For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13 KJV)
for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13 ASV)
for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live: (Romans 8:13 DBY)
for if according to the flesh ye do live, ye are about to die; and if, by the Spirit, the deeds of the body ye put to death, ye shall live; (Romans 8:13 YLT)
For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13 WEB)
Commentaries
Interlinear KJV
For <gar> if <ei> ye live <zao> after <kata> the flesh, <sarx> ye shall <mello> die: <apothnesko> but <de> if <ei> ye <thanatoo> through the Spirit <pneuma> do mortify <thanatoo> the deeds <praxis> of the body, <soma> ye shall live. <zao>
Albert Barnes’ Commentary
Verse 13. For if ye live, etc. If you live to indulge your carnal propensities, you will sink to eternal death, Ro 7:23.
Through the Spirit. By the aid of the Spirit; by cherishing and cultivating his influences. What is here required can be accomplished only by the aid of the Holy Ghost.
Do mortify. Do put to death; do destroy. Sin is mortified when its power is destroyed and it ceases to be active.
The deeds of the body. The corrupt inclinations and passions; called deeds of the body, because they are supposed to have their origin in the fleshly appetites.
Ye shall live. You shall be happy and saved. Either your sins must die, or you must. If they are suffered to live, you will die. If they are put to death, you will be saved. No man can be saved in his sins. This closes the argument of the apostle for the superiority of the gospel to the law in promoting the purity of man. By this train of reasoning, he has shown that the gospel has accomplished what the law could not do–the sanctification of the soul, the destruction of the corrupt passions of our nature, and the recovery of man to God.
{r} “do mortify” Col 3:5
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Here Apostle Paul adds a further reason why a Christian should not live after the flesh; before, an argument was drawn a debito, now a damno: He told us in the former verse we owed nothing to the flesh, here he acquaints us what losers we shall be by living to the flesh, If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; which words are a dreadful combination and severe threatening.
In which observe, 1. The persons threatened, ye, the believing Romans, called to be saints, Ro 1:7, even they are threatened with hell, who were candidates of heaven; he threatens them with death to keep them from death.
Learn hence, That the ministers of God may use arguments drawn from hell torments to dissuade the holiest and best saints from sin and to persuade them to duty; If ye live after the flesh, &c.
Observe, 2. The threatening itself, Ye shall die.
Learn thence, That Almighty God threatens all those that live after the flesh with nothing less than eternal death and damnation: To live after the flesh is to make the flesh our governing principle, our work and trade, our scope and end; and to die for living after the flesh is to undergo a temporal, spiritual, and eternal death; an everlasting banishment from the blessed presence of him in whose presence is fulness of joy: But if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. The former words were threatening to excite our industry; these are a promise to prevent our dejection.
In which observe, 1. The act specified or duty enjoined is mortification; If ye mortify, that is, kill every sin: it is not enough to oppose sin, but we must destroy sin, nothing but the destruction of sin must content us.
Note also, the continuance of the act, If ye do mortify, though they had already mortified sin, yet they are called upon to proceed in the work: The axe must be daily laid to the root, and the knife must still stick in the throat of sin, till it drops down dead.
Mortification must be continual and it must necessarily be painful; nothing that has life will be put to death without pain and struggling; the longer we delay to mortify sin, the more painful shall we make it to ourselves.
Observe, 2. The proper object of this duty, The deeds of the body, by which all sin is to be understood, relating both to the inward and outward man, though the latter only be mentioned, because the body is that which is manifestativum pecatti, it is that wherein sin does especially show and discover itself.
Learn hence, Mortification must be universal as well as continual, not one deed, but deeds; not the deeds of the body only, but of the soul also must be mortified; all evil dispositions, depraved habits, corrupt affections, as well as irregular actions must be watched against and the whole body of sin becomes the object of mortification.
Observe, 3. The agents in this work, and they are two:
1. The more principal agent is the Holy Spirit.
2. The less principal is the Christian himself, If ye, through the Spirit, we can do nothing without him, he will do nothing without us.
Learn hence, That in mortifying sin, the Spirit’s assistance and our endeavours must concur: Mortification indeed, is not the work of nature, yet man must be an agent in it, not in his own, but in God’s strength; we have brought sin, that rebel, into our own souls, and we must use our own endeavours to cast it out: True, it cannot be done alone by ourselves, but it will never be done without ourselves; we can sin of ourselves, but cannot overcome sin by ourselves; we know how to be slaves, but are unable of ourselves to be conquerors. The believer is principium activum, but the Spirit is principium effectivum.
Observe, 4. The reward promised to the performers and performance of this duty; Ye shall live; namely, a life of grace and holiness, a life of joy and comfort, a life of glory and happiness.
Our life of grace is evidence and an earnest of the life of glory: Grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace in the fruit.
Learn, That a life of grace and comfort on earth, together with a life of glory and happiness in heaven, is and shall be the assured portion and privilege of all those who by the Spirit’s assistance and their own concurring endeavours do mortify sin and crucify the deeds of the body: If ye mortify, &c. ye shall live; that is holily, comfortably, and eternally; ye shall live a life of exemplary graciousness, a life of highest delight and pleasure on earth, and of eternal blessedness and glory in heaven.