Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Read Chapter 8
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is right and clear that we are not obliged to follow Adam, who lived according to the flesh, and who by being the first to sin left us an inheritance of sin. On the contrary, we ought rather to obey the law of Christ who, as was demonstrated above, has redeemed us spiritually from death. We are debtors to him who has washed our spirits, which had been sullied by carnal sins, in baptism, who has justified us and who has made us children of God. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
T with spiritual vigour, lest, while we are turned back again to the conversation of the old man, we be entangled in deadly snares, even as the apostle, with foresight and wholesomeness, forewarned us of this very thing, and said: "Therefore, brethren, let us not live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall begin to die; but if ye, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God."
Once again, Paul is not speaking here about the nature of the flesh…. For in many ways we are indebted to that. We have to give it food, warmth, rest, medicine, clothing and a thousand other things. In order to show us that this is not what he is talking about, Paul adds the words: “to live according to the flesh.” … It is not to take charge of our life. The flesh must follow, not lead, and it must receive the laws of the Spirit, not seek to control us.
