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There is nothing wrong with being a baby--we all start out that way. Babies are cute and they are fun, but if a person is ten, twenty or thirty years old, it is not cute if he is still a baby, it's tragic. Infancy is dangerous because a baby is incapable of making good decisions. Failure to mature beyond babyhood signals a problem. Spiritually we all start out as babies but if we remain babies it is abnormal, tragic and dangerous.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul accuses the Corinthians of being spiritual babies when they should have been grown up. They were arguing like children. Paul diagnoses there spiritual condition, and it's not good! He rebukes them for remaining in the baby stage of their Christian lives.
In previous verses Paul told his readers that he was speaking God's wisdom which is only understandable to those who have the Spirit of God. To any person who has not been regenerated by God's Spirit, this wisdom is foolish. The focus of verses 6-16 of chapter 2 is the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. Illumination means to give light. The Holy Spirit grants understanding of the inspired revelation. By the work of the Spirit we come to an assurance that this is the Word of God and come to understand it further.
Natural man, man without the Holy Spirit, cannot understand God's Word. 1 Corinthians 2:14&15 delineates two different categories of men: the natural man and the spiritual man. Two additional categories are described in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. These four categories of men are described on the basis of their capacity for comprehending the truth of God's Word. Let's review the first two categories to refresh our thinking before we move on to chapter three.
1. The Natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14): This is the unsaved man who has no capacity to believe the Bible. Natural is from the Greek word psuchikos; it is explained as "having not the Spirit" in Jude 19. This person can understand what the Bible says because he can understand words but he does not have the capacity to believe them; he does not receive them and they are foolish to him. The natural man can read the Bible and even explain it, but for him to believe it as truth requires a work of God, the new birth or regeneration. Before his conversion, Paul understood the gospel and it made him so angry that he persecuted Christians. Then Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and Paul believed the gospel.
2. Spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:15): The spiritual person is the saved person; he has the ability to judge or discern spiritual things. The spiritual man is spiritual because he has been born again, and the Spirit of God indwells him (1 Corinthians 2:12). The Holy Spirit gives him the capacity to understand spiritual things; he is spiritually alive.
1 Corinthians 3 divides those who are spiritual into two categories. Both categories have the Spirit, but one group is spiritually mature and the other is carnal (fleshly).
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 (NKJV) "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it".
Paul called the Corinthians brethren which is a term of recognition and love. It reminded his brothers in Christ that they were still saved, and that their sinning, terrible and inexcusable as it was, did not forfeit their salvation.
Paul could not speak to them as spiritual men. They were believers, they had come through the door of faith but had gone no farther. They were in Christ but they were babies. Positionally they were spiritual, but in practice they were babies. Among those who are saved there are some who are spiritual and some who are carnal. Some are controlled by God's Spirit and some are controlled by their fleshly desires and impulses.
When Paul talks about the spiritually mature man he uses the Greek word pneumatikos; this is referring to a mature believer. Paul contrasts the Spiritual man with a babe. The Spiritual man is a mature believer; he is dominated by the Spirit and makes decisions in light of the truth of God. The same word Spiritual is used in 1 Corinthians 14:37: "If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord." Pneumatikos is put in the same class with a prophet--these men are the leaders in the church, the men of maturity and discernment.
Hebrews 5 tells us several identifying marks of those who are mature. First of all, they can handle the meat of the word according to Hebrews 5:12-14:
"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
Another way of saying that the spiritually mature can handle the meat of the word is to say that he has knowledge; the spiritual man knows the truths of the word of God. Many things are good spiritually, testimony meetings, Christian concerts, and care groups, but they will never lead to maturity in your life as a Christian. Only one thing that a believer controls brings maturity: the teaching of the Word of God. If a Christian wants to mature he must be taught the Word of God and he must personally study the Word. God also sovereignly controls our circumstances to grow us; as we learn from the Word of God we are able to respond properly to our circumstances. The New Testament emphasizes the importance of knowledge:
John 17:17 (NKJV) "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
1 Peter 2:2 (NKJV) "as newborn babes, desire the
pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) "All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
The mature Christian knows the Word; he makes time to study, read, and contemplate. The second qualification of spiritual maturity is skillful use of the Word of God. The spiritual man can use God's word to discover God's will for his life and to answer questions about life. Babies have lots of questions and they don't know how to discover the answers. Maturity comes with being able to find answers in God's Word.
