Carnal Christian
1 Corinthians 3:1 – 3
By: Pastor J. B. Hall
Introduction: I believe there are 2 major problems in the local church: lost church members, and carnal Christians. Today I’d like to discuss the latter. The title of the message is Carnal Christian.
If we’re going to discuss the carnal Christian, we need to get a definition for the word carnal:
Carnal – def. 1. Pertaining to flesh; fleshly; sensual; opposed to spiritual; as carnal pleasure. 2. Being in the natural state; unregenerate.
So, a carnal Christian is one who is truly saved but who has not grown spiritually; who is still in the stage of infancy; one who is still living like a lost person.
This poses a real problem because the church is a spiritual body, and is designed to operate on a spiritual plane. The carnal Christian though, operates in the flesh which is opposed to the spiritual law of God. Romans 8:7 & 8 say, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The carnal Christian then, much like the lost person, serves to oppose the work of God in a church. He has his own agenda and is completely insensitive and unresponsive to the spiritual work God is trying to accomplish in His church.
God is interested in the eternal souls of lost people, and is working to help them come to a saving faith in Jesus. He is also concerned about the spiritual health and welfare of those who are saved, and is actively working in their lives and in the church to help them mature properly.
The carnal Christian though, pursues an agenda of majoring on the minors while ignoring the weightier matters that are of a spiritual nature. He is consumed with trivial things to the complete disregard of the spiritual needs of those around him.
In Verse 3 Paul gives us 3 identifying marks of a carnal Christian, envying, strife, and divisions.
1. Envying
A. Def, 1. Feeling uneasiness at the superior condition and happiness of another. 2. EN'VYING, n. Mortification [depression, vexation] experienced at the supposed prosperity and happiness of another. 3. Ill will at others, on account of some supposed superiority.
B. Instead of focusing on his own life, and keeping himself in a right, vibrant, relationship with the Lord, the carnal Christian is virtually always concerned with, watching, critiquing, and criticizing those around him.
C. It seems that whoever he is focused on can do no right.
D. If this person is not doing what he thinks he ought to be doing, he criticizes him for his inaction.
E. If the person he is focusing on is actively involved, he criticizes him for wanting all the attention, or for wanting to run everything.
F. If the person of his focus is doing something he wants him to do, he is not doing it the way he should.
G. In other words, whether he is focusing on an individual or other people in general, it doesn’t matter what they do, something will always be wrong with it.
H. Somehow, the carnal Christian always feels he is being shortchanged; he is always being upstaged; someone who ‘certainly doesn’t deserve it’ is always being seen or treated as superior to him.
I. If someone else is enjoying his Christian life, the carnal Christian will be looking for an objectionable source of his joy; unwilling to accept that he is in right relationship with the Lord and his joy is a result of that.
J. The carnal Christian is always envious, always frustrated, always irritated at other people; unwilling to accept that the source of his frustration lies within himself.
K. Envying is a clear marker that reveals the true fleshly, worldly nature of the carnal Christian.
2. Strife
A. Def. 1. Exertion or contention for superiority; 2. Contention in anger or enmity; contest; struggle for victory; quarrel or war.
B. Strife differs from envying in that envying involves feelings, which can be expressed; but strife is active contention, struggle, and conflict; as the carnal Christian takes action to move himself into a position of superiority, or control.
C. The carnal Christian must be in charge; he must be in control regardless of whether or not the area he is seeking to control is his area of expertise, or his area of responsibility.
D. He is critical and in opposition to almost everything anyone else initiates.
E. Political maneuvering is his game; control is his goal; and he will pursue this control regardless of the spiritual damage he does to others around him, or to the spiritual damage he does to the church.
F. His concern is not the spiritual welfare of others, but the superiority of his own position.
G. The carnal Christian then is often in direct opposition to what God is doing, because what God is doing is often a threat to his power base, to his control; and he just cannot have that!
H. In 3 John, 9 John speaks of just such an individual: “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.”
I. Diotrephes was opposing the Lord’s apostle because he wanted the preeminence [supremacy, superiority]!
J. He actively resisted the Lord’s appointed representative because of his desire for control and superiority; and in so doing, became the enemy of God and the opponent of what He was trying to accomplish through his representative to that church.
