Romans 8:1-11 Commentary

Few things offend 21^st century western sensibilities more than what our culture perceives of as closed minds. The mirror image of that is the high value that many of our contemporaries at least claim to attach to open minds. Perhaps especially North Americans and Europeans claim to abhor closemindedness and celebrate open-mindedness.

It is, of course, a claim that is highly controversial at best. Already in the late 80’s Professor Alan Bloom wrote a book entitled, The Closing of the American Mind. A reviewer suggests that Bloom especially laments how Americans’ “creed of tolerance and openness is really a closemindedness.”

In this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson Paul uses some form of the Greek word phroneo (translated as “mind) three times in verses 5-7 alone. In doing so he identifies two kinds of “minds.” The apostle links one to what he refers to as the “sinful nature.” He links the other to the Spirit.

As preachers prayerfully delve into Romans 8:1-11, they would be wise to first explore with their hearers just what Paul refers to as the “mind” here. It may be fair to say that most westerners think of the mind as the seat of our intellect. It’s that which we use to solve problems or understand ideas.

That’s not, however, the kind of mind to which Paul refers in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. Phronousin (5) is not a noun, but a verb. It may actually refer to the act of evaluating or observing. When the apostle speaks of the “mind,” then, he may actually be referring more to a kind of mindset than the seat of our intellect.

Paul introduces two opposing mindsets early in Romans 8. In verse 2 he speaks of the “Spirit of life (Pneumatos tes zoes) as having “set [us] free (eleutherosen) from the law (nomou) of sin and death (hamartias kai tou thanatou).” In doing so, the apostle sets in opposition to each other two mighty forces: the Spirit and sin.

In verse 4 Paul goes on to insist that Jesus’ friends “do not live according to the sinful nature (kata sarka) but according to the Spirit (kata pneuma).” In doing so he insists that God’s people don’t let our sinful nature control our actions, words and thoughts. We, instead, submit every square inch of our lives to the Spirit’s leading.

Some people, Paul mourns in our Epistolary Lesson, set their minds on what the sinful nature desires. The “sinful” (sarkos) mind of which Paul speaks seems to refer to a mindset that is characterized by rebellion against God and God’s purposes. It’s a way of thinking about people and things that’s directed not by the Holy Spirit, but by the evil one and his allies, sin and death.

That sinful mind, Paul laments in verse 6, is “death” (thanatos). It isn’t just controlled by the power that is death. It is, says the apostle, death. Among the many things preachers might say about that loaded concept, we might at least say that the sinful mind relentlessly plunges toward the death that is separation from God, not just in this life, but forevermore.

The sinful mind, Paul adds in verse 7, is “hostile to God” (echthra eis Theon). However, he uses a noun rather than verb or adverb. That at least suggests that the sinful mind is not just hostile to God. It’s also the embodiment of such hostility. Preachers might even claim that a sinful mind is hostility to God incarnate.

That hostility, Paul goes on to write, manifests itself in a number of ways. It doesn’t submit (hypotassetai) to God’s law (7). In fact, a mindset that is hostile to God simply can’t subject itself to God’s law. It is, after all, controlled by dark forces that are completely opposed to God and God’s ways. In fact, according to verse 8, any mind that is hostile to God simply cannot “please (aresai) God.” This mindset is closeminded because it is controlled by sin.

In Romans 8, however, Paul also sets another way of thinking about people and things alongside that which sin controls. It’s that mindset which the Spirit controls. God’s dearly beloved people who live “in accordance with the Spirit (kata pneuma) have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (5).

That which controls their perspective and ways of thinking and acting is, in other words, not the “unholy trinity” of Satan, sin and death. Instead the Spirit shapes and directs Jesus’ friends’ mindset. We, as a result, desire what the Spirit desires. God’s adopted sons and daughters long for that for which the Spirit longs.

Of course, preachers want to be honest about these longings. After all, Romans 8’s Paul isn’t being a triumphalist who claims that Christians only and always desire what the Spirit desires. He, in fact, just admitted that “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (7:21).

Yet Paul’s struggles with sin’s persistent power shouldn’t surprise anyone. A sinful mindset is part of sin’s effect on us. Even the saintliest Christians can’t simply conjure up God’s perspective on people and things. We can’t, as the biblical scholar Mary Hinkle Shore writes, summon up such a mindset by the force of our will.

So what might Paul be implying in this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson? At least that the Spirit fully equips Jesus’ followers in whom the Spirit lives to view people and things the way God views them. Yes, we still sin and fall far short of God’s glory. Yet Christians have no good excuses for failing to adopt the Spirit’s perspective. As a result, God’s dearly beloved people leap into the loving arms of God’s grace when we realize that we don’t set our minds on what the Spirit desires.

“The mind controlled by the Spirit,” adds Paul in verse 6, “is life (zoe) and peace (eirene).” The Spirit-directed mindset isn’t, in other words, just characterized by life and peace. Much like we might say that the mindset of hostility toward God is such hostility incarnate, so the mindset the Spirit controls is life and peace made manifest.

Paul returns to this lively theme in verse 10. “If Christ is in you … your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Life characterizes not just Christians’ mindset, but also our spirits. Our spirits are enlivened by the Spirit. What’s more, the apostle writes in verse 11, “he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit.” In other words, it’s not just Jesus’ friends “spirits” that the Spirit enlivens. Someday soon the Spirit will also graciously enliven our whole persons.

Illustration

In his book, A Rumor of War, Phillip Caputo writes about how his training as a Marine affected his mindset. A year before going through bootcamp, he notes, “I would have seen the rolling Virginia countryside through the eyes of an English major who enjoyed reading the Romantic poets.

“Now I had the clearer, more pragmatic vision of an infantry officer. Landscape was no longer scenery to me, it was terrain, and I judged it for tactical rather than for aesthetic value. Having been drilled constantly to look for concealment and cover, I could see dips and folds in a stretch of ground that would have appeared utterly flat to a civilian. If I saw a hill –‘high ground’ – I automatically began planning how to attack or defend it …”