{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5520","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":17,"verse_to":17},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: The fact is that both are good: the spirit is good and the flesh too is good. And the whole person who consists of both, one ruling and one obeying, is indeed good but a changeable good. Yet these changing goods could not arise were it not for the immutable good, which is the source of every created good, whether small or great. But however small might be one particular good, it is nonetheless made by the one incomparably good. Yet however great, it is in no way comparable to the greatness of its Maker. But in this human nature, good as it is in origin and constitution, there is now war, because there is not yet salvation.<br/><i>— On Continence 18</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: To the body of this death then is understood to be owing the circumstance that there is in our members another law which wars against the law of the mind, so long as the flesh lusts against the spirit—without, however, subjugating the mind, inasmuch as on its side, too, the spirit has a concupiscence contrary to the flesh. Thus, although the actual law of sin partly holds the flesh in captivity (whence comes its resistance to the law of the mind), still it has not an absolute empire in our body, notwithstanding its mortal state, since it refuses obedience to its desires. For in the case of hostile armies between whom there is an earnest conflict, even the side which is inferior in the fight usually holds a something which it has captured; and although in some such way there is somewhat in our flesh which is kept under the law of sin, yet it has before it the hope of redemption: and then there will remain not a particle of this corrupt concupiscence; but our flesh, healed of that diseased plague, and wholly clad in immortality, shall live for evermore in eternal blessedness.<br/><i>— On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.35</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Now let us see whether we anywhere read about the flesh being contrary in the baptized also. And here, I ask, to whom did the apostle say, \"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye do not the things that ye would?\" He wrote this, I apprehend, to the Galatians, to whom he also says, \"He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?\" It appears, therefore, that it is to Christians that he speaks, to whom, too, God had given His Spirit: therefore, too, to the baptized. Observe, therefore, that even in baptized persons the flesh is found to be contrary; so that they have not that capacity which, our author says, is inseparably implanted in nature.<br/><i>— On Nature and Grace 61</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: People think that the apostle here denies that we possess free will. They do not perceive what he is saying to them: If they refuse to hold fast to the grace they have received, through which alone they are able to walk in the Spirit and avoid fulfilling the desires of the flesh, they will not be able to do as they wish.… It is love that \"fulfills the law.\" But \"the wisdom of the flesh\" by following temporal goods opposes spiritual love. How can it be made subject to the law of God (that is, freely and obediently fulfill righteousness and not be opposed to it) when even as it tries it must be vanquished? The flesh imagines that it can procure a greater temporal good by iniquity than by maintaining righteousness. The first stage, the natural life of a human being, precedes the law, when no wrongdoing or malice is prohibited. The natural being makes no resistance at all to base desires, since there is no one to prohibit them. The second stage is under law before grace, when he is indeed prohibited and tries to abstain from sin but is overcome because he does not yet love righteousness for God's sake and its own but wishes to observe it in the hope of earthly acquisitions. And therefore, when he sees righteousness on one side and temporal good on another, he is dragged by the weight of his temporal desire and thus forsakes righteousness, which he was trying to maintain only in order to have that which he now sees that he is going to lose by maintaining it. The third stage of life is the one under grace, when no temporal good is preferred to righteousness. This cannot happen except by spiritual love, which the Lord has taught by his example and bestowed by grace. For in this life, even if there remain desires of the flesh from the mortality of the body, yet they do not subdue the mind to consent to sin.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 46 [1B.5.17]</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: And perhaps the two tables themselves may be the prophecy of the two covenants. They were accordingly mystically renewed, as ignorance along with sin abounded. The commandments are written, then, doubly, as appears, for twofold spirits, the ruling and the subject. \"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 6</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Through the corporeal spirit, then, man perceives, desires, rejoices, is angry, is nourished, grows. It is by it, too, that thoughts and conceptions advance to actions. And when it masters the desires, the ruling faculty reigns. The commandment, then, \"Thou shalt not lust,\" says, thou shalt not serve the carnal spirit, but shall rule over it; \"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,\" and excites to disorderly conduct against nature; \"and the Spirit against the flesh\" exercises sway, in order that the conduct of the man may be according to nature.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 6</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: For he hates the inordinate affection of the flesh, which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains a noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation and nutriment of the flesh. He also withstands the corporeal soul, putting a bridle-bit on the restive irrational spirit: \"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.