Where do we rest our hope? What preoccupies us, fascinates us, motivates us, worries us, consumes us? To what do we finally aspire? This is the question raised by Paul in his letter to the Romans: On what do we set our minds (phronema)?
Paul asserts that there are ultimately only two paths. We can either set our minds on “the flesh,” or we can set our minds on “the Spirit.”
To take the first path, he warns, is to propel ourselves toward the endpoint of futility and death. Matters of the flesh will inevitably trap us. Paul has witnessed firsthand the coarse endpoint of the culture of the flesh: the tyranny of narcissistic rulers, the corruption of their sycophants, their cynical dismissal of manipulated plebes, the emptiness of financial and physical excess. We can certainly relate today.
