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, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? – 1 Corinthians 3:1-4

Paul discussed two types of believers. One is the believer “who is spiritual” (pneumatikos, 1 Cor 2:15; 3:1). See also “you who are spiritual” in Gal 6:1. He calls the other type of believer carnal (sarkikos, 1 Cor 3:1, 3, 4). Carnal is another word for fleshly.

John MacArthur and Lordship Salvation proponents say that there is no such thing as a carnal Christian. In his bestselling book The Gospel According to Jesus, MacArthur spoke of “so-called carnal Christians” (p. 108).

Gotquestions.org, in an article (see here) entitled “What Is a Carnal Christian?” wrote:

The key thing to understand is that while a Christian can be, for a time, carnal, a true Christian will not remain carnal for a lifetime…

…For a genuine believer in Christ, though, these outbreaks of carnality will be the exception, not the rule.

In an April 22, 2004, article entitled, “The Carnal Christian,” at Ligonier.org (see here), an unnamed author writes:

… According to 1 Corinthians 3:1–4, sometimes the flesh seems to be winning more battles than the Spirit, especially when we are spiritual infants. This does not mean we are not saved; the presence of a desire for obedience and some good works prove otherwise. It does mean that as we grow into maturity, the victory over sin that Christ has won for us will be increasingly manifest in our lives through more and more victories of the Spirit over our flesh.

There are many problems with statements like these.

First, Paul clearly says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.” If Paul said the believers in Corinth were carnal, they were. Paul is establishing a class of Christians different from that of spiritual believers.

Second, there is no guarantee in Scripture that “outbreaks of carnality will be the exception, not the rule.”

Third, there is no guarantee in Scripture that “victory over sin…will be increasingly manifest in our lives through more and more victories of the Spirit over the flesh.”

Fourth, all carnally-minded believers are carnal, whether they are in fellowship with God or in the spiritual far country. MacArthur is right that the believers in Corinth were not in rebellion against God, but that they were still baby believers four to five years after coming to faith. Note the word still in v 3. It is the first word in the Greek sentence. But MacArthur is wrong when he suggests that this describes all carnal believers. Some are in the spiritual far country (Luke 15:11-32).

Fifth, the Lordship Salvation understanding of 1 Cor 3:1-4 makes assurance of everlasting life impossible before death. No one can be sure that he will persevere and that his life will get better and better over time. If anyone experienced a moral or doctrinal fall, he would have to consider that he might not be born again.

Carnal believers act “like mere men” (1 Cor 3:3). In many ways, their behavior is indistinguishable from that of unbelievers.

The problem with the carnal believer who is in fellowship with God is that his mind has not been sufficiently renewed for his behavior to be sufficiently transformed. See Rom 12:2 and 2 Cor 3:18.

I remember talking with Zane Hodges about this issue. He thought that a believer might remain as a carnal or baby believer for his entire Christian life, yet without being in rebellion against God. Don’t we all know people who have, for decades, assembled regularly with other believers in church, confessed their sins, given their money, and sought to please God, but who are still spiritually immature?

Paul does not say how long it takes to become a spiritual believer. Clearly, it is less than the five years the Corinthians had been believers. Many theologians suggest it takes a year or two to move from being a baby Christian to a spiritual one. But 1 Cor 3:1-4 and Heb 5:12-15 show that such progress is not automatic. Some believers may remain in spiritual diapers their entire Christian lives.

If you are a spiritual believer, guard your mind so that you will stay that way. Christianity is a battle for the mind. If we allow our thinking to be conformed to that of the world, we will become carnally minded and carnal in our behavior as well.

Keep grace in focus so that you can remain a spiritual believer.