The third qualification for spiritual maturity results from his knowledge of the Word of God and his skillful use of the word: he has the ability to practically discern the difference between good and evil in his spiritual life. He can make wise decisions about living in a way pleasing to the Lord. The goal of every one of us ought to be maturity. If we are going to be mature, we must be taught God's Word. A believer can never have too much teaching: he may not apply what he has learned, but he can never be over taught. A tadpole Christian, all head and no legs, results form good teaching which is never applied in service. There is a tremendous need for teaching in America today; the American church is very immature. We don't know the Bible and we don't know God, therefore we are not discerning. We don't know good from evil.
Paul could not speak to the Corinthians as spiritual but "as carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." The Corinthians were believers but they were carnal, not spiritual.
To review: the natural man is unsaved; the spiritual man is saved; some saved people are spiritually mature and some are carnal or controlled by the flesh.
The carnal Christians can be divided into two groups. Some are immature; they have not grown up yet because they are babes in Christ. Some are willfully carnal; they have had plenty of time to grow, but they are resisting the work of the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 3:1&2 Paul is talking historically; he came to Corinth and they were unbelievers so he preached the gospel, and they became believers in Christ. At that time they were new believers in Christ: they were "babes in Christ." They were immature Christians. The word he uses to describe them is "carnal" (Greek: sarkikos); it means to be controlled by the flesh. They were baby Christians and were being controlled by their flesh. Please do not misunderstand the term `the flesh'--it does not refer to the physical body. The flesh is man apart from God; it is the unregenerate part of man; it is the sin principle.
1 Corinthians 3:2 says that the immature Christian has a limited capacity for understanding all of the things of God. They are limited to milk because they cannot handle the meat. Is it a problem for a baby to only drink milk? No, that's all they can handle. But when a child is five years old and still only drinks milk, that is a problem. Baby Christians act like baby Christians and that is normal. When Paul calls them babes, referring to the time immediately after their conversion, he is not rebuking them.
What is the difference between milk and meat? Are they two areas of truth? No, all doctrines contain milk and meat. These classifications don't refer to areas of truth but to the depths of the truths. The doctrine of salvation is milk--babies can understand it--yet there are depths in the doctrine of salvation which no one comprehends because we cannot fathom the depths of God himself. Every subject has its milk and its meat. Calvin said, "Christ is milk for the babes and meat for the men." Different doctrines are not taught to babes than to theologians. Every doctrine that a theologian studies ought to be taught to a child, but it ought to be taught as milk not meat. We teach the doctrine of God's omnipresence, all of God is everywhere, to our children. We teach it in a milk form to them but there is meat in that doctrine. We teach our children that Christ became a man to die for our sins, the milk, but the doctrine of the incarnation contains depths that we can never fathom. Babes do not need new areas of truth; they need to plumb the depths of the truths they already know. Some truths may be too hard for a person to understand therefore he needs to grow and as he does he will grasp more and more. Illumination is progressive: the more we learn the more we grow and the more we grow the more were able to learn, but it takes work.
There is a practical lesson here for teachers and parents. When Paul came to Corinth he did not teach them a few doctrines and keep others back from them. Paul taught them the doctrine of election as is obvious from 1 Corinthians 1 & 2. The depths of that doctrine are contained in Romans 9, the meat of the doctrine. We who are parents or teachers ought to teach a balanced diet of all the doctrines of the Bible but at a level that our pupils can understand. We feed them milk first, then the meat as they mature. All teaching should contain milk and meat because students are at all levels. Immature believers grow by being exposed to the meat of the word. As the babe struggles chewing on the meat of the word, he grows and matures.
Immaturity is a normal stage of growth: we all start as babes. It is only when we stay babes that there is a problem. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Paul doesn't blame them for their immaturity; that was normal for new Christians. But as he comes to the end of verse two, he moves from the past to the present: "neither yet now are ye able." For a person to be a babe when he should have grown up is a tragic condition. And that is where the Corinthians were, they should have matured but they were still babes.
