"Live... According to the Spirit."

I ask for the grace to receive whatever we need for today.  May our troubled hearts be opened, my our ears really hear, may we be transformed and lead lives of transformation, seeking justice, loving kindness and walking humbly.


Romans 8:5-8
⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit^* set their minds on the things of the Spirit.^{* 6}To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit^* is life and peace. ⁷For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, ⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.


1) "...according to the Spirit;" "...set their minds on things of the Spirit;" "...to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace;" "...life and peace;" "...to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace;"


2) Once again, "flesh" and "spirit" are not meant in anyway literally.  That would lead us into a dualism that is foreign to first century Hebrew ideology.  Paul is talking about what Jesus referred to as "worldly things" and "divine things."  Today, we might think of the "ego"  and the "higher self."  Thomas Merton would say the "false self" and the "true self," in which the "true self" is identity as a child of God, made in the image and likeness of Christ, that identity in which we are all One and able to love our neighbour "as" our self (not "like" our self) in which the illusion of estrangement and alienation from neighbour is revealed as an illusion, the curtain is removed and we can experience that we are all members of the same body.  "To se the mind on the ego is death, but to set the mind on the true self is life and peace."  To set the mind on the ego is to cling to alienation, estrangement, separation.  To se the mind on the true self is to be truly free, to maximize empathy and a capacity to live out a life of genuine compassion.  True life and peace become real.  The ego likes to reassert itself.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To let go of the false self and commit to the true self, to commit to life and peace.


"Holy One, lead us to life and peace in the Holy Spirit."


Breathprayer: "Live... according to the Spirit."