First, A duty prescribed: “Mortify the deeds of the body.”

Secondly, The persons are denoted to whom it is prescribed: “Ye,”—“if ye mortify.”

Thirdly, There is in them a promise annexed to that duty: “Ye shall live.”

Fourthly, The cause or means of the performance of this duty,—the Spirit: “If ye through the Spirit.”

Fifthly, The conditionality of the whole proposition, wherein duty, means, and promise are contained: “If ye,” etc.

To mortify. Εἰ θανατοῦτε,—“If ye put to death;” a metaphorical expression, taken from the putting of any living thing to death. To kill a man, or any other living thing, is to take away the principle of all his strength, vigour, and power, so that he cannot act or exert, or put forth any proper actings of his own; so it is in this case. Indwelling sin is compared to a person, a living person, called “the old man,” with his faculties, and properties, his wisdom, craft, subtlety, strength; this, says the apostle, must be killed, put to death, mortified, that is, have its power, life, vigour, and strength, to produce its effects, taken away by the Spirit. It is, indeed, meritoriously, and by way of example, utterly mortified and slain by the cross of Christ; and the “old man” is thence said to be “crucified with Christ,”

Now, perhaps the word may not only intend eternal life, but also the spiritual life in Christ, which here we have; not as to the essence and being of it, which is already enjoyed by believers, but as to the joy, comfort, and vigour of it: as the apostle says in another case, “Now I live, if ye stand fast,” 1 Thess. 3:8;—“Now my life will do me good; I shall have joy and comfort with my life;”—“Ye shall live, lead a good, vigorous, comfortable, spiritual life whilst you are here, and obtain eternal life hereafter.”

Supposing what was said before of the connection between mortification and eternal life, as of means and end, I shall add only, as a second motive to the duty prescribed, that,—

The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.

The hiccupping of those who are loaded with wine, and the snortings of those who are stuffed with food, and the snoring rolled in the bed-clothes, and the rumblings of pained stomachs, cover over the clear-seeing eye of the soul, by filling the mind with ten thousand fantasies. And the cause is too much food, which drags the rational part of man down to a condition of stupidity. For much sleep brings advantage neither to our bodies nor our souls; nor is it suitable at all to those processes which have truth for their object, although agreeable to nature.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

Sexual faithfulness preaches the gospel. When a husband and wife are faithful to p 91 one another, sexually and otherwise, they become a created symbol of the covenant God who keeps his vows to Israel and the new Israel. By keeping the Seventh Word, we dramatize the good news of Jesus, the Bridegroom of the church, who gives himself in utter fidelity to and for his Bride.