For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:3)
The spiritual man is controlled by the Spirit but the carnal man is controlled by the flesh. This is a Christian that is controlled by their flesh in willful rebellion against God rather than immaturity due to young age. The evidence of their carnality is clear: there is envy and strife among them. Those are the works of the flesh and they were clearly manifested in their lives.
Christians are faced with a battle between the flesh and the spirit. Romans 7 and 8 deal with the spiritual life and Romans 7 deals particularly with the battle that we face.
Romans 7:14 "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Paul is a believer and he is expressing the battle that takes place between the flesh and the spirit. `I am carnal': I am controlled by the flesh, by my fleshly desires and goals. `Sold under sin': his flesh is in bondage to sin. Have you ever experienced this in your life? Romans 7:15-16 presents the proof of verse 14:
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
Romans 7:17 is the conclusion:
But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Paul is not avoiding responsibility for what he is doing. "I" refers to the spiritual man, the born again man who does not sin. But we all live in bodies that have the sin principle in them. A believer is a spirit that dwells in a body; he does not have two natures, he has one divine nature and the flesh. His new nature is holy, it does not sin because it is incapable of sin. "Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." (1 John 3:9, NKJV). This is a reference to the divine nature (His seed) in the believer.
When a believer sins it is a result of the flesh. A believer's body is not redeemed at salvation and the sin principle dwells in his body always pulling him down.
Romans 8:23 (NKJV) "Not only that, but we also who have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption
of our body."
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJV) "For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious
body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all
things to Himself."
Galatians 5:17 (NKJV) "For the flesh lusts against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are
contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things
that you wish."
Paul exclaims at the end of Romans 7: "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). His cry alludes to the practice that the citizens of Tarsus used to punish a murderer. The dead victim was bound to the murderer until the murderer also died. As believers, we are still tied to our dead bodies: every believer is a born again person living in a dead body. The flesh is constantly trying to control a believer's life, trying to pull him down. The believer always has the potential for internal spiritual struggle because he has the new nature dwelling in a body of sin; the regenerate man dwells in an unregenerate body.
With the sin principle still at work in our bodies, what hope do we have of leading a holy life? Because the Holy Spirit indwells the believer, His power is constantly available to the believer but that power will not operate in the believer's life unless he personally appropriates it by faith. Moment by moment we must trust the Holy Spirit for victory over the flesh as we see in Romans 8:4:
"That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
The believer has two options: he can walk according to the flesh which is allowing the flesh to control his life like a baby; or he can walk according to the Spirit which is allowing the Spirit to control his life. When we live according to the Spirit, God's righteous requirement is fulfilled in us.
Romans 8:5 tells us the key to living according to the Spirit:
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
The key to holy living is the believer's thought life. To mind the things of the flesh is to have the things of the flesh as the absorbing objects of our thought, interest, affection, and purpose. Since our minds are the very center of our being, our lifestyles are determined by the direction and substance of our thought life. What occupies your thought life? Paul tells us in Philippians what should occupy it:
Philippians 4:8 (NKJV) "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy; meditate on these things."
Romans 8:6 gives us two outcomes for two different thought patterns.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
A constantly carnal thought life will result in temporal death, separation from fellowship with God. Do you want life and peace? Then focus your thought life upon the spiritual. Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You." Peace is knowing that God is in control.
Romans 8:7 gives us the reason why the mind of the flesh is death.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
The flesh will not submit to God's law: it is sinful and rebellious. Apart from the Spirit's control, the flesh cannot submit to God's law. "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). There is an importance difference between being "in the flesh" (Greek: en sarkie) and walking "according to the flesh" (Greek: kata sarie). The man who is in the flesh is unsaved; the believer can live according to the flesh but he is not in the flesh.
Here is a theological question in light of Romans 8:8: Can an unregenerate man exercise faith? No, because if he could exercise faith, he could please God (Hebrews 11:6), but God is pleased by nothing of the flesh. Faith is God's gift to his elect. That's meat!
