To walk after the flesh',

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"There is therefore now no condemnation to 
those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:1

To walk after the flesh carries with it the idea of 
the flesh going before us—as our leader, guide, and 
example—and our following close in its footsteps,
so that wherever it drags or draws we move after 
it, as the needle after the magnet. 

To walk after the flesh, then, is to move 
step by step in implicit obedience to . . .
the commands of the flesh, 
the lusts of the flesh,
the inclinations of the flesh,
and the desires of the flesh, 
whatever shape they assume, 
whatever garb they wear, 
whatever name they may bear. 

To walk after the flesh is to be ever pursuing, 
desiring, and doing the things that please the 
flesh, whatever aspect that flesh may wear or 
whatever dress it may assume—whether moulded 
and fashioned after the grosser and more flagrant 
ways of the profane world—or the more refined 
and deceptive religion of the professing church.

But are the grosser and more manifest sinners the 
only people who may be said to walk after the flesh? 
Does not all human religion, in all its varied forms and 
shapes, come under the sweep of this all-devouring 
sword? Yes! Every one who is entangled in and led by 
a fleshly religion, walks as much after the flesh as 
those who are abandoned to its grosser indulgences. 

Sad it is, yet not more sad than true, that false 
religion has slain its thousands, if open sin has 
slain its ten thousands. 

To walk after the flesh, whether it be in the 
grosser or more refined sense of the term, is 
the same in the sight of God.

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