Paul used “flesh” as a negative term, not for the body itself as is commonly understood, but for anything personal, short-lived, and untrustworthy. This may show itself in our private transgressions, but personal sin is a result of deeper lies and illusions. Personal sin arises from and is legitimated by the underlying understanding that certain evils are necessary for the common good.
This is our foundational moral confusion: We call war necessary and somewhat acceptable, but murder bad. National or corporate pride is good, but personal vanity is bad. Lying and cover-ups are good to protect the whole, but individuals should never lie.
When the systems of “the world” are able to operate as denied and disguised evil, they soon become the “spirits in the air” that do immense damage and are invisible and unaccountable.
Jesus was sympathetic and forgiving of personal sinners but obviously censorious of organized sin. We need to be wary, then, of evil in its organized form. Anything considered above criticism soon is likely to become demonic. Remember that the first exorcism of a demon in Mark’s Gospel is found not in a brothel or bar but in the synagogue (Mark 1:23–28).
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
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