Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires;(A) but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.(B) The mind governed by the flesh is death,(C) but the mind governed by the Spirit is life(D) and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God;(E) it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh(F) cannot please God.

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5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.

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For those who live[a] according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh,(A) but those who live[b] according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh(B) is death,(C) but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile(D) to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh(E) cannot please God.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 8:5 Or those who are
  2. Romans 8:5 Or those who are

For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on (A)the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, (B)the things of the Spirit. (C)For the mind [a]set on the flesh is (D)death, but the mind [b]set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind [c]set on the flesh is (E)hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are (F)in the flesh cannot please God.

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 8:6 Lit of the
  2. Romans 8:6 Lit of the
  3. Romans 8:7 Lit of the

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.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

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