---

“[Y]ou are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people?”

1 Corinthians 3:3 NET

I am inspired by Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (of which we have record). The topic I want to write about is what Paul calls “the flesh”. We might just call it sin. The doctrine of sin is not popular today, but the Bible doesn’t pull any punches about it, and neither should we.

We do need to view it in the right context, though. The Bible is clear that all people have sinned, and all people do sin. John says that anyone who denies they have sinned is a liar, (1 John 1:8) but John adds that God is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess our sin to Him. (1 John 1:9)

Paul wrote this letter to “the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified by Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….” (1 Cor. 1:2) Thus, he is writing to Christians – Christians who are “still influenced by the flesh”.

Yes, Christians are influenced by the flesh, and Christians are susceptible to sin.

The notion of sin is disfavored and much maligned, but most people would agree that “to err is human”. The biblical notion of sin is not much different than this popular understanding of what it means to be human. It means in its various forms in the Greek to fail, to miss the mark, to do wrong, to misstep, etc. (See Biblehub)

The Greek word translated “flesh” in the New English Translation is σαρκικός, ή, όν (sarkikos). It means “pertaining to the flesh, carnal” (“behavior which is typical of human nature … with special focus upon more base physical desires” according to the HELPS word studies found at the Biblehub website).

Fleshiness is human tendency. Therefore, we might change the popular idea of what it means to be human by saying, “To sin is human.”

The Bible claims that only one human being in history was without sin, and that person was Jesus of Nazareth, who the Bible claims was actually God incarnate (God who became human). The Bible also claims that Jesus came to deliver humans from the limitations of sin (and from death). This was his purpose – to invite us into relationship with God as children to become who God always meant us to be – to be free of sin and death, to live in eternal relationship with God, having the same characteristics God has.

This is a process that starts with a commitment to God in Christ, and it culminates in our own victory over sin and death. The ultimate realization of this victory, however, only occurs after our resurrection:

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

1 Corinthians 15:42-43

“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-53

Paul calls this transformation the perishable being clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (1 Cor. 15:54) Thus, we do not attain this perfection until we die and are resurrected, but we are called into relationship with God in this life where the process of change this begins the to happen

Paul’s purpose in writing this letter to the Christian Corinthians (and Christians everywhere and at all times) was to address their fleshiness – their sin. Though they had the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), they were still influenced by the flesh. (1 Cor. 3:3) Just as we are. So we should take note.

Jesus came not to judge the world but to save it (from sin and death) (John 3:16), and we are his ambassadors. Perhaps, this is why Paul said we have no business judging the world. (I Cor. 5:12) Judgment is to come, but now is the time in which the good news is to be proclaimed.

If we are Christ followers, we should not be content to remain fleshy and sinful, just as God is not content to leave us in our condition. We misrepresent the character of God, Himself, when we fail and miss the mark. Indeed, the world of people to whom Jesus came are misdirected by our sin. When they hear us say one thing and act another way, they discount what we say.

Jesus came to proclaim the good news (of freedom from sin and death). If we proclaim the good news as his ambassadors, but we do not live it out, how will they hear and receive the message?

For this reason, we should be increasingly conformed to Christ’s image as we are transformed by the renewal of our minds. (Romans 12:2) If we are not, thus, being transformed and conformed, we are missing the mark; we are failing in our calling; we are not working out our salvation as God attempts to work in us to will and to act according to His good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)

God is love. (1 John 4) If we are truly born again, we should be becoming reflections of who God is – examples of God’s love in the world (imperfect though we still are). Paul tells the Corinthians and us what love looks like in Chapter 13 of this first letter to the Corinthians.

I am going to try to take Paul’s admonition and address the ways we fall short in an effort to spur myself and the reader on to “love and good deeds”. (Hebrews 10:24) I will use 1 Corinthians 13 as my guide for what love is – which is who God is, and what we should be reflecting in our lives more and more in the world as we grow and mature in our lives as followers of Christ.