5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
A true Christian’s mind is alert to the things of the Spirit. He is alive to God. Those living according to the Spirit aspire for the things of the Spirit. The Christian chooses to establish his thinking around the things of the Spirit.
The person whose bearing is according to the Spirit lives his whole existence around who and what God is. This is the very opposite of a self-centered orientation. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit gives an affinity to believers to orient to the things of God.
PRINCIPLE:
There are only two classes of people from God’s viewpoint.
APPLICATION:
God has only two classes of people: (1) lost (2) and saved. The bearing of the non-Christian revolves around self, while the orientation of Christians is fundamentally toward God.
Christians do indeed fall to the sins of the flesh even though their hearts are toward God. One day they will be free from the flesh completely. In the meantime, we struggle with the sins of the flesh.
Je 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
The idea of sins of the flesh relates to far more than overt sins. Flesh sins include the desire for recognition, the stimulus of someone telling us how wonderful we are. It is anything that distracts us from thinking like God wants us to think. We want to feel sorry for ourselves because we have our eyes on other people and what they think of us. Because of this we wear our feelings on our sleeves. We want others to believe what great people we are. These are temptations that draw us away from our fundamental orientation to God.
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