Spiritual Maturity Series

A man was out playing golf with his friend one day and he told him he was looking for a new caddy. And his friend said, “I know a great guy. He’s ninety years old but he’s got eyes like a hawk.” And his friend said, “He sounds great, tell him I’ll be playing next week.” The next week came and he met the older caddy and he started to play. On the first tee the golfer hit a perfect drive. He stood there for a few seconds admiring his shot and then he turned to the caddy and said, “Did you see where that went?” The caddy said, “I sure did, it was a beautiful shot.” O.K. said the golfer, “Where is it?” And the caddy said, “I don’t remember.”

Spiritual leaders I Corinthians 3:1-6

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 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. 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? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”

Now, remember that Paul is writing to these Corinthians because he’s heard some disastrous reports from several people about the quality of fellowship at their church.

It would be like Pastor Snel going away for a couple of weeks and calling Pastor Andy to see how things are at the church and Pastor Andy says, “Oh, things are great. The deacons met last night and four of them resigned, the missions committee voted to support some missionary that no one’s ever heard of and the women’s group are picketing in the parking lot but other than that every things seems to be going alright.”

And that’s the way it was in Corinth. These people were a mess and they didn’t even know it. They were so proud of their spiritual heritage and yet; they were fighting over everything. They thought they were so spiritual but Paul’s assessment was; they were wise in the ways of the world but they weren’t spiritually wise at all. And the reason he can say this is; their supposed wisdom had resulted in nothing but dissension and division.

And in chapter three Paul doesn’t dance around the issues but tells them flat out, “You’re not spiritual, you’re carnal.” And then, he goes on to explain why he made such a severe assessment.

So, we’ll look at this passage through three points. First, we’ll see the Corinthians carnality and then second, we’ll see, the evidence of their carnality and then third, we’ll see Paul’s challenge to these carnal believers.

I And we’ll begin with their carnality.

So, let’s go back and look at the very first verse I read because first words are always important. And here Paul says, “I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”

He pinpoints their problem when he says, “Are ye not carnal?” And we find this word carnal four times in four verses. The word “carnal” is translated from the Greek and it literally means “fleshly.” And the flesh refers to our selfish, fallen, sinful nature.

And Christians can be sealed with the Holy Spirit of God and still live in the flesh or live carnally. Alan Redpath wrote, "The carnal Christian is a child of God, he’s born again and on his way to heaven, but he’s traveling third class." J Vernon McGee said: “Some will be in heaven but they may smell like they were bought at a fire sale!”

A So, what does it mean to be carnal? The word carnal actually means “meat” like we say “chili con carne” which means chili with meat. Well, meat is the flesh and these people who thought they were so spiritual were people who were living in the flesh rather than the spirit.

In first John we’re told we have three enemies and they are: the world, the flesh and the devil. The world or worldliness is often portrayed by believers as social drinking and dancing but listen; it’s much more than having bad habits. It’s a way of thinking. It’s looking to the world around us and copying their values and standards rather than looking to the word of God.

After all, the world evaluates people by their clothing, their social position, their income or the amount of money they have or even their education; but all these things are external and they evaluate people by their head rather than their heart. It’s what have you achieved and not who are you?