ACC ~ Romans 8 v8

THE SUBSTANCE OF FLESH AS SUCH NOT CENSURED. IRENAEUS: The apostle does not reject the substance of flesh but shows that the Spirit must be infused into it. AGAINST HERESIES 5.10.2.

TERTULLIAN: In these and in similar statements it is not the substance of the flesh which is censured but its actions. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 10.

AMBROSIASTER: The wise of this world are in the flesh because they cling to their wisdom, by which they reject God’s law. For whatever goes against the law of God is of the flesh, because it is of the world. For the whole world is flesh and every visible thing is assigned to the flesh. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WHETHER THE FLESH CAN PLEASE GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: Are we to cut our bodies to pieces in order to please God? Should we become murderers in order to practice virtue? You see what inconsistencies result if we take these words literally! What Paul means by the flesh in this passage is not the essence of the body but a life which is carnal and worldly, serving self-indulgence and extravagance to the full. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 13.

CHRYSOSTOM: Why is this? Is not the speaker himself clad in flesh? Paul does not mean that those clad in flesh are incapable of pleasing God but rather those who put no store by virtue, whose thoughts are totally carnal and who are caught up in pleasures of that kind, paying no attention to their soul, which is incorporeal and intellectual. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 24.6.

JEROME: If all who are carnal cannot please God, how does Paul himself, the speaker, please God? How do Peter and the other apostles and saints, whom we cannot deny were carnal, please him? … It is because they—and we—do not live according to the flesh. We … walk about on the earth, it is true, but we are hastening on our way to heaven, for here we do not have a lasting place, but we are wayfarers and pilgrims, like all our fathers. HOMILIES 63.

AUGUSTINE: In the same way, snow cannot tolerate heat. For when snow is heated it melts; it becomes warm as water, but no one can then call it snow. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 49.

PELAGIUS: This proves that Paul did not find fault with the flesh itself but with the works of the flesh, because those to whom he was writing were undoubtedly living in the flesh in the physical sense. Once one has given himself over to the flesh (in the spiritual sense) it is impossible to avoid sin. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is not telling us to leave the body but to be set free from the wisdom of the flesh. What this means, he tells us in the following verses. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.