Having a Spiritual Mindset—Lectionary Reflection for Lent 5A (Romans 8:6-11)

Romans 8:6-11 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

                ******************************

                One of the concerns that Christians have faced down through the ages is the body/spirit (mind) dualism. This dualism, which drew from several sources including Greek philosophy, profoundly influenced the development of Christian theology and practice in the first several centuries of the church’s existence. Among the practices that issued from it was a strong embrace in certain sectors of asceticism, especially as it took form in some types of monasticism. This dualism led to a denial of the value of human bodies, which needed to be kept in check. As a result, it created unhealthy attitudes toward things related to the body, especially matters of sexuality. While there were philosophical contributors to this dualism, we also see it present in the teachings of Paul, who was known for emphasizing the contrast between flesh and spirit. So, if we are to avoid unhealthy views of the body, we will need to be careful how we interpret passages like the one we have before us in this reading from Romans 8. That said, it is not surprising that this passage from Romans 8 was chosen as a reading for Lent, a season that has ascetic tendencies.

                The opening word in this reading from Romans 8 declares that “to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). Since I do not believe that Paul was a gnostic, we need to be careful how we read this passage because it can be read through a gnostic lens and make sense, leading to a denial of the value of the body. That does not seem to be Paul’s view, since he does recognize that to be human requires bodily existence. Thus, as Jerome Creach notes regarding Paul’s concerns about the body: “Since the world is dominated by forces that oppose God’s purpose, Paul recognizes that our bodily existence can be dominated by the tendency to rebel against God” [Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (WJK Books, Kindle p. 101)].  

If we read this passage in its larger context, we hear Paul begin chapter 8 by telling the reader that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ because in his death, he has set us free from the law of sin and death. Therefore, the larger message here is one of mindset or perhaps orientation of life. Is our mind set on the things of God or the flesh? By flesh, Paul seems to have in mind attitudes toward life that run contrary to the ways of God. Another way of putting this is spiritual narcissism. A narcissistic personality centers everything around themselves. If this is true, then there is no room for God in our lives. Sarah Heaner Lancaster suggests this is a question of allegiance, such that “there is no neutrality. One either lives for God or not, and by not living for God one displays loyalty to another dominion.” [Lancaster, Romans, p. 134]. In doing so, we settle for lesser things, which ultimately leads to death.

                So, if we set our minds on the flesh that leads to death, because it is hostile to the things of God. By that, Paul means that when our minds are focused on the flesh, that is, having loyalty to fleshly impulses, we refuse to submit to God’s law. Therefore, one is unable to please God. What we read here in Romans 8 mirrors what we saw in the previous week’s reading from Ephesians 5:8-14, though the terminology there involved a darkness/light dualism. We find another similar contrast in 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul speaks of the old creation giving way to the new creation. In all of these images, we see a concern about a brokenness existing in the world that one is to leave behind as they embrace Christ, who frees them from the clutches of this old age. So, here the contrast is between flesh and spirit.

                Paul reminds the Roman Christians, members of a community that he had not yet visited. In many ways, Romans serves as a letter of introduction on Paul’s part. He wants them to know what his message is, though it comes off as a bit didactic and even condescending at times. That said, we read it nearly two millennia later, wondering what it might say to us. What does it mean for us who, according to Paul, no longer inhabit the flesh but are in the Spirit, since God’s Spirit inhabits us. To reinforce this message, Paul tells the readers that if they do not have the Spirit of Christ, that is, if the Spirit does not indwell them, then they do not belong to Christ. When it comes to defining the flesh, we discover that Paul has in mind sin. By sin, he doesn’t simply mean doing bad things, but rather he has in mind a power, a force, that resists the things of God. So, as Michael Gorman notes, “For God’s children in Christ, the Spirit replaces Sin as the indwelling power that determines a person’s, or a community’s direction and behavior” [Gorman, Romans, p. 142]. When the Spirit replaces Sin, this is life-giving.

                Paul continues the discussion of death and life, suggesting to the Roman believers that even if the body is dead in sin, if Christ is in them, then they are made alive in the Spirit. Therefore, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). Here we have an eschatological vision that affirms the resurrection of one’s body because the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from the dead is within them. So, as Michael Gorman writes: “Although the emphasis here is on the present experience of new life, freed from the power of Sin and thus from death-like existence (recall 6:4-6), the future tense verb in the phrase ‘will give life to your mortal bodies’ (8:11) at least hints at future, bodily resurrection (as in 6:5, 8)” [Gorman, Romans, p. 200].

                The cruciform focus of life in the present, where one seeks to participate in the life of Christ such that the Spirit might indwell us, has a future implication. That being the resurrection of our bodies. This is a fitting message for Lent, which is designed to prepare us for Easter’s glories by getting our minds set on the things of God rather than the things that belong to the flesh (Sin).