K. So then, strife, active opposition to God’s people and God’s work, is a clear marker identifying the carnal Christian.
3. Divisions
A. Def. 1. The act of dividing or separating into parts, any entire body. 2. The state of being divided. 3. That which divides or separates; that which keeps apart; partition.
B. God is adamant in His Word about maintaining unity in the church!
C. This is no small thing with God.
D. 1 Corinthians 1:13a asks, “Is Christ divided?...”
E. Ephesians 4:3 & 4 say, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;”
F. Those who are causing divisions then, are operating according to a naturalistic, fleshly, sensual, worldly, selfish system.
G. Christ is not divided; the church must maintain unity; therefore the carnal Christian is pursuing his own way at the expense of the church of the living God!
H. Those who highlight and verbalize the defects of others to you in order to cause division between you and them, are in fact the enemies of God.
I. Proverbs 6:16 & 19 say, “These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination to him:” “A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
J. The spiritual Christian will forgive and restore the one who has offended.
K. The carnal Christian thrives on the offenses of others; using them to cause divisions between brothers and sisters; and in so doing, becomes an abomination to God and an enemy of what He is trying to accomplish in His church.
L. Divisions, then, are clear indicators that carnal Christians are at work in the church.
4. Unteachable
A. 1 Corinthians 3:1, Paul says that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
B. Carnal Christians are unteachable when it comes to things they should be able to understand.
C. They have to be taught like brand new Christians, though they are much older in the Lord.
D. In much the same way a young child cannot chew or digest meat, and must be fed with milk, a carnal Christian cannot process or grasp truths that mature children of God should be able to grasp.
E. They have to be taught the very basic truths that they should have assimilated into their lives years earlier.
F. Hebrews 5:12 puts it like this, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
G. How sad that people who have been saved long enough they should be genuine spiritual leaders, become opponents of spiritual work, and have to be treated as a new Christian because they have failed to mature in the Lord.
H. Like a child tasting and then spitting out a piece of meat, these reject spiritual truth that will help them go on to spiritual maturity, and must be retrained in the basic principles of Christian discipleship.
I. Sadly, they often even reject basic principles because they are too involved in the activities we discussed earlier: envying, striving, and causing divisions.
J. At the first sign a child is not maturing properly, he is immediately taken to a doctor to find out the reason why and to try to find a solution that will correct the problem.
K. The underdeveloped Christian however, often goes neglected, with church leadership expecting correction to happen naturally.
L. But, just like a child whose natural growth process is being inhibited, sometimes intervention with corrective measures must be applied to correct the problem and get the child back to proper growth patterns.
M. Please allow me to speak plainly here; and I speak out of love, out of concern, not criticism: One can invest many years preaching and teaching basic spiritual principles, and yet there are those who will just not get them; not because they are unable to comprehend them, but because they are unwilling to.
N. They have closed their hearts to spiritual interests; choosing rather to operate by worldly political maneuvering; more interested in seizing or maintaining control than in getting the gospel to those who are on their way to hell!
O. Being unteachable, unable to accept plain Biblical truth, is a clear indicator that someone has the nature of a carnal Christian.
• What then, is the remedy for maturing out of carnality?
1. Verses 5 & 9 – The carnal Christian must accept the equality of believers and not exercise partiality.
A. Carnality remains as long as one views himself as superior to others; or, as someone else as superior to himself or others.
B. The carnal Christian must begin to view and treat all people with equity and respect.
C. James 2:1 – 4 (Read) – Verses 8 – 10 say then, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:” “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
D. The scripture is very clear that the body of Christ is made up of individuals who are diverse in giftedness, but equal in status.
E. Therefore, those who minister and those to whom they minister are laborers together with God.
F. Often the reason someone displays partiality or criticism toward others is because he is suffering from an inferiority complex.
G. In gravitating toward more popular individuals, he is perhaps subconsciously attempting to associate himself with a higher standard than he believes he is capable of projecting himself, and therefore will be thought of more highly.
H. When he is critical of others, a person with an inferiority complex seeks to diminish the perceived superiority he feels they have to him.
