The Body is Not the Enemy

I don’t know about you, but the word “flesh” tends to invoke a bit of a negative reaction in me. 

The New Testament certainly has its fair share of this connotation, with verses like “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13), and “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions — is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). 

We often read verses like this outside the context of the whole passage — or even outside the chapter or book they’re situated in. What I’ve noticed is that language like this tends to be carried over into how we speak about our bodies in recovery. Terms like “denying the flesh” — when used too often — place the emphasis of recovery and healing on bodily discipline alone. 

This kind of thinking is dangerous because it can cause us to fall into a sort of “dualism” that has found a home in many schools of thought, including several Christian heresies. Manichaeism — one of the most popular early heresies that inhabited many religions including Christianity — posed a dualistic religion that held the spiritual world as “good” and constantly at war with the “dark,” “evil” material world. For the followers of Manichaeism, defeating the material or the flesh with the spirit was the final victory; a tempting mindset when we’re trying to heal from habitual sexual sin and compulsion. When we see our flesh, our body, our sexuality as something that’s just to be defeated, we may achieve sobriety. But happiness? Wholeness? Holiness? Not so much. 

Because when all we see associated with the “flesh” is sin (in God’s Word and in ourselves) we miss another very important verse, arguably the most important: 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

Dualism — whether it’s in an early Christian heresy or our own mindset during recovery — misses the Incarnation: the fact that God Himself became man. He didn’t think the flesh was a dark enemy to be defeated, but a broken creation to be redeemed. Disciplining the body certainly has its place in recovery, not because your body is the enemy, but because it’s just one step in becoming an integrated human being: mind, body, and soul. Without one, there can be no whole. Christ gave us the perfect example of this integration; His whole being was alive, extended in love, and obedient to the Father. That’s true victory. 

Your body is meant to be loved, sacrificed in love through your daily calling, and welcomed into eternal life when it is raised up into what it was meant to be: just as Christ’s was. 

When you’re tempted to see your body as the enemy, perhaps spend some time in the presence of His. The body that feels only capable of sin is the same one that allows you to kneel before and receive Him. He doesn’t see it as the enemy; to Him, it’s worth loving, feeding, and redeeming. And if Christ doesn’t see your body as the enemy, neither should you.