What does "living for the flesh" actually mean?

Living for yourself, giving into things like sex or addictions. Not living life in a way that serves god or any other bullshit that goes against whatever the person saying it wants to shame you into doing or believing.

Being a hedonist.

Living for the flesh is the antithesis of living in the spirit.

Yes, we shouldn’t enjoy certain things that has to do with our bodies, according to some Christians, They get to pick and choose which ones are ok and which ones are not.

It means neglecting supposed spiritual requirements. It’s a clever trick. You invent a cult, then claim the necessity that it be adhered to in order to avoid the label “defective”.

It means they are ready to pass a judgment upon you even after their lord and savior commands them not to.

Christianity is a very dualistic belief system: good vs. evil, body vs. soul (or spirit), etc. The universe becomes a huge battleground between opposing forces, as does the human being. Thus you have St. Paul talking about “leading my body about like a slave” and generally suggesting that having a body is like being manicled to an unruly and perverse beast. Its desires are fundamentally incompatible with the welfare of the soul/spirit, and aren’t to be conceded to. This wasn’t so much a feature of Jesus’ perported teachings, more a Paul thing (some religious scholars argue that what has come down to us as Christianity is really shaped more by Paul than by Jesus).

Most religions have some way of addressing a nearly universal human experience: a perceived conflict between what we want to do and what we should do. This is the basic meaning of “jihad” in Islam; Buddhism uses the language of “wisdom” and “delusion” to frame the conflict. But even non-religious people have this sense of internal conflict, though they might be more likely to frame it in psychological (id/ego/superego) or neurological terms.

My own sense is that whatever way one chooses to interpret the inner conflict, it is by definition one’s own conflict to resolve and not anyone else’s business.

Living in the flesh simply means focusing on and putting your fleshly desires (things that aren’t healthy spiritually, physically, mentally, etc.) above your morals. Many Christians have different levels of belief on what is considered immoral fleshly desires. Depends on how strictly you’re raised.

I’m a Christian and I’ve lived with a boyfriend I had for two years and we weren’t married. I wasn’t convicted about it but I knew some people who feel that’s living according to the flesh and feel convicted about living with a significant other before marriage. From my viewpoint and own personal Christian walk in life, I feel that God will convict you on things that you’re struggling with morally, and that can be different things for different people.

Living for the flesh to me means you got a major horndog on your hands. I’m surprised to hear the term being used seriously. Sounds like an American Christian thing to me—a very special breed indeed.

In the last twenty years I’ve notice a rather significant turn-around from a lot of Christians on the subject of sex. The whole Kama Sutra seems to be OK with them nowadays, as long as it’s between hetero married couple. Don’t laugh. It still may be vanilla, but there’s been some interesting toppings added and that’s a major concession for these people.

I have a friend, a woman, who meets me at the yacht club now and then for cocktails on Friday afternoons. We’re both flat broke, by the way, and that’s our little secret. Any way, it’s one of the few places here to have drinks with Americans and Brits. She has a friend there who is a church-going Christian. Episcopal, I think. The three of us were talking while nursing our drinks when this friend invited my friend to join her in going to church on Sunday. Then this very attractive lady turns to me a smiles, moves in close while pretending to button the top button of my shirt, looks me in the eye and says, “I won’t ask you. You don’t look like the church-going type.”

Jesus Christ. That’s not the bible beaters I remember. I still don’t know what to think of it. My friend laughed her ass off afterwards. You don’t look like the church-going type. That’s some damn good radar you got there, lady. (Well, it’s true that I haven’t gone regularly since I was in highschool). But WTF was that?

Funny, Crow! Reminds me of a UU congregation that once hired me for their music ministry in the eighties…swingers one and all!

Back on topic…

The opposite of living for the flesh is referred to as mortification, a spiritual practice that has its roots in monasticism. An extremely form of this would be self-flagellation, not for sexual reasons (supposedly) but as an act of piety and penance.