Word studies · Greek · Strong's G4561
σάρξ · sárx · appears 151 times in the New Testament
In one line: Human nature in its weakness, running on self rather than the Spirit.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Sarx is flesh — human nature in its weakness and mortality, and in Paul the self as it operates apart from God's Spirit.
Sarx runs from the plainly physical — meat, the body, human descent — to Paul's moral usage, where it names life organized around self rather than God. Both senses sit in the New Testament without contradiction: the Word became flesh, and the mind set on the flesh is death.
Sarx is the ordinary Greek word for flesh as opposed to bone or spirit, used of animals and people alike. The Septuagint used it for Hebrew basar, which already carried the sense of humanity in its creatureliness — “all flesh” meaning everyone, precisely as mortal.
English readers often hear “flesh” as the body, and so read Paul as anti-physical. He is not: the works of the flesh he lists are mostly not bodily at all — envy, rivalry, division. Flesh names the whole self turned in on itself, which is why a person can sin without moving a muscle.
Sarx (G4561) appears 151 times in the New Testament, and John 1:14 uses this same blunt word for the incarnation — “the Word became flesh.”
That God took on sarx is the scandal at the center of Christian faith: the weak, mortal stuff of human life is what He assumed rather than avoided. And because flesh is the self apart from the Spirit, the Christian life is described as walking by the Spirit rather than as escaping the body.
When you examine yourself, look past the obvious bodily sins to the quieter ones on Paul's list — jealousy, factions, self-promotion. Name one of those today and ask the Spirit for what the flesh cannot produce.
flesh (as stripped of the skin), i.e. (strictly) the meat of an animal (as food), or (by extension) the body (as opposed to the soul (or spirit), or as the symbol of what is external, or as the means of kindred), or (by implication) human nature (with its frailties (physically or morally) and passions), or (specially), a human being (as such)
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.
Matthew 16:17and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Mark 10:8And all humanity will see God’s salvation.’”
Luke 3:6In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2:17regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,
Romans 1:3Press and hold flesh in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.