Spiritual vs. Carnal (v.1)
There are three types of men: spiritual believers, carnal believers and carnal unbelievers. You can look at it as a sliding scale of spirituality versus carnality. Carnality means that your thoughts, actions and emotions are a result of your natural tendency to please the flesh. It is selfishness. Spirituality is the opposite. Spirituality is thinking, acting and feeling according to the Spirit of God.
Unbelievers only know Carnality because they do not have the Spirit of God in them. Because of this, unbelievers form patterns of selfishness. The same way you train your flesh to play a guitar or to build a house or play basketball, your flesh becomes trained to act out of selfishness. This is what is referred to as the sinful nature. Since you have trained your flesh to act out of selfishness, when you accept Jesus Christ as savior, you will still have those habits. The spiritual man has overcome those sinful habits and replaced them with righteous habits, which are discerned according to the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted that a believer will neither be completely spiritual or completely carnal in this life. If someone is completely carnal they do not have the Spirit, since the Spirit challenges and convicts us of our sin. “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (1 John 1.6). Even if we claim to know God, if we do not become sanctified, to be like Christ, in any way, then we are just lying about it. Additionally, to be completely spiritual would be to actually achieve righteousness on earth, which has only ever been accomplished by one man, Jesus Christ.
Infant analogy (food) (v.2)
The Carnal are what Paul refers to as the “infants in Christ.” Like a baby, they have no understanding of the world they are in. The church is relatively new at this point and there are simply not that many people with a deeper understanding of Christ, especially among gentiles. Additionally, infants are not able to eat solid food, only milk. He provided them with the gospel message and the basics of Christian living, but he is not going to give them the meat until they have accomplished the basics of the Christian life, which is living according to the Spirit.
At this point, it’s pertinent to notice that as a baby grows, they receive more sustenance than milk. You gradually introduce new foods to babies as they are ready for them. They do not go strait from milk to meat one day. It is the same with the Christian life. As we become more spiritual, the more ‘meat’ we are able to consume. As we become more and more spiritual, we understand God and of the mysteries of His eternal plan better and better.
ID of carnality (v.3)
In verse three, Paul says, “since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly…walking like mere men?” Paul (or those who informed Paul) recognized the outward reflection of these sins in the people in the church. Paul brings this up in order to address the concern, which he does in following verses, but I don’t believe it is not the only reason. It is implied that Paul would like to give them meat, but that they simply are not ready for it and it is this sin which is keeping them from becoming sanctified. It is not that they do not believe, but that as Christians, they are still acting like the world. As the sheppard, Paul desires that they grow in Christ.
Explanation of Roles (vv.4-8)
The jealousy and strife was as a result of a misunderstanding. The gentiles were in the habit of following whatever philosophers teaching they felt like that day. They would follow one and then when another had something interesting to say, they would change. The word used in that day for the philosophers literally meant debater, because that is what they did. They debated or argued about man made philosophy. This process bled into the church because it was the habit of the flesh.
Naturally, when different early church leaders would come into the church—Apollos, Paul—they would latch on to one or another. Some actually had it right in saying that they followed Christ (See 1 Cor 1.10-17), but we can assume that due to the faction, even the right one, jealousy and strife were still produced.
Paul basically steps back and says to do away with the factions and to realize that each man had a role in the production of that church. Paul planted it. He was the tool that God used for the earliest converts in that area. Then Apollos watered. He presented the word of God faithfully to them and then God caused them to grow as a result of the work that Apollos did. The point is that neither the planting, not the watering is important in itself unless it is consistent with the will and purpose of God, that He alone would cause it to grow.
Paul produces an application in verse eight when he says, “…he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” Paul and Apollos were one in purpose. Their purpose was to plant and build up the early church. Their role was to do God’s work, so that the church would be fruitful among the gentiles. Even though they were one in purpose, they both had to choose to be a part of God’s will. One of them is not contingent on the other. Each will receive their reward according to their diligence to do God’s work.
Application
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.1-2 NIV)
Abandon the ways of the world, the habits of the flesh. Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—live according to the spirit, not the flesh. Become sanctified by conforming to the Spirit of God and not the world. All this so that you will know what the good, pleasing and perfect will of God is, so that like Paul and Apollos, you will do the work that God has called you to, as part of His plan, and receive your reward according to your own work.
The reward in heaven is great for the spiritual Christian.
The reward in heaven is small for the carnal Christian.
There is no reward in heaven for the carnal unbeliever.
Be Spiritual not Carnal–1 Corinthians 3.1-8