\"<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 7</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Moreover, we ask that the will of God may be done both in heaven and in earth, each of which things pertains to the fulfilment of our safety and salvation. For since we possess the body from the earth and the spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven; and in both-that is, both in body and spirit-we pray that God's will may be done. For between the flesh and spirit there is a struggle; and there is a daily strife as they disagree one with the other, so that we cannot do those very things that we would, in that the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, while the flesh lusts after earthly and temporal things; and therefore we ask that, by the help and assistance of God, agreement may be made between these two natures, so that while the will of God is done both in the spirit and in the flesh, the soul which is new-born by Him may be preserved. This is what the Apostle Paul openly and manifestly declares by his words: \"The flesh,\" says he, \"lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, murders, hatred, variance, emulations, wraths, strife, seditions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence, chastity.\" And therefore we make it our prayer in daily, yea, in continual supplications, that the will of God concerning us should be done both in heaven and in earth; because this is the will of God, that earthly things should give place to heavenly, and that spiritual and divine things should prevail.<br/><i>— Treatise IV On the Lord's Prayer</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: What are those carnal things which beget death, and what are the spiritual things which lead to life. Paul to the Galatians: \"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other, that ye cannot do even those things which ye wish. But the deeds of the flesh are manifest, which are: adulteries, fornications, impurities, filthiness, idolatries, sorceries, murders, hatreds, strifes, emulations, animosities, provocations, hatreds, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: with respect to which I declare, that they who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, continency, chastity. For they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with its vices and lusts.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews.</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: But the third angel (Naas), by the soul which came from Edem upon Moses, as also upon all men, obscured the precepts of Baruch, and caused his own peculiar injunctions to be hearkened unto. For this reason the soul is arrayed against the spirit, and the spirit against the soul.<br/><i>— Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: The \"flesh struggles against the Spirit: \" that is, the literal and flat understanding of Scripture fights against allegory and spiritual doctrine.… And the carnal sense of Scripture, which cannot be fulfilled (since we cannot do all that is written), shows that we do not have it in our power to fulfill the law when even if we wish to follow the letter we are prevented by its impossibility.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 3.5.17</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 17.) For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These indeed are opposed to one another, so that you may not do the things that you wish. The flesh takes pleasure in present and short-lived things, while the spirit is concerned with eternal and future things. In the midst of this conflict, the soul stands, having in its power both good and evil, to will and not to will, but not having the very will and not will itself as perpetual: because it is possible that, when it has consented to the flesh and has done its works, it may, by repentance, unite itself to the spirit and perform its works. This is therefore what he says: These things oppose each other, that is, flesh and spirit, so that you do not do whatever you want. Not because we have our own judgment, by which we agree either with the flesh or with the spirit, but because what we do is not properly ours, but the work itself is attributed to either the flesh or the spirit. It is a great labor and dispute to find some middle ground, having shown the works of the flesh and the spirit, which seem to pertain to neither the flesh nor the spirit. We are called carnal when we give ourselves entirely to pleasure. We are called spiritual when we follow the Holy Spirit, that is, when we are instructed and taught by Him. I consider philosophers to be animalistic, as they believe that their own thoughts are wisdom, about which it is rightly said: But the natural man does not receive what belongs to the Spirit. For it is foolishness to him. To make this clearer, let us consider some examples: Flesh, earth, soul, gold, spirit, fire. As long as gold is in the earth, it loses its name, and is called by the earth with which it is mixed. But when separated from the soil, it takes on both the appearance and the name of gold, yet it is not yet proven. However, if it is heated by fire and purified, then it receives the splendor of gold and the dignity of its adornment. In the same way, the soul, existing between earth and fire, that is, between flesh and spirit, when it surrenders to the flesh, is called flesh; when it belongs to the spirit, it is called spirit. But if he believes in his own thought and thinks that he can find truth without the grace of the Holy Spirit, he is marked as a base metal, by the animal nature of man. This place can be better explained as a single series and body, connecting and not disagreeing with itself. Brothers, you have been called from the servitude of the Law to the freedom of the Gospel. But I beg you, do not abuse your freedom as a license, and do not think that everything that is allowed is beneficial to you, and do not provide opportunity for the flesh and for indulgence. Rather, learn that this liberty is greater than servitude, so that what before the Law forced from the unwilling, now