it is stimulated and invigorated.
(3) The one central element of the spiritual life, love--the love that is the fulfilling of the law.
3. We say sometimes in our prayers that God is not impoverished by giving nor enriched by withholding. That is true of Him because He is a Spirit, and because the law of His nature and of His action is a spiritual law. But man is a spirit also; and the saying is therefore true of man. By giving man is not impoverished--by giving spiritual gifts. A man’s temporal possessions may sometimes be diminished by bestowing them, but the man’s true self is enlarged by every bounty that it disposes.
III. Have we not verified the doctrine taught by the Concord philosopher? And in doing so have we not found the strongest reason for believing with Paul that there is a radical difference between the physical and the spiritual world. Do not the body and the spirit belong to different kingdoms? Is there not a higher nature in man which is not subject to the law of the conservation of energy, and of which physical science knows absolutely nothing? And is there not, therefore, reason for believing that the death of the body, which is under physical law, is not the death of the higher nature, which is not under physical law; that the spirit of man may continue to exist after the body has ceased to exist?
1. Man is not wholly mortal, but neither is he wholly immortal. He is flesh as well as spirit. In which of these realms does he chiefly live? Is his ruling love given to the things of the flesh or to the things of the Spirit? If the former is true of him, then the law of his nature is the law of the lower realm. The things on which his heart is chiefly set are things which he can only have by depriving his fellows. The very condition of his life is warfare, and the warfare into which his ruling choice enlists him is fierce and fatal; sooner or later the devourers themselves must be devoured. The minding of the flesh is death.
2. It is a sad and bitter life that any man leads who sets his chief affections on the possessions and goods of the material world. Because he is a spiritual being his ruling choice ought to take a higher range. The gains that are most precious to him are those that fall to him while he is enriching others.
3. It is quite possible for man to carry this spiritual force down into the lower realm, there to subjugate the devourers. It is possible to substitute the principle of communion and combination for the principle of competition in the getting and the using of material things. That, indeed, is the very law of progress in civilisation. And the thousand wars of old will never cease, and the thousand years of peace will never come, till men stop putting their trust in the methods of competition and begin to build the fabric of their industrial and social life on the principle of cooperation--till they walk no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit. That day will not be hastened by disputing or fighting or legislating, any more than the growing of the grass will be hastened by firing cannon over your lawn, or marching troops across it, or making speeches to it. But you and I, in our time, can have something of the light and glory of it in our homes and in our lives if we will only treasure the truth we have found today. (W. Gladden.)
Spiritual affinity
He that delights in God doth not much delight in anything else. The world appears in an eclipse. The astronomer saith, if it were possible for a man to be lifted up as high as the moon, the earth would seem to him as a little point. If we could be lifted to heaven in our affections, all earthly delights would seem as nothing. When the woman of Samaria had met with Christ, down goes the pitcher; she leaves that behind. He who delights in God, as having tasted the sweetness in Him, doth not much mind the pitcher--he leaves the world behind.