“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. — Life (ζῆν, zēn) and death (θανάτῳ, thanatō) again stand in opposition. Living σὰρξ (sarks, "according to the flesh") issues in θάνατος (thanatos, "death"); mortifying τὰ πρᾶξις τοῦ σώματος (ta praxis tou sōmatos, "deeds of the body") by the Spirit issues in ζῆν (zēn, "life"). The νεκρόω (nekrōō, "put to death") is the Spirit's work through the believer's obedience—a cooperation of divine grace and human will.
Church Fathers on Romans 8:13
After showing how great the reward of a spiritual life is, and that it makes Christ to dwell in us, and that it quickens our mortal bodies, and wings them to heaven, and renders the way of virtue easier, he next fitly introduces an exhortation to this purpose. “Therefore” we ought “not to live after the flesh.” But this is not what he says, for he words it in a much more striking and powerful way, thus, “we are debtors to the Spirit.” For saying, “we are debtors not to the…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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