Romans 8:5

they that are This "beingafter the flesh" is the state of which "walkingafter the flesh" is the exhibition and proof. St Paul here, and in a measure to the close of Romans 8:11, expands and illustrates the difference between the past and present state of the Christian.

after the flesh i.e. obeying it, (as the organ of sin;) making it their rule, in spite of their knowledge of right and wrong.

do mind Same word as Colossians 3:2, where E. V. has "set your affection on." It means far more than to "like," or "care for;" it indicates the full preoccupation of thought and will with a chosen and engrossing object. Such, according to St Paul, is the natural state of men, as regards any real bias of will and love to the trueclaims of the trueGod.

the things of the flesh All things that the unregenerate nature prefers to the "things above," whether in themselves guilty or innocent.

they that are after the Spirit Ruled and determined by His awakening, regenerating, illuminating presence; characterized by the fact that He dwells in them. It is plain (a) that St Paul regards the two classes as mutually exclusive, and together exhaustive of mankind; (b) that he makes the "being in the Spirit" to be a strictly supernatural state, the result of a Divine Indwelling once unknown to the soul, but now real and living; and (c) that this state is, in his teaching, an absolutely necessary condition of the true "sonship" of men towards God. Further, he does not mean by it a state of unnatural exaltation, (for nothing can be more practical than his view of daily life and duty; see ch. 12. &c., &c.,) nor of freedom from trial, (Romans 8:17,) nor of absence of inner conflict with sin (Romans 8:13). He means a state in which the will is decisively roused to that conflict, by the knowledge and love of God.