For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
All Commentaries on Romans 7:5 Go To Romans 7
John Chrysostom
AD 407
You see what we had to gain from our former husband! Paul does not say: “when we were in the law,” because that would merely lend a hand to heretics [who wanted to deny the oracles of the Old Testament] but “when we were in the flesh,” that is, when we were living a sinful and carnal life…. In order to not accuse the flesh Paul does not say that our members were at work but that sinful passions were at work in our members. This was to show that the origin of the trouble was not in our members but in the thoughts which made use of them…. The soul ranks as a performer and the flesh as a harp which produces sound according to the performer’s direction. If the tune is discordant, the fault is with the performer, not with the instrument.
