from the WORDS by Charles L. Feinberg, Th.D., Ph.D., Director, Talbot Theological Seminary
w ,. i*. Africa totters on the brink of disaster. The pressures creat ed by hatred, fear and dis trust may boil over at any time But Africa can still be saved from disaster IF a way can be found to create understanding and toler ance where suspicion and hatred now rule. The answer lies in the Word of God. IF the people of Africa can be won to Christ, the disaster which threatens can be averted. The Pocket Testament League is now doing a God-appointed job of Scripture distribution on a gigantic scale in Africa. The number of people we can reach and the speed with which we can reach them is limited by our resources. The job can be done in time, IF PTL has needed support. The IF depends on you.j
The Flesh
K efore long in his Christian experi ence the believer finds that all the enemies to a life of godliness are not external. There is an adversary that resides within, namely, the flesh. The most common word in the Old Testament for flesh is basar. It has reference to the flesh of man or that of animals, that is, the softer parts of the bodies of man, beast, fowl or fish. See Genesis 2:21; Leviticus 4:11 and Isaiah 31:3. At times the word flesh is employed for the whole body as in Psalm 16:9. The expression “ all flesh” designates the whole race, the human family. Compare Genesis 6:13, 17; Psalm 65:2; Isaiah 40:5, 6 and Joel 2:28. Man as flesh is weak and frail (Ps. 78:39). The term under consider ation distinguishes human beings (Job 34:15) from spiritual beings (Dan. 2:11). It is a factor distinct from the spirit. Note Job 14:22 and Isaiah 10:18; a similar New Testa ment usage is Matthew 26:41. There are some four other less common words in the Old Testament employed for flesh, but they add nothing to the concepts already indicated, for flesh in the Old Testament has the idea of weakness, need of salvation and man’s sinfulness. Upon this solid foundation the New Testament will build its more elaborate doctrine of the flesh. Of the New Testament words for flesh kreas always means butcher’s meat, as in Romans 14:21 and 1 Cor inthians 8:13. The word sarx, how ever, has a great breadth of meaning. When the Apostles Paul and John want to refer to the bodies of ani mate creatures, they utilize this word. Two excellent examples are found in 1 Corinthians 15:39 and Revela tion 19:18,21. As in the Old Testa ment the flesh is distinguished from the spirit. See Luke 24:39 and 1 John 4:2; also John 1:14. Flesh and blood have reference to humanity in Mat thew 16:17; 1 Corinthians 15:50 and Galatians 1:16. Thus in many uses of the word there is no distinct ethical mean ing. But there are significant New Testament doctrinal passages where flesh has a clearly ethical connotation.
Read carefully such passages as Ro mans 6:19; 7:5, 14, 18; 8:1-8; 1 Cor inthians 3:1, 3; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Galatians 5:16-24; Colossians 2:18, 23 and 1 John 2:16. They indicate that the New Testament applies flesh to the carnal nature. It is the human nature apart from the Spirit of God, motivated by personal desires and am bitions—in short, the whole unregen erate nature of man. At one time Paul was accused of teaching a dualism inherited from Greek thought in his statement of the contrast between flesh and spirit. It has been shown conclusively, however, that Paul bases his views of the flesh on Old Testament truth and is contrasting in Romans 7, for instance, the concept of spirit with sin, of which the flesh is the medium or channel. In Luther’s introduction to his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans he wrote: “ Thou must not understand flesh, therefore, as though that only were flesh which is con nected with unchastity, but St. Paul uses flesh of the whole man, body and soul, reason and all his faculties in cluded, because all that is in him longs and strives after the flesh.” The term refers, then, to the whole man, body, soul and spirit, as opposed to the influence and ministry of the Spir it of God. In its ethical force the word sarx has reference not merely to flesh ly inclination, but to the entire hu man nature. One who is declared to be in the flesh is in a state of godlessness and sin. It speaks of man’s estrangement from God and his inherent desire to exalt self and selfish objectives in op position to God. In this sense one who is apart from God can be devoted to intellectual, cultural and aesthetic causes, yet be at one and the same time in the flesh. Carnality can be that of the mind as well as of the body. Since the all-sufficient victory over the world is in the Father (1 John 2:15-17), the mastery over the flesh is in the work of the Spirit of God (Gal. 5:17). Therefore, let us walk in the Spirit and we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. END.
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