Sarx #35

Sarx means “flesh” in the literal sense of the soft tissue of a body, and from there it stretches in several directions. It can mean the body of a human being or an animal, a human being as such, natural descent, or the human condition of frailty. Paul uses it further for a mode of life directed away from God, and this last use is the one most often discussed.

Biblical Usage

The plainest uses are physical. Paul distinguishes the flesh of humans, beasts, fish, and birds (1 Corinthians 15:39), and speaks of Jesus as descended from David “according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). John’s statement that the Word “was made flesh” (John 1:14) uses the word to say that the Son of God took on real human existence.

Elsewhere flesh is contrasted with spirit. Jesus tells his sleeping disciples that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41), naming ordinary bodily limitation. Paul says those who live “after the flesh” set their minds on the things of the flesh, and that those “in the flesh” cannot please God (Romans 8:5-8). He describes a conflict between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:17), and then lists the works of the flesh, which include not only bodily vices but also strife, jealousy, and factions (Galatians 5:19-21).

Theological Significance

Whether Paul’s negative flesh is the body itself is disputed. Most Christian interpreters reject the idea that matter is evil, pointing to John 1:14, the goodness of creation, and the hope of bodily resurrection, and instead read sarx as humanity under the power of sin and mortality. Translations differ: the King James Version says “flesh,” while some modern versions say “sinful nature” or “sinful flesh,” which reads the word as a fixed inner tendency. Traditions that emphasise inherited sin tend to read it as a standing condition, while others read it as a way of living that a believer can choose to follow or reject.