SPIRITUAL OR CARNAL?
1 Corinthians 3:1-5 NKJV
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
Paul had challenges with the church in Corinth. These people had a genuine desire for the Lord, but they were so carnal. Carnal simply means fleshy. Or we could say flesh ruled. Paul is not pleased with their fleshy ways and is mincing no words in his addressing the situation.
Paul said he could not talk to these Corinthian believers as spiritual people but as carnal. Paul even called them spiritual babies in Christ. That is revealing. No one starts out in this Christian walk as a mature believer. We all come in as spiritual babes and then start the process of growing up. Natural babies are fleshy. They are ruled by their fleshly desires. If they are hungry, or wet, or upset, they don’t wait. They immediately declare it. You can’t tell a two-month-old baby to wait to be fed. Oh, you can try, but they’re going to cry anyway. They are babies ruled by their flesh.
Paul told these Corinthian believers that they were spiritual babies and had to be fed with milk, not solid food. This is another revealing truth. Young Christians are unable to swallow some spiritual concepts. You don’t feed babies steak when they are eight months old. They get milk and baby food.
Paul shows the Corinthians why he referred to them as spiritual babies. In the church there in Corinth, there was envy, strife and divisions. These three things revealed that the church was still fleshy and acting as mere men. That’s another fascinating phrase - acting as mere men. One translation says mere unchanged men. The point is clear. Their jealousy, arguing, and division were evidence that they were ruled by their flesh. And instead of acting like changed people, people who were new creations in Christ. They were acting as if they never had become believers.
One of the key indicators of carnality is dividing into camps. These believers in Corinth were choosing their favorite preachers and identifying with them. Instead of unifying around the identification that we all have in Christ, they were connecting with men. Paul bluntly states that is carnal, fleshy, mere unchanged men’s ways. He then asks a rhetorical question. Who are Paul and Apollos? And then answers the question. Ministers of the Lord by whom you believed. Paul is showing the church in Corinth that the answer is not in man but in the gospel. He had his work cut out with this group as he continues to exalt Jesus and play down the role of preachers.
APPLICATION
There is so much to glean from in this passage. We see the evidence of spiritual growth and how spiritual people act. We see how being fleshy, carnal, flesh ruled can show up in believers. And we see the problems involved with dividing into camps.
So we can recognize the need to grow as believers. The need to put away behavior that would indicate we are unchanged people. And the importance of identifying with Christ, not man. All of these are important if we are to make the transition from baby to mature. From milk to solid spiritual food. From carnal to spiritual.
PRAYER
Thank You, Lord, for helping me grow so that You can deal with me as a spiritual person, not a carnal one.