86: What Paul Really Means by “The Flesh”

I'm Eddie Lawrence, and this is the Ready for Eternity podcast, a podcast and blog exploring biblical truths for inquisitive

Bible students. When you're reading Paul's letters in the New Testament and he writes about the flesh, what comes to mind?

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts.

For many Christians, we might conclude it refers to our physical bodies.

We might think Paul is warning us against physical desires and bodily appetites, and we assume the path to holiness means suppressing our physical nature.

As it turns out, that's not what Paul means at all. Because of our assumptions about what the flesh is, many of us might be fighting the wrong enemy.

What might we mistake flesh to be? The confusion is understandable.

When we hear flesh, we naturally think of our bodies. Another reason

Christians may think this is due to pagan philosophy that crept into church doctrine centuries ago.

The Greeks taught that the body was the prison of the soul, that matter was corrupt, and spirit is pure.

But that's not the Bible's view. Scripture doesn't treat the body as inherently evil or something opposed to the soul.

Basil Atkinson correctly noted that the Hebrew language doesn't even have a word for body as something that is separate from the soul.

The Israelites saw humans holistically. Physical form was a necessary part of being human.

In Matthew 26 -41, Jesus said that the flesh was weak, but he never called our bodies sinful.

So what does Paul mean when he uses the word flesh in passages like Ephesians 2 -3?

The Greek word that our English Bibles translate as flesh is the word sarx, transliterated as s -a -r -x.

This is a word that Paul often uses in a distinctive way. He's not talking about your physical body.

He's describing your capacity for sin, weakness, and rebellion against God.

Here's how theologian Daniel Aiken explains it. Most contemporary

English translations, including the newest edition of the New International Version, opt to translate sarx as flesh, and it must be understood that in these passages, sarx refers to a capacity, not an ontological nature.

The flesh is not what you are, that is, your body. It's a capacity within you.

Your potential to sin and or rebel against God. It's not a force that compels us to sin, but a weakness that makes us susceptible to sin.

Scholar W .D. Davies puts it even more clearly. The flesh is a corrupted, but not a corrupting, element.

He explained that it's the weak instrument that sin uses, not the ultimate source of sin itself.

Several Bible passages make this clear. In Romans 7 .18, Paul says,

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

Notice he distinguishes between himself as a person and the flesh as something within him.

The flesh is where sin finds opportunity. In Romans 8 .5 -9,

Paul contrasts those who set their minds on the things of the flesh with those who set their minds on the things of the

Spirit. He says Christians are controlled not by the flesh, but by the

Spirit. This shows the flesh is an orientation or a capacity, not your physical existence or your physical body.

Galatians 5 .16 -17 says that the flesh craves what is contrary to the

Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other.

It's describing two capacities, two directions, but one person.

And finally, Galatians 5 .19 -21. Look at the works of the flesh that Paul lists in these verses.

Among them are jealousy, strife, anger, rivalries, and envy.

What do you notice about these works of the flesh? What should jump out at you is that many of the works of the flesh are not bodily appetites.

They are not physical sins. Jealousy, strife, anger, etc.,

these are sins of the heart and sins of the mind. You see, Paul is contrasting the flesh and the

Spirit, and this is the key to understanding Paul's teaching. The flesh and the

Spirit work in opposite directions within you. When Paul speaks of Spirit here, he means your human spirit responding to God's Holy Spirit.

The flesh is your potential to yield to temptation. It pulls you toward self, sin, and independence from God.

Dr. Daniel Akin says, As the human spirit is the capacity to open one's life to the influence of God, the flesh is the capacity to hear and respond to temptation.

The Spirit leads life in one direction, the flesh in the opposite direction. To paraphrase

Akin, the Spirit is your capacity to open your life to God's influence.

It draws you toward God, holiness, and surrender to His will. Think of it as two voices calling you.

Two opposing forces within the same person pulling you in different directions.

But here's a key thing to understand about the flesh. God created it.

It is not evil. It's necessary for human survival and flourishing.

Remember Genesis chapter 1 verse 31? God looked at everything

He made and He called it very good. That includes your fleshly appetites and drives.

You see, the impulses we have aren't sinful in themselves. For example, hunger drives us to eat.

Desire for connection with others prompts us to build relationships. The drive for comfort inspires us to create shelter.

And the sex drive ensures reproduction. These drives are essential for life and civilization.

The problem aren't the impulses themselves. The problem is what happens when these impulses get corrupted and twisted away from God's design.

Every God -given drive that belongs to our flesh has a created purpose.

But every drive can also be corrupted. For example, hunger.

Its created purpose is for our nourishment, health, and even celebration. But a corrupted expression of our hunger impulse is gluttony and addiction to food.

Likewise, sexual desire. Its created purpose is for intimacy and procreation.

But a corrupted expression of our sexual drive is lust, fornication, and adultery.

Another example is our instinct for self -preservation. The created purpose is to protect our lives and avoid harm.

But a corrupted expression of self -preservation may be cowardice, lying, and manipulation.

The blog article that goes along with this podcast episode has a table that lists a number of the impulses of the flesh.

The question is, is the flesh a corrupting influence or a corrupted influence?

A link to the article is in the episode description. But I think you can see the pattern. Our drives and impulses that compose our flesh comes from God.

Its the corruption of these drives and impulses where sin enters through the flesh. So what does this mean for us?

Understanding the flesh correctly changes everything. You don't have to view your body along with its drives and impulses as the enemy.

Nor must we suppress every desire. We don't have to live in constant suspicion of our physical needs.

But we do need wisdom. We need the Spirit's help to direct what God created good.

We need discernment to recognize when a legitimate drive is being twisted.

So ask yourself, is this hunger or is it gluttony? Is this healthy ambition or is it selfish rivalry?

Is this righteous anger or is it vengeful rage? The flesh gives sin an opportunity.

But the flesh isn't the ultimate problem. Sin is. Thanks to Jesus, sin doesn't have the final word.

Ephesians 2 verse 3 describes our old condition. It says we lived for the cravings of our flesh.

We carried out the desires of our body and mind. But Paul doesn't stop there.

The most beautiful words in Scripture come next in verse 4. It says, but God.

But God, he provided a way out of this. We don't have to stay enslaved to corrupted impulses.

God has made a way. He doesn't destroy our drives and impulses. He redeems them.

He doesn't eliminate our appetites. He redirects them toward himself.

The flesh is weak, but God is strong. And that makes all the difference.