📜WEB · Romans 8:5
What does Romans 8:5 mean?
"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
— Romans 8:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;
because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.
Explanation
Romans 8:5 draws a stark contrast between two ways of living and thinking. Paul is saying that people orient their minds according to whatever governs their lives. Those who live "according to the flesh" fix their thoughts, desires, and attention on fleshly things—the appetites, priorities, and values that belong to human nature apart from God. Those who live "according to the Spirit," by contrast, set their minds on the things the Spirit values—God's will, righteousness, and the life He gives. The verse is describing not just occasional choices but a settled mental disposition, a habitual direction of thought that flows from what actually governs a person's life.
This verse comes from Paul's letter to the Roman church, likely written around AD 57, to a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers he had not yet visited in person. Romans 8 stands at a pivotal point in the letter, following Paul's extended discussion in chapters 6–7 about the believer's struggle with sin and the inability of the law to produce righteousness. Having explained that condemnation is removed for those in Christ (Romans 8:1), Paul now explains the practical difference the Spirit's presence makes. He is contrasting two spheres of existence: life "in the flesh," meaning life dominated by sinful human nature acting independently of God, and life "in the Spirit," meaning life empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer.
Theologically, this verse teaches that the mind is not neutral—it always follows its master. Paul is not simply saying that fleshly people think
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