For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Read Chapter 8
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
The wisdom of the flesh is death because sin is serious and it is through sin that this death comes. It is called wisdom, even though it is a foolish thing, because to worldly people sins against the law of God which are conceived, whether in thought or in deed, on the basis of what is visible appear as wisdom, especially because those who sin are full of energy and cleverness. The fact that they take so much trouble over it makes them appear wise, even though there is nothing more foolish than sinning. Moreover, there is yet another wisdom of the flesh which, puffed up as it is by earthly reasoning, denies the possibility of miracles. Therefore it laughs at the virgin birth and at the resurrection of the flesh. The wisdom of the Spirit, on the other hand, is true wisdom which leads to life and peace…. Paul did not say that the flesh is hostile but rather that “the wisdom of the flesh” is. “The wisdom of the flesh” means, in the first place, any argument about the unknown which men hav...
“To set the mind on the Spirit is life.” For error, imprudence and ignorance are impassioned, selfrebellious, selfcontradictory. And because of this “to set the mind on the flesh,” which is imprudence, is death, because it does not know God. Therefore, “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” ..
Animal men, again, are instructed in animal things; such men, namely, as are established by their works, and by a mere faith, while they have not perfect knowledge. We of the Church, they say, are these persons.
But the condemnation of sin is the acquittal of the flesh, just as its non-condemnation subjugates it to the law of sin and death. In like manner, he called "the carnal mind "first "death"
