Charles Spurgeon Commentary Romans 8:13

"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)

But if you through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

If you seek, by the Holy Spirit's power, to kill sin, if you try to crush all sinful desires, if you keep evil with a rope about its neck, if you mortify it (put it to death), then you shall live. Holiness is the mode of the Christian—life; sin is the way of the sinner—death.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die:

If you live simply to gratify your ambition, if you live for avarice, if you live to please yourself, if you live for any earthly object which can be comprised under the term "after the flesh," you will certainly be disappointed, for you will die, and your hope will die with you.

The deeds of the body, you shall live.

Shall a dying body, then, be my master? Shall the appetite for eating and drinking, or anything else that comes of the flesh, dominate my spirit? God forbid! Let death go to death, and the flesh is such; but the newly-given spirit of God, the spirit who has quickened us with immortal life shall rule and reign in us evermore.

But if you through the Spirit–

That living, immortal power–

But if you through the Spirit do mortify –

Or, kill –

But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

"Mortify," kill, put to death.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall die:

It will die, and so will you, who make it your master.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall die:

It is a dying thing, and you shall die if you live after its dying fashion.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall die:

For the flesh is to die.