Make no mistake that what the Bible refers to as “flesh” has a lot in common with the physical, physiological, or material aspect of life.
Let’s look at it in the context of the original man, Adam. He was made sinless by God. At this point, flesh had not taken yet the sinful connotation it came to have although a significant aspect of Adam’s life was flesh.
He didn’t initially have any sinful tendencies at the creation level influencing him that needed to be restrained.
He was made up of three elements which we all know: spirit, soul, and body. He was a spirit being who had a soul encapsulated within a physical body just like we are.
He was a spiritual entity who had a humanity in which his mental and physical capacity dwelled.
God intended for the spiritual aspect of his being (man) in which He operates and relates to mankind to have been the preeminent factor of Adam’s life.
The vitality of his existence was predicated on that aspect.
His human spirit needed the soul to communicate through it spiritual consciousness.
His soul needed the body to communicate through it mental consciousness.
His physical body, in turn, needed the soul to communicate through it physical consciousness that has to be discerned by his spirit.
Adam’s spirit contained his spiritual capacity. His soul contained his mental, emotional, and voluntary capacity which can all be encompassed in the word mental. His body contained his physical capacity.
His spirit enabled him to relate to God by means of his spirit being connected to his Creator and Sustainer. His soul enabled him to relate to himself by means of his intellect, emotion, and will. And his body enabled him to relate to the physical world by means of his 5 senses.
While it was fairly easy to have considered the physical body of Adam as flesh because it was made of flesh or material substance, but even his soul which was immaterial in essence where His mental capacity dwelled could be considered as flesh as well.
The soul was incapable of enabling him to please and know God all by itself without the involvement of his spirit.
Therefore, the soul needed to be submitted to his spirit in which the presence and power of God dwelled for guidance in godly matters.
The reason was that God as a spirit being relates to man in a dimension which corresponds with His nature.
So when it came down to obedience, God made man to operate according to what he knew that was right in his spirit in accordance with His divine laws.
Since God’s laws transcend human feelings and reasonings, and the reality that can be perceived via the senses; therefore, man wasn’t made to operate solely according to what made sense to his mind.
And he wasn’t made either to operate according to what looked good to his eyes, what sounded good in his ears, what would please his senses, or according to what he had already thought would have made him feel good just to fulfil his own desires.
He had a God-given responsibility to filter whatever he was about to do which had spiritual implications through the lens of godly conviction found within his spirit.
But after sinning against God, something tragic happened to these three elements that made up his existence which would later have serious implications for all his descendants.
Spiritual death ensued immediately due to his spirit which was the embodiment of spiritual life that became separated from God’s Spirit.
Consequently, his spirit fell into a death state since the life of God could no longer flow into him in order to sustain the essence of his existence.
Since he was dead from a spiritual level, he began to function solely on the basis of mental and physical levels far below the level that God had intended for him to have been operating.
His nature which was characterized by holiness and righteousness was instantly converted into a sinful nature by the infectious effect of the sin virus.
After the fall, the entire existence of man was deemed as flesh. Every aspect of his life was considered as flesh.
That was literally when the flesh took on a sinful representation in the life of man.
What you get out of a state of spiritual death, the culmination of the works of the flesh is a corrupt soul being connected to a dead and useless spirit.
The soul has become caught up in the physical reality of things that surrounds people’s lives which can easily be manipulated by Satan.
A dead spirit devoid of the presence of the Creator, a corrupt soul which was built with the ability to regulate behaviors, and a physical body which has become out of control due to the soul’s inability to control it by keeping its appetites in check; therefore, normal God’s given desires have become perverted.
The body was built with inherent desires towards air, water, food, sex, comfort, pleasure, safety, and so on.
The body was able to take care of some of these desires by itself at an unconscious level; however, the desires that involved decisions to be made or actions to be taken, the soul was responsible to regulate them according to the will of the Creator. That’s where man had control over what his responses were to be to these desires.
Unfortunately, the soul tainted and greatly weakened by sin has become powerless concerning regulating fleshly desires. These desires have become out of control.
The flesh has become so uncontrollable, it started to crave for things that were not even meant to satisfy it; consequently, leading to dependence on things that are outside of God’s will.
People start experiencing a need for these things compulsively and become slaves to their desires.
The truth is that once people become disconnected from God, they will try to connect their lives to something else which will never be able to satisfy them in order to fill the void within; thus creating bondage in their lives.
As a result, they will become trapped in their own way of thinking. They will become slave of their own mindset and desires shaped by sinful ways.
The soul also had its own inherent desires, feelings, and capabilities, such as obeying God, love, compassion, humility, greatness, peace, joy, approval, confidence, knowledge, understanding, and so on. They have also become perverted by sin.
Sinful, unnatural, or abnormal version of pure God-given desires have become deeply embedded within the flesh and the soul to the extent they have literally hijacked normal desires.
Sin has hijacked the system, thus turning natural desires into sinful ones.
As far as spiritual life in Christ Jesus is concerned, everything was deemed as flesh prior to salvation.
The life of those who don’t know Christ is encapsulated in the word flesh or carnal.
Flesh is a broad term which carries with it different applications.
Flesh means anything that is not of God, anything that isn’t inspired by the Holy Spirit, works that are done through human ability, or anything devoids of the power of God.
Some of the things that are of the flesh are as followed.
The tendency people usually have to hide behind excuses in order for them not to do what God has commanded is the work of the flesh.
The rebellious propensity people have that makes them unwilling to submit themselves to God’s authority is of the flesh.
The mindset people have influencing them to believe they are far better off to live their lives away from God, thus they don’t need God is of the flesh.
The sinful tendency that makes them view the Word of God as a threat to their freedom to do whatever they want, wherever they want do so, and whenever they want to is of the flesh.
The raging hostility bursting forth within when being confronted with the truth of the gospel is of the flesh.
The automatic response unsaved individuals typically have toward the proclamation of the message of the gospel predicated on ignorance, resistance, and rejection is of the flesh.
The desire that makes people always being curious and excited to go and participate in activities that are forbidden by God is of the flesh.
The tendency that creates a desire for people to try to satisfy themselves with things that are outside of the will of God is of the flesh.
The evil tendency that creates a desire in people to set themselves or their priority first is of the flesh.
The very mindset influencing people to never acknowledge or accept the truth that God knows better than them in terms of what can satisfy them, which would be vital in compelling them to limit their lives according to His will is of the flesh.
The prideful tendency people normally have that makes them feel they are capable of solving all of their problems even spiritual ones by means of physical abilities is of the flesh.
Flesh is everything that’s a pure manifestation of people’s sinful nature.
At the same time, something can be of God in the sense that He created it but isn’t necessarily spiritual in essence, thus considered as flesh.
For instance, someone can happen to preach a great sermon on the basis of mental or intellectual capacity, but that’s flesh due to the fact that the Word of God can’t be proclaimed with power purely on mental, intellectual, or physical ability.
Every sin comes out of the flesh. But everything that comes out of the flesh isn’t necessarily sin. All fleshly desires that can be classified as natural desires aren’t essentially sin.
Flesh also means out of the 5 senses.
But when it comes to fleshly desires or affections that are contradictory with the Word of God, these desires are nothing more than perverted versions of true God-given desires.
These fleshly desires have become entrenched as a result of constant indulgence.
I have gone this far with you to open your eyes on a part of your brain which I believe is the very seat of the flesh from a physiological level.