I. Accepting the equality of believers and not viewing or treating others with partiality is taking a stride in moving from carnality to spiritual maturity.
2. Verse 9a – The carnal Christian must realize he is a labourer, not a critic.
A. When one understands and accepts his station in life as being a laborer, he will then focus on the labor he has been called and appointed to do instead of spending his time critiquing and criticizing others for what they are not doing, or, for what they are doing.
B. Have you ever noticed that those who are the most critical of others are those who are least involved in the work?
C. However, from time to time someone will be overtaken in a fault.
D. The Bible is clear though, that those who are spiritual are to do the restoring of the erring one.
E. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
F. The carnal Christian would be more apt to criticize the one who has erred, and continue to remind him of his sin, rather than attempt to restore him to fellowship with God and with the church.
G. The carnal Christian then, must accept his role as a laborer and resist the urge to criticize, if he is going to move toward spiritual maturity.
3. Verse 9 – The carnal Christian must realize he is involved as a co-laborer with God in a spiritual work.
A. This will refocus him on the eternal nature of the activity he is involved in and help him to begin to view temporal things as being less significant.
B. Then, instead of being an impediment to the work God is attempting to accomplish, he becomes a partner with Him in that work.
C. This will also allow him to see just how important the work he is involved in is.
D. The carnal mind thinks of spiritual activity as insignificant, and of political maneuvering as high on the scale of importance.
E. But, when he understands his role as a co-laborer with God in an eternal spiritual work, his view of the importance of the roles of the spiritual and the temporal activity in his life is corrected.
F. Realizing and accepting the fact that God saved him to serve in His eternal spiritual kingdom is a great step toward maturing out of carnality.
4. Verses 18 & 19 – The carnal Christian must exchange the world’s wisdom for the spiritual wisdom of God.
A. God’s perspective and approach to everything in life is diametrically opposed to the world’s way.
B. When the carnal Christian is willing to forego the world’s system of looking at things; and the world’s system of operation, and is willing to begin operating by spiritual principles that express the wisdom of God, he is on his way to maturing beyond carnality.
C. 1 Corinthians 1:20 asks, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”
D. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world; but those who are of this world believe the wisdom of God to be foolish.
E. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
F. The carnal Christian must be willing to be viewed as foolish in order to obtain true wisdom.
G. This means he will suffer the contempt of others around him when he exchanges the world’s wisdom for the spiritual wisdom of God.
H. The intimidation of being rejected by those who are popular or socially accepted, gives hesitation to the carnal Christian; but if he is going to mature beyond carnality, he must be willing to accept the rejection.
I. When the carnal Christian is willing to experience social rebuff in order to secure and operate his life according to the spiritual wisdom of God, he is well on his way to moving beyond carnality to spiritual maturity.
Let’s Review:
(1) Carnality is not only displayed as personal immoral behavior; it is often displayed in much more subtle ways.
(2) Carnal Christians operate within the church; functioning much like a lost person; pursuing fleshly, selfish goals to the disregard of the eternal spiritual lives of those around them; and are opponents of what God is trying to accomplish in His church.
(3) Their lives are marked by envying, strife, divisions, and the inability to be taught things mature Christians should be able to accept and digest.
(4) The remedy for maturing beyond carnality and becoming a spiritual Christian is to accept, and begin to operate their lives by, the principles and wisdom of God found in the Word of God.
(5) Understanding and accepting the equality of believers; realizing he is a laborer and not a critic; understanding he is involved as a co-laborer with God in a spiritual work; and being willing to exchange the world’s wisdom for the spiritual wisdom of God, will help the carnal Christian begin to mature according to normal growth patterns, and to move beyond carnality to spiritual maturity.
Are you a carnal Christian? Remember, the carnal Christian will say, “I’m sure glad ’ole brother or ’ole sister so-and-so heard this one.
This is not a time to evaluate the life of someone else. This is a time to take an honest look at your own life and determine if you fit the definition of a carnal Christian.
If you are, today you can begin to take steps to remedy your error and correct your opposition to God’s efforts by becoming a co-laborer with Him in the eternal spiritual work that He is doing in the lives of people.
Will you choose to take the initial steps to begin the process of maturing beyond carnality to spiritual adulthood right now?
