Romans 8:5-6

“ For they that are after the flesh aspire after the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit aspire after the things of the Spirit. For the aspiration of the flesh is death; but the aspiration of the Spirit is life and peace. ”

To understand the for which connects this verse with the preceding, we must begin with paraphrasing the first clause by adding: “For, while they that are after the flesh,”...then complete the second clause by adding to the words: “aspire after the things of the Spirit,” the following: “and consequently walk after the Spirit, with the view of obtaining those spiritual blessings.”

To be after the flesh, is to be inwardly governed by it, as the natural man always is. The part here referred to is the deepest source of the moral life, whence the will is constantly drawing its impulses and direction. Hence the consequence: τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς φρονοῦσιν : they are preoccupied with the things of the flesh, aspire after them. The word φρονεῖν is one of those terms which it is difficult to render in French, because it includes at once thinking and willing. Comp. the well-known Greek expressions ὑψηλοφρονεῖν, μεγαφρονεῖν, to aim high, to have a high self-regard. The φρονεῖν, the aspiration, of which our verse speaks, proceeds from the εἶναι, being, and produces the περιπατεῖν, the walking, of Romans 8:4, the moral necessity of which Paul wishes to demonstrate, whether it be on the side of the flesh or on that of the Spirit.

The I, ego, is distinct from both tendencies; but it yields itself without fail to the one or the other to the former, as the I of the natural man; to the latter, as the I of the regenerate man. As its state, so is its tendency; as its tendency, so is its conduct.