Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.
All Commentaries on Mark 14:38 Go To Mark 14
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
He clearly acknowledged that his “soul was sorrowful, even unto death,” and his flesh weak. His intention was to show, from his troubled soul and weak flesh, that both his soul and body were fully human. For some have wrongly asserted that either the flesh or soul of Christ might be entirely different from ours. He sought by an extraordinary exhibition of the bodysoul interaction, to show that neither body nor soul has any power at all of itself apart from the spirit. This is why he states first that the spirit is willing, so that you may understand that you have within you the spirit’s strength and not merely the weakness of the flesh. From this it is hoped that you may learn what to do under challenge, by what means to do it, and how to order priorities. The weak must be brought under the strong— the flesh under the spirit. This will help you avoid making excuses, as you are now prone to do, for the weakness of your flesh while failing to understand the strength of the spirit.
