The church is really a voluntary community. It is quite different from a country. A citizen of a country normally is born a citizen. He becomes a citizen involuntarily. Not so in the true church! To be a member of the church requires a choice. During the Reformation Period, the Reformers agreed between themselves that whoever was born in a Roman Catholic country would automatically be a Roman Catholic. Whoever was born in a Lutheran country would be a Lutheran. But that is not the biblical pattern.
Life in the church has requirements. The first requirement is acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s personal Saviour. This results in a born-again experience, which is called the new birth or to be born from heaven.
The second requirement is a new life living in obedience to the Lord. In fact, the new birth spiritually results in new life.
The third requirement is a new relationship with others. There is a bonding, a relationship, a union in the body. The church, in fact, is referred to as a “called out” community. That is really the meaning of the word ekklesia as it is found in the Greek New Testament.
Yet some members of the church seem to be nothing more than bench warmers. They could be called “do nothing” Christians. In I Corinthians 3:1-9, the apostle Paul called them babes in Christ. They might be characterized as bottle-fed or spoon-fed babies. Paul further defines babes in Christ as carnal. Well, what does the word carnal mean? It means “living after the flesh, fleshly Christians.” These are Christians who have not moved on in the spiritual dimension of their experience.
I will discuss the CALAMITY OF CARNALITY from I Corinthians 3:1-9:
1 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.
7 So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
The apostle Paul teaches us the tragic ACTIVITIES that result from the Calamity of Carnality.
The first activity is:
1 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.
Some may wonder, Is it possible that there are carnal Christians? Yes, Christians can be carnal. They are babes in Christ who should be growing, but whose progress has been frustrated. They are unable to digest nourishing food; they are incapable of taking in the truth. They are stunted, incapable of progress. Carnality, I say, frustrates progress. It is like standing on a treadmill motion but no direction.
Carnal Ch...
