Can a True Christian be Carnal?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/the-message-wisdom-power-of-the-cross-1-corinthians-1-18-2-16/

Well, hi, friends. Here’s the question for today. What is a carnal person? And can a carnal person be a Christian? That word carnal is obviously not a word we use a whole lot in our day and age, but it comes up a few times in the book of 1 Corinthians, as we’re, as some of you know, going through a sermon series in the book of 1 Corinthians.

And if you ever miss any of our Sunday morning messages, encourage you to go back and look at those online. You can watch those. But one of the things that the apostle Paul does, who wrote the letter to the Corinthians, is various times throughout this letter, he subdivides people into different categories.

For instance, he, in chapter one, we looked at this last Sunday, divides the people between those who are perishing and those who have eternal life, and that the difference is in how they deal with the message of the cross. And so we took a look at that.

Well, there’s also another subdivision that Paul uses in chapter three that he talks about this idea of being carnal versus being spiritual. And I just want to read the first few verses of chapter three of 1 Corinthians. It says, brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, as spiritual people, but as people who are still carnal, still worldly, mere infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. And indeed, you are still not ready.

You are still worldly, you are still carnal. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not carnal? Are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? So what does it mean to be, first of all, carnal?

Because we don’t use that word a whole lot. And it’s helpful, depending upon the translation that you use that to know that that Greek word that Paul uses, there is a word for worldly or fleshly, and it’s speaking to somebody who is living out of their old sin nature. Now, the question is, can a person be carnal and be a Christian?

And one of the clues that we have in that passage, you notice it started in verse one of chapter three by saying brothers and sisters. And whenever Paul tends to use that phrase, he uses it almost exclusively, as if he’s talking to believers, talking to Christians.

And then he in the same breath says, are you not being carnal? Are you not being worldly? So, yes, a Christian can still be carnal, can still be worldly. The question is, for how long can they be carnal. For how long can they be worldly?

And what does that say? So there is a couple different extremes that you may have seen and have experienced. I know I have. In terms of the ways of people living. There are some people who are believers and they’re very sincere, but they feel bad about being carnal or giving into temptation at a time or going back to live a life that is very un-Christlike, and they need to repent of that, and they feel bad about that.

And then some people even go so far as wondering, am I still a Christian if I live that way? And we have seen that. Again, just because you are carnal does not mean that you have lost your salvation. In fact, the very fact that a person would even ask that question to me is a good indication that the spirit is still stirring up a desire to obey, that there is spiritual life within you, and you just need to acknowledge what the spirit is convicting you of.

That, yes, you are still at times wrestling with your fleshly nature.

The apostle Paul wrestled with that. In Romans chapter seven, he talks about, even as a follower of Jesus, the things that I want to do, that I know I should be doing, I just don’t do sometimes. And the things I don’t want to do, I find myself end up doing those things. Why do I do that? And it’s because even after becoming a Christian, we still have our flesh, we still have a sin nature, that as long as we are here on the earth, we’re going to have.

We are going to have this battle that the life of the Christian should be typified by the battle versus the Holy Spirit within us, that indwells us, that should be ruling, versus our old sin nature. And there’s going to be this internal struggle, and it’s going to feel like, especially for spiritual infants, those who are brand new to the faith, as if the flesh is winning a lot more than the spirit.

But the fact that you are even wanting to, to follow Jesus, even in the midst of that, and acknowledge that you are out of step with the spirit because you have been worldly or carnal or fleshly, and that the things in your life, your priorities have not been right, and you’ve not been loving God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind.

You’ve been selfish, you’ve been prideful, whatever it is, that doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your salvation. But on the other hand, there’s the other extreme that we don’t want to go to.

And that is a Christian can live any old way that they want and that there are no consequences. We know from Galatians six that God is never mocked, that a person reaps what they sow, and that all of our actions have a measure of consequence. And if a person who claims to be a believer continues to live in a way that they look more like an unbeliever, and they don’t have a sense of repentance or obedience or reconciliation with God around that, it’s a reasonable question.

The longer that that goes to be asked is that person, has that person ever become a Christian? Meaning, have they just been going through the motions their whole life?

Or if they have been a Christian, how long is God going to continue to allow them to be in that place? One thing we can be sure of is that God is a loving God, and he gives us exactly what we need. And sometimes what we need is his loving hand of discipline and redirection. And sometimes we can ignore that hand of redirection, can’t we?

And we can be stubborn and we can ignore it, and we can be like Jonah, and we can harden our heart towards God, and we can think that we’re doing the right things, and there comes a point where there are consequences to that, and we should not play around with that.

The fear of God ought to overcome us in that moment. Our reverence and love for God ought to remind us that God is not some mere figurehead up in heaven who is removed. He sees all, he knows all, and he is not to be mocked. And he cannot be mocked. He will not put up with that.

So we should not go to either extreme as we think about what does it mean to be carnal? Can you be carnal and be a Christian? Yes. That doesn’t mean you’ve lost your salvation, but it doesn’t mean that you have license to just do whatever you want, and that there’s no consequences for that. We are accountable for our actions before God.

And so part of what Paul is concerned about is the ways that we can be carnal is he was concerned that the Corinthians, they should be further along by now in their faith, but they are resorting to things that spiritual infants might do or even unbelievers might do. And he’s saying, that’s not the way you received Christ, friends.

The way that you received Christ is through salvation, through weakness, grace, God’s grace, nothing of your own. So God gets all the credit. There’s nothing we can be boasting in our focus should be on him at all times.

And not on rivalries and factions and all those things. So as we seem to, or see how we can walk with the Lord, let’s look to the Lord and his spirit and have him shine a light in our lives and show us ways that we might be worldly or carnal and out of step. And as he exposes those things, may we repent of and may we confess and be made right with him.

Again, I hope that this has been helpful to you. Thanks so much for joining us today.