Your outlook reveals who you are.

John Farley
Pastor-Teacher
Sunday,
May 31, 2015

 

www.chosenpeople.com

Your outlook reveals who you are.

ROM 8:5-13

We could title this section of Romans
“The Spirit is the DIFFERENCE MAKER”!

Those who are “according to the flesh” are unbelievers.

Those who are “according to the Spirit” are believers.

The two kinds of human beings are believers, who have the Spirit indwelling, and unbelievers, who don’t.

Verses 5 to 13 explain the night and day, death and life, difference …

… between those who are according to the flesh - unbelievers-, and those who are according to the Spirit - believers.

One key word in verses 5-8 is MIND.
The Greek has two words: a verb, then a noun.

In verse 5 we have the verb.

3rd person plural present active indicative
 

phroneo =
to exercise the mind

to keep on giving [present tense] serious, careful consideration to something.

It means by implication to be mentally disposed (more or less earnestly) in a certain direction.

ROM 8:5

Verse 5 distinguishes between two kinds of people, and describes them.

But verses 6 and 7 distinguish between the flesh and the Spirit - and describe them.

In verses 6 and 7, we do not have the verb.
We have the noun instead.

ROM 8:6-7

 

phronema=
(mental) inclination or purpose

this is not about the intellect, but rather the attention and occupation of a being caused by its essential disposition.

outlook,
way of thinking, aspiration.

In verses 6 & 7, this noun is always accompanied by a second noun in the genitive case.

There is no verb in these phrases.
There is no “set”.
We have two nouns.

One noun is in the nominative - “mind”, and the other noun is in the genitive (either flesh or Spirit).

This genitive is either a subjective genitive or a genitive of source.

the outlook of the flesh/ the outlook of the Spirit, or what the flesh aspires to /what the Spirit aspires to

ROM 8:6 For the outlook or aspiration of the flesh is death, but the outlook or aspiration of the Spirit is life and peace,

The flesh and the Spirit are both active in producing a “mind”, an outlook, an aspiration, …

and the two outlooks or aspirations are completely exclusive of one another, totally incompatible.

two fundamentally different ways of orienting a person’s life and actions, …

…corresponding to what that person fundamentally is.

ROM 8:7 because the the mind, outlook, aspiration of the flesh is hostile toward God;

If you say “the mind set on the flesh”, the source of things is the mind.  

But if you say “the mind of the flesh”, the source of things is the flesh.

Who you are ultimately determines how you will think, and what your mind will dwell on.

ROM 7:4-6

Your way of thinking, your outlook, REVEALS who you are. It does not determine who you are.

PRO 23:6-8

This proverb actually says that his thoughts reveal who he is - SELFISH!