...continued.
The law is spiritual, therefore, a fleshly mind cannot be subject to it. This shows us that the fleshly mind renders a person carnal. So, when we read, “but I am carnal, sold under sin,” we are intended to understand that it means “but my mind is on fleshly things, causing me to be sold under sin.”
Minding the things of the flesh is putting our primary attention on those things. And having that mush regard on fleshly things clashes with God. How is it that Paul focused his thoughts toward the fleshly things by trying to serve God in the oldness of the letter?
When we consider that Genesis revealed how the first three days of creation, that represented the Old Covenant were the times God formed that which was without form in order to fill those formed places with active movement, we get a hint about what minding the things of the flesh is all about. There was no active and vibrant life in the forming stage of creation, like the Law did not administer life but death. The term “spirit” in the Hebrew is related to the concept of life. Jesus Christ’s words were spirit and life. His words are all of the truths of the New Covenant. God breathed into Adam the breath of Life and became a living soul. Movement and activity were seen int eh stars, sun and moon. It was seen in the water creatures, birds and land creatures. Everything in the latter three days involved active movement. Everything in the first three days involved forming places for that movement and activity.
The physical forming of places was all about the Old Covenant in symbolic form. Minding the things of the Spirit is focusing our thoughts on activity and life. The earthly things are used to prepare for the spiritual things. We will not find life in the forming aspect of God’s work.
There is also the reference to the administration of death that Paul wrote about in 2 Corinthians Chapter 3 that we must apply to this concept of minding the things of the flesh. We then realize that focus on the things of the law is minding the things of the flesh, for there is no life in the things of Law.
We are said to be dead in trespasses and sins in
Ephesians 2:1, which are the results in the lives of those who fail to keep the law and commit sins. This, again, is the kind of death that Paul described in Romans Chapters 7 through 8.
The flesh, itself, is not a wicked thing. Paul stated that in his flesh there dwelled the culprit called sin. Since Law was comprised of rituals and ceremonies that involved materialistic concentration on physical efforts that our flesh must carry out, and because sin is in that flesh, then death is bound to ensue. Focusing on rites and ceremonies that urge flesh to act stirs up the sin that is inside that flesh to cause us to commit sins.
Again, please don’t forget that the thing that Paul stated was over and ended was comprised of the foods, drinks, diverse washings and carnal ordinances of Law. The aspects of Law that are about moral issues including the need to not engage in homosexuality, adultery and murder, etc.