17. "The flesh" is the grasping way of being in the finite world that follows upon an anguished recognition that we are closed in by others and have no final control of our fate. What, then, is its opposite? Paul would have said "spirit," but this is as much metaphor for him as "flesh." "The spirit" is not some non-material component of the human being, placed in contrast with the material body—particularly, as we tend to assume, with the genitals. Contrary to what some Christians have supposed, virginity does not save a person from "the flesh."
The opposite of living in "the flesh" is to live by trust, hope, and love—the means by which a finite but conscious being can discover and build on the riches of finitude. This is what it means to live in the spirit.