Carnality

1 Corinthians 3:1-3

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. . . . for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Many think of carnality as gross sin and often have difficulty believing such persons are truly saved. Others see carnality as returning to the past life, before salvation. In truth, carnality is the basic concept of flesh, or fleshly. It is trusting in human wisdom instead in Godly wisdom. It is being driven to make decisions by human reasoning. It is to be governed by human nature instead of by the Spirit of God.

I have heard, “We must be practical.” Or, “God gave us common sense and He expects us to use it.” The more one is trained in an area of life, the more they are tempted to trust their training and human wisdom, than any action of faith, trusting God. Of course, sensuality or self interests are certainly carnal, but Paul is addressing the more common carnality of believers. Paul calls the carnality as being like babes in Christ. Immature believers, or new believers who have not grown in their understanding of the ways of God.

We must be practical? No! We must trust God and be obedient to His leadership for us and for the church. We must use commons sense? No! We must be led by the Holy Spirit who will help us understand the Word of God, and enable us to obey.

The most common carnality seen in the church is trusting our own wisdom, in our service to Christ, rather than spending the time to know His will. Which often implies too little time with God in prayer and meditation. Too many pastors enter the pulpit trusting their ability to read and sermonize about a passage of Scripture. It takes protected time with God to know His will and prepare to preach on what He wants the people to hear. Often, too, Sunday School teachers will answer questions and explain Scripture according to their own preferences rather than spending the time to know the Scriptures and teach after having spent time with the Lord. It is OK to say “I don’t know, but I will find out for you.”

Another area where carnality seems to show up in churches is in business meetings or committee meetings where decisions are made to recommend church action. Too often the discussions are driven by current opinions, cultural concepts (ever hear “politically correct”) instead of prayerfully and carefully following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Check your response by Scripture because the Holy Spirit will not lead you differently than the ways of God revealed in Scripture. If you feel the Holy Spirit is leading to do differently than Scriptures teach, it is not the Holly Spirit. Most often it is human wisdom or fleshly desires driving the discussion and decisions. Some times it is fear, because of some past experience, and one is driven to try to fix the ways of God and teachings of Scripture. Carnality, has no part in the ways of God. Faith and obedience do.