Week 4: Part Two — The Flesh (Chapters 4–5 Overview): Desire Gone Wrong

1.Comer argues that the New Testament word 'flesh' (Greek: sarx) does not mean the physical body but rather the pull of disordered desire — the part of us that wants good things in bad ways or bad things instead of good ones. How does this definition change your reading of passages like Galatians 5 or Romans 7?

2.He notes that our culture has essentially reversed the traditional assessment of the flesh: what Scripture calls vice (sensual indulgence, the gratification of desire as a supreme good) is now widely celebrated as virtue. Do you agree with that cultural diagnosis? Where do you see this reversal most clearly?

3.Comer is careful to say that desire itself is not the problem — desire is a gift, part of what it means to be human and made in God's image. The problem is desire that has been disordered by the fall. How does this distinction protect against both Puritanical body-hatred and modern sensual indulgence? Where does it leave you personally?