you may serve one another through charity. For indeed, all that burden of the Law and its many precepts have not been so much abolished by the grace of the Gospel as they have been condensed into one short command of charity, that we may love our neighbor as ourselves. For whoever loves their neighbor fulfills the whole law (Matthew 22), giving them good and not causing harm. But if love ceases, and there is no charity, through which the whole law is fulfilled, there will be a kind of public robbery among men, as they rage against each other, devouring and devouring themselves. But you, brothers, according to the spiritual law, must live, so that you do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the flesh fears cold, rejects hunger, weakens through sleeplessness, flames with lust, and desires soft and pleasant things. On the other hand, the spirit desires the things that are contrary to the flesh and that can weaken it. And so it happens that, not because you have ceased to be under the slavery of the Law, you think you are free: but know rather that you are retained by the law of nature, because even if the law does not command, and nature has ceased, your will, namely your actions, are not immediately followed, but you are often compelled to do them, the flesh resisting against the spirit, which you do not want to do. From which, brothers, I beseech you, not to give your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but rather to serve the Spirit, so that you may begin to do those things which you desire, and owe nothing to the law, that is, not to be under the flesh. For you will be able to truly have the freedom of the law abolished in the Gospel, when the flesh no longer compels you to do what you do not desire, but serving the Spirit, you have taught yourselves not to be under the Law. And because we have begun to explain this passage with a twofold understanding above, what we have omitted must be addressed. The flesh desires against the spirit, that is, a carnal understanding of the stories and scriptures, which resists allegory and spiritual teaching. But the spirit desires against the flesh, that is, it opposes higher things to lower things, the eternal to the fleeting, and truth to shadows. And the carnal understanding of scripture, which cannot be fulfilled (for we are not able to do everything that is written), shows us that we are not in control of fulfilling the law, even if we want to follow the letter, impossibility does not permit it.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Cassian</b>: An inward war is being waged every day within us. The desires of the flesh and of the spirit are within one and the same person. The lust of the flesh rushes headlong into vice, delights in the worldly enjoyments that seem to satisfy. By contrast the opposed desire of the spirit is so eager to cleave entirely to spiritual pursuits that it in an exaggerated way chooses even to exclude the necessary uses of the flesh. By wishing to be so inseparably attached to spiritual things it refuses to take care of its own bodily fragility.<br/><i>— CONFERENCES 4.11.2</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Here some make the charge that the Apostle has divided man into two parts, and that he states the essence of which he is compounded to be conflicting with itself, and that the body has a contest with the soul. But this is not so, most certainly; for by \"the flesh,\" he does not mean the body; if he did, what would be the sense of the clause immediately following, \"for it lusteth,\" he says, \"against the Spirit?\" yet the body moves not, but is moved, is not an agent, but is acted upon. How then does it lust, for lust belongs to the soul not to the body, for in another place it is said, \"My soul longeth,\" (Ps. lxxxiv: 2.) and, \"Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee,\" (1 Sam. xx: 4.) and, \"Walk not according to the desires of thy heart,\" and, \"So panteth my soul.\" (Ps. xlii: 1.) Wherefore then does Paul say, \"the flesh lusteth against the Spirit?\" he is wont to call the flesh, not the natural body but the depraved will, as where he says, \"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,\" (Rom. viii: 8, 9.) and again, \"They that are in the flesh cannot please God.\" What then? Is the flesh to be destroyed? was not he who thus spoke clothed with flesh? such doctrines are not of the flesh, but from the Devil, for \"he was a murderer from the beginning.\" (John viii: 44.) What then is his meaning? it is the earthly mind, slothful and careless, that he here calls the flesh, and this is not an accusation of the body, but a charge against the slothful soul. The flesh is an instrument, and no one feels aversion and hatred to an instrument, but to him who abuses it. For it is not the iron instrument but the murderer, whom we hate and punish. But it may be said that the very calling of the faults of the soul by the name of the flesh is in itself an accusation of the body. And I admit that the flesh is inferior to the soul, yet it too is good, for that which is inferior to what is good may itself be good, but evil is not inferior to good, but opposed to it. Now if you are able to prove to me that evil originates from the body, you are at liberty to accuse it; but if your endeavor is to turn its name into a charge against it, you ought to accuse the soul likewise. For he that is deprived of the truth is called \"the natural man.\" (1 Cor. ii: 14.) and the race of demons \"the spirits of wickedness.\" (Eph. vi: 12.)</p><p>Again, the Scripture is wont to give the name of the Flesh to the Mysteries of the Eucharist, and to the whole Church, calling them the Body of Christ. (Col. i: 24.) Nay, to induce you to give the name of blessings to the things of which the flesh is the medium, you have only to imagine the extinction of the senses, and you will find the soul deprived of all discernment, and ignorant of what it before knew. For if the power of God is since \"the creation of the world clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made,\" (Rom. i: 20.) how could we see them without eyes? and if \"faith cometh of hearing,\" (Rom. x: 17.) how shall we hear without ears? and preaching depends on making circuits wherein the tongue and feet are employed. \"For how shall they preach, except they be sent?