In Romans 8:6-8 Paul builds on his previous comments. He’s comparing and contrasting to approaches to life, life focused on the flesh and life focused on the Spirit.
Check out the video for Paul’s flow of thought and the important points he’s making.
You see, when we live by the flesh, then we set our minds on desires and the things of the flesh. That’s our focus, and this results in death. Paul says a mind focused on the flesh has no intent on obeying any law other than its own desires, which means that the thinking of such people becomes hostile to God, because God desires us to live in a way other than enslaved by our own desires. Such people do nothing to please God, nor do they ever even intend to please God.
However, Paul says, and this is a massive however, the mind focused on the Spirit is life and peace. Coming back to where we belong in communion with God, taught about life by the Lord, in our proper place in the world, learning what life is all about, that is where we find peace. Remember how Paul says that our mind and our lifestyle are integrally connected. They feed each other. When we focus our life on the Lord then our minds are drawn to focus on the Lord. And when we intentionally focus our minds on the Lord and follow him by his Spirit in each moment, then this is where we find life. This is where we find peace. And peace is what we receive when we are not lost in condemnation and sin.
Paul isn’t trying to beat us up here. He’s setting the stage for the rest of his conversation about life led by the Spirit, life in communion with the Lord, life that the Lord teaches about. He’s helping us know the reality that there is an end result to two approaches to life. The life that is led by and dominated by the flesh leads death, because it’s disconnected from God and doesn’t desire the life of God. Life focused on the Spirit, that is connecting with God and following him in each moment, well that is where life is found, that is where peace is found. Jesus is explaining all this. Paul is trying to help us to see it. We’ll see this clarified more and more as we progress through the rest of chapter 8.