Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Romans 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 8:13 for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever. |
Bible Question: What does it mean to live according to the flesh? Does this scripture mean that if we continue to sin or repeat the same sin over and over we will die? This scripture confused me because it seems to be saying that works have an affect on whether we have eternal life or not. Forgive me if I am misunderstanding the scripture. I am a fairly new Christian and sometimes it's hard for me to understand. Thank you! |
Bible Answer: To me, it simply means to give more thought to the ways of the world which leans to temptation to sin moreso than to "think on Heavenly things" as encouraged by the whole Bible. A person who suspects they're thinking too much on the flesh must devote him/herself to reading and studying (two very different approaches) of God's Word AND they must increase their prayer life. It's also a good idea to spend as much as possible of your personal time with christians instead of spending it with unbelievers. This close association with christians will increase the tendancy to repeat visually what we're reading about in our Bibles. That's why it's so vital to be a part of God's family and planted in a congregation and faithfully attend meetings and fellowships together. I know this so very well because I've tried both and failed miserably at the art of spending time with unbelievers with the intent that I would rub off on them. Instead the great tendancy is they rub off on us. We must see ourselves as "sanctified by God, a royal priesthood." That means we're set apart from the world; we're still in the world but we should see ouselves as not being of this world but transform ourselves by renewing our mind by reading over and over again God's Word. Hope this helps and God bless. --Rowdy |