Romans 8:6-8 have been dealing with the state of the carnal man. The next verse returns to the situation of the spiritual man:
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:9)
You are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. If you do not have the Holy Spirit you are not a Christian. How do you know if you have the Holy Spirit ? What is the evidence of having the Holy Spirit? The evidence is faith; only believers believe.
1 John 5:1 (NKJV) "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him."
The only Scriptural assurance for salvation is faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:10 gives us one of the results of the indwelling of Christ:
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Everyone who is a Christian is a living person inside a dead body. This is the problem: our spiritually dead bodies always want to pull us down, to lead us to sin.
God has a solution for our predicament.
But if [since] the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)
The Holy Spirit dwells in each believer and the power that raised Christ from the dead is now available to overcome every believer's dead body. The life of God can be expressed through a body that is dead. Whenever you see a person living a Christ-like life, you are witnessing a resurrection miracle because that life is being lived out through a body that is spiritually dead. A Christ-like life is a resurrection kind of life because it is a triumph over death.
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh" (Romans 8:12). We are debtors to God and not to the flesh. We don't owe the flesh anything, so we don't have to give it what it wants. The next time you are tempted to give in to the flesh, do not argue with yourself because the flesh will win; look to God and trust in His resurrection power.
Because we have a choice between carnal living and spiritual living, we are presented with a warning:
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
"If" is a third class condition in the Greek: maybe you will, maybe you won't. There is a death option: If you allow the flesh to control your life, you will die! This refers to temporal death, loss of fellowship with God which results in chastening. Sin brings destruction and never any good thing. There is also a life option: We are to put to death the deeds of the body through the power of the Holy Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit is walking by faith and faith comes from spending time in the word of God. You will live an abundant life if you put to death the deeds of the body. Romans 6 teaches us that we are free not to sin.
Every believer at any point in time is either carnal or spiritual. When the Holy Spirit is in control, the believer is spiritual; when the flesh is in control, the believer is carnal. As a believer walks according to the Holy Spirit he makes progress in the Christian life; he grows spiritually. Spirituality is an absolute: a believer is either controlled by the Spirit or by the flesh.
The carnality at Corinth led to divisions in the church. Paul told us in chapter one that there were divisions in the church, and those divisions were due to envying and strife. He traces the envying and strife to their roots: the Corinthian believers were carnal, controlled by the flesh. There are many symptoms of carnality but there is none easier to detect than this one. A carnal Christian is divisive; he is out of fellowship with God and therefore out of step with everyone around him which results in strife and divisions. This lack of humility is one of the most obvious symptoms of carnality in the life of a believer. Stephen Brown illustrates this point through some facts horses and donkeys: when a group of thoroughbred horses face attack, they stand in a circle facing each other and kick out at the enemy with their hind legs. Donkeys face the enemy and kick each other! Carnal Christians are just like donkeys! They are constantly kicking at each other.
The carnal Christian stays a baby; he never grows up and therefore comes under the chastening hand of God. Paul asked the Corinthians, "Are ye not carnal and walk as men?" Carnal Christians act just like unsaved people. They live their lives like those who don't know God.
Carnality is caused by our willfulness; it is a refusal to accept the milk of the word. When we refuse the milk of the word we stay babes. We might hear the word but we refuse to apply it in our lives. That willfulness is carnality, and it causes our growth to be arrested. The cure for carnality is to confess our sin to God and to begin to be doers of the word, to submit to the word and apply it to our lives.
Spiritual life is a growth process; we are all at different levels and we should all be growing. Growth does not come from knowledge alone--we must apply what we know. As we live out what we know we will begin to grow. James 2:22 (NKJV) "Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?" Faith grows as it is exercised.
The Corinthians were afflicted with a case of arrested development. They were called to fellowship with the living God, (1 Corinthians 1:9) but their lives were hurt by carnality.
Believers, it's time to grow up and become mature Christians. To do this we need to cut a lot of the needless junk out of our lives and begin to spend time in the Word of God. We need to consume the milk of the word until we can begin to handle meat. As we study the word we must submit to it, living it out in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to grow up: there's a world to be won and a God to be glorified. To remain babies is tragic and dangerous.
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