On the Words: “It is the Spirit who Gives Life; the Flesh Profits Nothing” (John 6:63)
By St. Luke of Simferopol
(Homily Delivered on May 25, 1948)
By St. Luke of Simferopol
(Homily Delivered on May 25, 1948)
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). This is what our Lord and God Jesus Christ said. He said that true life - eternal life - is only in the Spirit who gives life, in the Holy Spirit! He says that the flesh does not benefit at all.
We are made up of flesh and spirit, we are not disembodied spirits, and our lives take place in constant interaction between spirit and flesh. This interaction, scary to say, is hostile, as the holy Apostle Paul says: “The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). They oppose each other, and our whole life is a constant struggle between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh pulls us down to the earth; our spirit strives upward to God, but alas the flesh holds it back with all its might, does not allow it to rise upward. The flesh demands service to itself, demands care exclusively for itself, demands that all its lusts, all its desires be fulfilled. The flesh demands that we be its slaves. And the spirit strives with all its might to get rid of these sinful and base bonds. The immortal spirit eternally strives for God, strives for the Kingdom of truth and eternal beauty. This is where the struggle between spirit and flesh arises, and this is why the Lord said that the Spirit gives life. And if He gives life, if there is true life in Him, then we must strive to ensure that the spirit conquers the flesh, for the flesh itself does not benefit, there is no spiritual benefit from it, but only harm, only a hindrance in our spiritual life.
“To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). These are the words of the Apostle Paul. How is it that being carnally minded is death? What does the flesh think about? The flesh thinks that everyone should be its slaves, that everyone should please it in everything. The flesh demands to be nourished satisfactorily and pleasantly, to be warmed, to be richly and beautifully dressed, to be laid on a soft bed at night. The flesh demands that all its lusts be fulfilled: the lust of gluttony, the lust of fornication, the lust of avarice, the lust of envy, the lust of pride, the lust of vanity. These are the thoughts of the flesh, and these thoughts are death. If we follow them, we follow the path of death.
“To be spiritually minded is life and peace.” What are spiritual thoughts? These are thoughts about faith and eternal truth, tireless thoughts about God, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, this constant abiding in thought with Him. Spiritual thoughts are a constant invocation of the name of Christ, this is a constant invocation of this name in our heart. And these thoughts are the essence of life and peace. In them is true life, in them we find peace of mind.
The Lord Jesus Christ said: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” Life in the truth, life in the words of Jesus, in them there is an incomparable peace that attracts to prayer. You feel this power, you feel that the words of Christ are full of spirit and life, you feel that they are not at all like the words of the people of this world. And there is truth in those words, but the power that the words of Christ contain is not in them, for this is Divine power, power incomparable to anything. No human words can even remotely compare with the Divine power of Christ’s words.
The Apostle Paul told the Galatians: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal. 5:16–17).
Fight, persistently fight the flesh, fight off its mortal attacks, remembering that only the Spirit gives life. Do what the Spirit draws you to, do what will lead you to eternal life.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
