Body and Soul
no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and to the Lord. Philemon 16
Flesh – Only once. This verse, in this shortest of Paul’s letters, holds the distinction of being the only place in the entire New Testament where these two circles are connected by the Greek word “and” (kai). Philemon, the returning Christian convert, is not only a brother in the flesh, he is also a brother in the Lord. Flesh and Spirit are combined in a unique way right here.
You may say, “So, what’s the big deal? He’s a brother in his physical body and also a brother in his spiritual adoption.” Absolutely true. The impact is not the obvious dual role that Philemon now enjoys. The impact is that Paul uses the Greek word sarx (flesh) with the same endorsement as kyrios (Lord). And this is important!
We have been raised in a religious culture where the “flesh” is almost universally seen as something evil. We think of it as the source of our fight with sin, as the part of us that is the curse of humanity and must be put away if we are to be holy. This view has so infiltrated our thinking that the NIV routinely translates sarx as “sinful nature” rather than “flesh.” As far as the translators were concerned, flesh and sinful nature are the same thing. But this verse erases that idea. My body is not evil. I am not a spirit held captive in a sin container. To think that way is to succumb to a Greek heresy. And Paul was no Greek.
Paul was a Hebrew. His concept of human being is based in Hebrew revelation, not Greek philosophy. Why does this matter to you and me? Because we are the product of Greeks, not Hebrews. The Greeks viewed man as the sum of many parts, a microcosm with reason at the center, trapped here in this earthly realm, waiting to escape. We think in terms of the body, mind and soul (or some such partition). We believe that the body belongs to the lower part of nature while the soul carries a spark of the higher realm of heaven. Hebrews do not think like this (and neither does the Bible, by the way). Hebrews viewed man in terms of relationship, not components. Man is what he is because of his relationship to God. Man is a unity, not a divided entity, and when he is not in relation to God, all of what he is, is broken. He is not a body waiting to be filled with a new spirit, nor is he a spirit longing for a new body. He is flesh. That is the way he is related to God in this world. Even when his relation to God is good, he is still related to God as flesh. Flesh is the totality of man as he is. God redeems all of man when He grants mercy and forgiveness.
What does this mean to me? It means that God redeems me, as flesh. God does not redeem my soul and then expect me to wage war against myself. He moves all of me, all at once, into a new relationship with Him so that I can serve Him with all my heart, mind and strength. That means I put my entire existence in the flesh under His authority. I cannot serve God with my mind alone. I must serve Him in the flesh. At last, I am free to be exactly what I am – sarx serving God.