\" (Rom. x: 15.) In the same way writing is performed by means of the hands. Do you not see that the ministry of the flesh produces for us a thousand benefits? In his expression, \"the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,\" he means two mental states. For these are opposed to each other, namely virtue and vice, not the soul and the body. Were the two latter so opposed they would be destructive of one another, as fire of water, and darkness of light. But if the soul cares for the body, and takes great forethought on its account, and suffers a thousand things in order not to leave it, and resists being separated from it, and if the body too ministers to the soul, and conveys to it much knowledge, and is adapted to its operations, how can they be contrary, and conflicting with each other? For my part, I perceive by their acts that they are not only not contrary but closely accordant and attached one to another. It is not therefore of these that he speaks as opposed to each other, but he refers to the contest of bad and good principles. (Compare Rom. vii: 23.) To will and not to will belongs to the soul; wherefore he says, \"these are contrary the one to the other,\" that you may not suffer the soul to proceed in its evil desires. For he speaks this like a Master and Teacher in a threatening way.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 5</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: For there are two motions in us, the lust of the flesh and that of the soul, differing from each other,<br/><i>— Methodius Discourse VIII. Thekla</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"For the flesh desires against the Spirit.\" By flesh here he means the fleshly and evil desires. And by spirit, the grace of the Holy Spirit toward virtue. And he says: Evil opposes virtue, and virtue in turn opposes evil, fulfilling the role of a certain guardian, and not allowing us to follow the wicked desires.</p><p>— [PHOTIUS] Virtue opposes vice, so that the fleshly will, stirred by vice, may not immediately, as if unrestrained and uncontrolled, be carried headlong toward sin. Again, vice opposes virtue, so that the practice of virtue may not be entirely effortless and unmerited, and as if joined to us by nature and necessity, and accomplished merely by thinking, without any earnestness or struggle.</p><p>He himself briefly says this: \"so that you may not do what you wish,\" neither the bad, he says, easily at all and without hindrance, nor indeed the good readily altogether and carelessly. Things therefore done would not even be good. [end of the excerpt by Photius] —<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: For each of these, whether it be the body, or the soul, draweth the other unto its own will, because they are contrary to each other in their natures, and also in their wills, according to the word of the Apostle, who said, \"The body lusteth for that which injureth the spirit, and the spirit lusteth for that which injureth the body; and the two are contrary each to each.\" Now if, according to the word of the wise Apostle, all the lusts of the body are contrary to the soul, the lust of the belly must be more contrary than they all, because it is the door of all lusts, and among them all there is none so heavy as it is. For as a weight which is light and volatile by nature, if suspended, inclineth downwards, even so is this lust of the belly, for it is composed of moisture and weight, and although the body naturally possesseth weight—for its nature is so to do—yet by a superabundance of food, other weight is added thereunto, and when weight is added unto weight, and body is doubled upon body, that is to say, the body of food upon the body of nature, the weight upon the soul increaseth, and the mistress becometh a handmaid in subjection; for the soul cannot henceforth rule over the body like a free thing, but it beareth the weight thereof like a slave.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony</i></p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: In this manner then are also the soul and body towards each other, and as their natures are contrary to each other, even so also are their wills, and concerning this hath Paul also said, \"The body lusteth after that which will harm the spirit, and the spirit lusteth after that which will harm the body, and both are contrary, each to each.\" And so long as they stand in this measure of equality, they will be at constant and unceasing war, and at one time the body will conquer the soul, and at another the soul will overcome the body; and whosoever fighteth thus must stand in his place, for although he step forward even so little towards that which belongeth to the soul, the body hangeth on to him and turneth him back, and, moreover, it will even thrust him from his position, and drag him down into the abyss of sin.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: For although he says that \"in his flesh dwelleth no good thing; \" although he affirms that \"they who are in the flesh cannot please God,\" because \"the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; \" yet in these and similar assertions which he makes, it is not the substance of the flesh, but its actions, which are censured.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Thus, so long as the things which are the Spirit's please them not, the things which are of the flesh will please, as being the contraries of the Spirit. \"The flesh,\" saith (the apostle), \"lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.\" But what will the flesh \"lust\" after, except what is more of the flesh? For which reason withal, in.<br/><i>— On Monogamy</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"9b64559d76982c9a8c7f0a6b7103d5f07a2882e6ccc81bd584bccbdf51d8626b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5520,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f681cf720d9fb0833c34ff9d23cf0fae808647e3aabd68cafbd5c30d821c135b","translator":null,"work":null}