The bible explains to us that there are two discernments: "Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires", Romans 8:5.
The Bible uses the triple division of man: body, soul and spirit. The soul represents an intermediate state between good and evil. The opposition between flesh (body) and spirit, is the opposition between money and god, between two paths: the rectitude and the sin.
Two paths (rectitude or sin), two masters (god or money), two retributions (blessing or curse), this is the essence of the beatitudes given by Jesus in the sermoun of the mount.
The fruits of the spirit and the works of the flesh are the ultimate goals of human life, but in a sense they are also a form of retributions:
"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law"; Galatians 5:19-23.
We sow what we reap. The sin is a form of error, like the virtue. The spiritual gifts are the precise and the exact because they search the truth.
The works of the flesh are laments and pains that we carry with us when we sow the error, that is to say, when god and the neighbor does not matter.
The works of the flesh may vary in intensity, according to our favorite sins, every capital sin (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride) has its own work of the flesh.
The works of the flesh are also related with the four curses in the gospel of Luke (Luke 6:24-26). In this sense we can also see the works of the flesh as curses or punishments.
By the law of return we begin to pay in this life our hits and mistakes. We choose.
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