Sarx denotes embodied creaturely life, and can also mark human standards, fleshly desires, humanity, or marital union.

The supplied verses most often use the term for embodied, mortal, or physically present life, whether of humans, animals, or Christ. Other contexts use it for merely human criteria or status, desires and defilement, humanity collectively, and the one-bodied union of husband and wife.

1. Embodied or mortal physical life · dominant

   The noun names bodily existence and its limits: in 1 Corinthians 15:39 the APB distinguishes the bodily kind of humans, animals, birds, and fish, while 1 Corinthians 15:50 places it with blood in a statement about what cannot inherit God's kingdom. In 2 Corinthians 4:11 it is called mortal, and 1 Peter 3:18 contrasts being put to death in it with being made alive in spirit.

   1 Corinthians 15:391 Corinthians 15:502 Corinthians 4:111 Peter 3:18Acts 2:311 Timothy 3:16
2. Human standpoint, status, or outward relation · common

   Several clauses qualify action or standing as being according to this term. In 1 Corinthians 1:26 the APB renders a contrast involving being wise, powerful, or of noble birth according to it; in 2 Corinthians 10:3, bodily walking is distinguished from waging war according to it. It also identifies earthly masters in Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22.

   1 Corinthians 1:262 Corinthians 10:32 Corinthians 5:16Ephesians 6:5Colossians 3:222 Corinthians 11:18
3. Desires and conduct needing rejection · common

   The term occurs in clauses about desires, defilement, and gratification. In Ephesians 2:3 the APB renders people as living in its desires and doing its wills, while 1 John 2:16 lists its desire among what is from the world rather than from the father. Colossians 2:23 and 2 Peter 2:10 likewise place it in warnings about gratification and defiling desire.

   Ephesians 2:31 John 2:16Colossians 2:232 Peter 2:102 Peter 2:182 Corinthians 7:1
4. Humanity as a collective · occasional

   In collective statements, the noun encompasses people generally. Acts 2:17 speaks of God's Spirit being poured out upon all flesh, and Galatians 2:16 says that no flesh will be justified by works of the law. 1 Corinthians 1:29 similarly states that no flesh may boast before God.

   Acts 2:17Galatians 2:161 Corinthians 1:291 Peter 1:24
5. One bodily union in marriage · rare

   In marriage and sexual-union statements, the noun marks the resulting one-bodied relation. In 1 Corinthians 6:16 the APB renders the joined pair as becoming one flesh, and Ephesians 5:31 uses the same expression for a man joined to his wife.

   1 Corinthians 6:16Ephesians 5:31

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the term as “flesh,” including bodily mortality, desire, and collective humanity; it also uses phrases such as “according to the flesh” and “in the flesh.” Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, its wording cannot by itself determine the term's contribution in every clause.