It Starts Small

3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:1

Yesterday I wrote about the natural man. The natural man is someone who can not hear or see the things of God because they have not the Spirit in them. They are of the world and of God. They are spiritually dead and can not discern the things of God.

What are carnal men? Carnal men are those who have received Christ, but does what is unnatural. They are a spiritual monstrosity. They are saved, but weird. There are three marks of a carnal man.

#1 Defeated

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:1

Carnal men are those who are saved, but have no victory in their lives. The word carnal, means to be fleshly. It means to be ruled and controlled by the flesh. Carnal men can not walk spiritually, war spiritually or work spiritually. They are marked by their inability. They are spiritual babies who never grow up and mature spiritually.

The average Christian is a carnal Christian. They are saved and are good to just be saved but never fully turn away from their sin nature to walk in a relationship with God. They happily live their lives sinning and stick with the simple “abcs” of their walk. They are happy to say yes to their sinful flesh and no to God’s desires.

The carnal Christian should have outgrown their baby stage years ago and they stay stagnant and unproductive. A carnal Christian who controlled by their sin nature has no natural growth in their spiritual maturity. A carnal Christian thinks, acts, and talks like a natural man. Their internal is self-centered and all they do is related to their internal selfishness.

#2 Dependent

² I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 1 Corinthians 3:2

Carnal Christians are the kind of people who have to be spoon fed sermons. They are dependent on someone else teaching them. They show up on Sunday morning and act righteous while the rest of the week they live their lives as natural men. They have no desire to walk with God or to have a relationship with God.

They do not seek God in all they do nor do they sit with God to receive his truth. Doing so would put the mirror in front of their faces and it would cause them to see their own reflection of unrighteousness. Carnal Christians choose to be cognitively ignorant to hang onto their sinful nature.

The carnal believer is one who is not yielding to the Holy Spirit. The only way this carnal lifestyle can be changed is by allowing the Holy Spirit to take control.

#3 Deceivers

³ For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 1 Corinthians 3:3

Carnal Christians are great deceivers and suffer envying and causing strife and divisions int he home and church. They walk as other men and can not get along with anyone. Instead of following the leading of the Holy Spirit, he chooses to allow the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride tempt him, which produces ungodly works and the inability to grow in Spiritual maturity and discernment. Sadly, the carnal man often claims he is a Christian, but demonstrates to the world that Christians are no different than anyone else.

I can testify for a very long time I was a carnal Christian. You could not see a difference between me and a natural man. I lived as I wanted. I sinned, and felt bad about sinning, but I never had a real moment of redemption or confession. Instead of developing a deep rooted spiritual relationship with my Heavenly Father I just shook it off as sin and kept walking my own way.

I call it being spiritually ignorant. I wished I could say that I did not know how to grow a relationship with God or how to tear the death clothes of my old nature off. The truth is, until this last year I never really tried to understand. I let myself get lead by a natural man in all things spiritual. I watched him and id as he did thinking he was the leader and he had a great spiritual understanding.

I did not try to seek my own spiritual understanding or relationship. I used the same old excuse, I do not know how. Pastor Rodgers said in a sermon, Can you be accused of being a Christian? What evidence can anyone bring to the trial to prove you are who you say you are? That really had depth in my heart. No one could accuse me of being Christian.

What about you? If you were put on trial today for being a Christian, could you be found guilty?