Yoder ( Body Politics ) suggests that “flesh” in the New Testament can refer to “ethnicity.” Citing 2 Corinthians 5, he writes that “Paul is defending the missionary policies, for which he was being criticized, according to wich on principle he makes Jews and Gentiles pray and eat together. What the NEB calls ‘worldly standards’ would more precisely be rendered as ‘ethnically.’ The phrase kata sarka in verse 16, literally ‘according to the flesh,’ means ‘ethnically.’”
Yoder is certainly correct for some passages (Philippians 3, eg), and perhaps he’s right for many passages. Should we read “the Spirit desires against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit” not as a war between Spirit and “sinful nature” (or, not only) but rather as a war between the Pentecostal Spirit who joins all nations in Christ and the spirit of ethnicity and national pride?
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