SkillsMasters
Puritan Board Freshman
This verse reads, "you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord."
Do you think that "flesh" here refers to our sinfulness and our own sinful lusts or does it refer to our physical bodies?
The NLT supports the interpretation that it refers to their sinful nature in their translation:
"Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed"
Others, such as John MacArthur argue that Satan has no power over someone's spiritual condition and that all he can do was harm someone physically, so the "handing over to Satan" has to do with a physical affliction.
John Gill seems to agree with MacArthur here:
"for the destruction of the flesh; that is, that his body might be shook, buffeted, afflicted, and tortured in a terrible manner; that by this means he might be brought to a sense of his sin, to repentance for it, and make an humble acknowledgment of it:"
The first interpretation makes me question how handing someone over to Satan causes someone to repent if it does not mean afflict physically. What do you guys think?
Do you think that "flesh" here refers to our sinfulness and our own sinful lusts or does it refer to our physical bodies?
The NLT supports the interpretation that it refers to their sinful nature in their translation:
"Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed"
Others, such as John MacArthur argue that Satan has no power over someone's spiritual condition and that all he can do was harm someone physically, so the "handing over to Satan" has to do with a physical affliction.
John Gill seems to agree with MacArthur here:
"for the destruction of the flesh; that is, that his body might be shook, buffeted, afflicted, and tortured in a terrible manner; that by this means he might be brought to a sense of his sin, to repentance for it, and make an humble acknowledgment of it:"
The first interpretation makes me question how handing someone over to Satan causes someone to repent if it does not mean afflict physically. What do you guys think?
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