SPIRITUAL OR CARNAL?
reaches their teenage years and still needs their diaper changed—
ICE BREAKER: Name one way that you’ve changed since you
were a child. (Please try not to repeat someone else’s answer.)
SCRIPTURES: Romans 8:5, 1Corinthians 3:1-3, Galatians 5:16-
18, Galatians 5:24-25, Galatians 6:8
SPIRITUAL OR CARNAL?
Introduction:
The apostle Paul spent 18 months in the city of Corinth, teaching its
inhabitants the Word of God (Acts 18:11). Yet, with great sorrow,
he later wrote and told them: “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was
with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I
had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you
were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk and
not with solid food, because you couldn’t handle anything stronger.
And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your own
sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each
other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your own desires?
You are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord.” (1
Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT)
When Paul first arrived in the city of Corinth, he found the
Corinthians to be ordinary people with normal human desires.
Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that Paul taught them for 18
months, the Corinthians never advanced very far beyond the natural
outlook of flesh and blood. The Corinthians were not backslidden.
They just never grew up. They chose to remain baby Christians.
There is nothing wrong with babies. Babies are delightful creatures,
although they do require a lot of care. They burp and spit up; cry
when they don’t get their way; and are very messy. Someone once
described a baby as an alimentary canal with a mouth at one end and
no responsibility at the other! But, no one seems to mind too much,
because that’s normal for infants. On the other hand, when a child
now that is a disgusting condition. That is exactly what the apostle
Paul was talking about here. The Corinthian believers remained
infants long past the point where they should have grown up.
People who remain carnal after receiving the Holy Spirit are still
governed by the thinking of their flesh—just like men and women
who do not have the Spirit. The flesh controls these people because
they are not surrendered to the Spirit. The apostle Paul described
this fleshly, carnal condition as, “spiritual babyhood.”
There are many evidences of carnality, but one of the main ones is
weakness. People who still struggle with profanity 6 months after
coming to Christ are very weak spiritually. Examine their walk with
God, and you’ll probably discover that they are not very committed
to serving the Lord, and are still keeping the same bad company that
they kept before they were saved. Another example of spiritual
weakness is fasting. Carnal believers can barely fast one meal,
while those who are spiritual can fast for several days.
The longer we serve God, the more evidence there ought to be
(outwardly) that Jesus Christ is living within us. This does not mean
that we can improve on self, because our best human efforts fall far
short of God’s perfection. However, the more we submit to Christ,
the better our actions, attitudes, and everything else about us will
become. On my own, I cannot improve very much. But, if I walk in
submission to God, and regularly renew my mind in the Word of
God, Christ will give me the power to defeat sin in my life.
Another characteristic of carnal believers is that their wants are not
what they ought to be. Paul said, “I fed you with milk and not with
solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even
now you still are not able.” Some signs that our wants are immature
are a shallow, haphazard prayer life, inadequate tithes and offerings,
and rarely taking time to read the Bible. These are all signs of
babyhood, and they grieve the heart of God.
In Galatians 5:16, the apostle Paul said, “…Let the Spirit direct your
lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.” We
cannot walk in the Spirit and at the same time, live fleshly. The
choice is up to us. Since we can only do one or the other—if we
keep feeding our spiritual man—we will remain spiritually minded.

It’s not enough to want to go to heaven. The desire of your heart,

the deepest interest of your life, the very longing of your soul—must
be Jesus Christ. If it is anything or anyone else, it is of the flesh, and
not of the Spirit.

Discussions:

1. How is it true that the longer we serve God, the more

evidence there ought to be (outwardly) that Jesus Christ is living
within us?
(* The thing that stops people from becoming Christ-like is that they
refuse to surrender their old, carnal ways of living and refuse to
follow the Spirit’s leading.)
(* People didn’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them in the
Old Testament, but those who followed God’s Laws became very
Christ-like. See John 1:47)
2. In what way do we have a choice between being spiritual or
carnal? Please explain your answer.
(* We cannot become spiritual overnight, but we do have a choice
between living spiritually or living carnally EACH day. A
weightlifter, a would-be musician, and a person on a diet have much
in common. Only through DAILY exercise, denial, & practice can
they achieve their goals.)
3. What do you do on a regular basis to build yourself up
spiritually?
4. Describe your struggles and successes in allowing the Holy
Spirit to control your life.