Benjamin Franklin is known for writing that cleanliness is next to godliness. Although his proverbial saying is not in the Bible, many scholars believe he derived the sentiment from Jewish tradition.
Just before the time of Jesus, a respected rabbi named Hillel encouraged the people to maintain bodily cleanliness as part of their religious duty. Because, he said, you are created in the image of the one, true God. Maimonides, the renowned Jewish physician of the Middle Ages, outlined a comprehensive regimen of diet, exercise, and other guidelines for maintaining bodily health in his writings.
We have been examining how the prevailing Greek worldview, exemplified by Plato and inherited by the West, created a false dualism and hierarchy between the material and immaterial world. And how that stands in stark contrast to the integrated worldview presented in the Bible. With that in mind, I want to focus on how the inroads of Greek thought led to one of the New Testament’s most crucial misreadings.
We have misunderstood and maligned how the word “flesh” is used in Scripture.
It is employed over 70 times by Paul, the apostle tasked with taking a uniquely Jewish message to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish world. So, to begin, it is helpful to understand that the terms flesh and body (basar in Hebrew, sarx and soma in Greek) are often used interchangeably. They can also be used in different ways. The context—how the word is being used— determines the meaning.
Here is an example from Luke, quoting Isaiah in relation to John: As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'”
When Isaiah says, all flesh shall see the glory of God, he means all mankind, all people. For him, the created human being is one, body and soul. The New Testament often uses the word “flesh” in this neutral, impartial way. Yet when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he is not referring to the body. He has something else in mind.
Here is where we go astray.
Most of the time, when Paul uses the term flesh, in fact, in more than 34 instances in the New Testament, he is not referring to the physical body. When Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, he means it takes a supernatural act by God to rescue, reconcile, and restore you under His Kingship. You as a totality, body and soul.
Again, in most of the scriptures Christians are familiar with, when Paul says “flesh,” he is not referring to the human body. He is talking about something broken within us, the unregenerate human condition, a moral bent toward evil which the Bible characterizes as iniquity (Hebrew, avon). When Paul uses “flesh” in this way, he means that aspect of man that makes him part of this present world, which is hostile towards its Maker. Flesh used like this is a theological term that conveys being at enmity with, or in opposition to, God’s rule.
Turn with me to Romans 13, where we begin reading with verse 11:
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
I actually heard a pastor preach that by making no provision for the flesh, Paul was saying not to pay any attention to your bodies. It is only your soul that matters.
That is theology influenced by Greek thinking. It is not what Paul means.
Consider the irony. Not only is it unbiblical, but it is also harmful, as evidenced by this preacher who was obese and obviously not in good health. I am not judging him. Instead, I am challenging his interpretation and its implications. In the text, Paul clarifies his use of “flesh“ when he warns us not to gratify its desires.
The NIV originally translated “flesh“ as “sinful nature,“ which is more of an interpretation than a translation. Unfortunately, the idea of a sinful nature has, to my mind, been problematic in Christian history (I explore the subject in-depth in Reassessing the Doctrine of Original Sin and its Ramifications). Later editions of the NIV amended their translation of Romans 13:14: Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
When Paul uses “flesh“ this way, he is not talking about a conflict between the body and the soul. His is not the dualistic Greek worldview in which the two dimensions (circles) are side by side. He has a Hebraic way of understanding the biblical revelation. Do you remember my Möbius strip illustration? We are created body and soul. Dust and breath are fused together in a continuum. All of us are a dynamic unity of the two.
Let me make this as clear as I can.
The conflict is between the flesh and the Spirit, not between your body and your soul.
The conflict is between the flesh, that negative tendency to sin, the inward impulse to lust, lie, and to be worldly; in a word, when Paul uses flesh this way, he is pointing to our self-centeredness and all the trouble that arises from it. The conflict Paul speaks of is between the flesh and the Spirit, not between the body and the soul.
To Paul, as to all other biblical writers, the body and soul belong together, created in the image and likeness of our great Creator. Therefore, both are to be holy unto God. You, body and soul, were made and are saved to manifest the life of Jesus by the Spirit.
God’s Spirit wants to and can gloriously rule and reign in your life—your body and soul. He desires to lead you on paths that are good for you and good for others through you. Earlier, in Romans 13:8-10, Paul makes it clear he does not want us to miss out on the spiritual fruit of kingdom living:
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law [Torah]. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,“ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.“ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the Torah.
