GROWING UP, SPIRITUALLY (By Rev Kenneth E. Hagin). PART IV Chapter 10 THE CARNAL MAN And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 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. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? —I Corinthians 3:1-3 Who is this carnal man? He is the babe in Christ. Not a newborn babe—when Paul wrote these Corinthians they were not newborn people. He plainly infers they should have been beyond where they were in their spiritual development. They seem to have been in about the same boat as the Hebrew Christians (Hebrews 5:12). Pauls letter to the Corinthians is written to born-again, Spirit-filled believers—even to a church which has all the gifts of the Spirit operating in it. He said to them, ye come behind in no gift, bragging on them a little first before he started to correct them (I Corinthians 1:7). He specifically mentioned that they didnt come behind in utterance—that means the utterance gifts (I Corinthians 1:5). You can see that when you get over to where he began to correct them. They were all trying to talk in tongues at once. Here is a thought that will help us in some of our thinking so we can grow. Spiritual gifts dont make you a full grown Christian. Often folks dont know what spirituality is. Some think being spiritual would be exercising a spiritual gift. That couldnt be so because here it plainly states these Corinthians were carnal and babes—and they had all the gifts of the Spirit operating in their church. Ive heard people say when a fellow Christian they thought to be carnal gave an utterance in tongues, or an interpretation, or prophecy, That couldnt be the Lord. I said, Why? Theyd say, Well because theyre carnal. I said, Do you mean to infer that carnal Christians cant have the Holy Ghost? Yes. That cant be so because you have Him. And the church at Corinth had Him. Can carnal Christians have the Holy Ghost? Certainly! Are carnal Christians saved? someone asked this question to one of our Full Gospel magazines some years ago. I thought it was sort of cute the way it was answered: Paul seemed to think so. Then they gave this scripture. Actually the Greek word translated carnal has created much comment and no little confusion among Bible scholars. I think only in latter years has the Spirit of God made this word clear to us. In some scriptures it is translated carnal and in others it is translated fleshly. It really means a man who is governed by his physical senses. That would be the flesh governing him. Though he is born-again and a new creature, he walks after the order of natural men. To be continued...(at 18:00GMT, on 25th Jan, 2015).
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:04:12 +0000
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