But getting down to what this means in practical terms. I think that when you try to walk according to the spirit and set you mind on the things of the spirit, you (or at least I) usually have a pretty good instinct of what that means in particular cases, but no idea in general. A couple of questions that I think are worth answering:
1. Is “to walk according to the Spirit” something we try to do and can succeed, something that we try to do and fail (but God’s mercy still regards us as his children), a free gift of God that we don’t have much to do with, growing in us and changing us, warring with and transforming our old nature, or just an name for the way we are once we accept Christ?
2. What does a life “lived according to the Spirit” look like? How is it different from the lives of moderately unselfish people with good intentions who don’t know God? Can it be made up of discrete actions (when I made my bed I was living according to the Spirit, but not when I put the extra sugar cube in my tea), or does it refer to a sort of abstract process, qualitatively different from our stream of actions and consciousness?
3. What does it mean to “set one’s mind on the things of the flesh/ spirit”? What are these things?
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