1 Corinthians 3:1-23 (NASB)
1 And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people?
We will be looking at this chapter of 1 Corinthians in sections. In those first three verses, Paul is continuing what he was writing about in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16, which says, “But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
Paul is explaining the difference between the natural ordinary person and the spiritual person. Or, as he differentiates people in chapter 3, the spiritual people or the fleshly people. According to Strong’s Concordance, the word for spiritual in verse 1 is the Greek word pneumatikos. It means relating or belonging to the spirit. The word that the NASB translates as fleshly is the Greek word sarkinos, which means, “fleshly, consisting of flesh, carnal.” The KJV translates verse 1 as, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
This word, sarkinos, is the same word from which we derive the word carnivore. In looking up the etymology of the word, by the late 1500s, it came to mean feasting or revelry in general. And of course, that is where the word carnival comes from as well. If you think of what is offered at carnivals, it is not spiritual nor intellectual, it is the lowest form of feasting and entertaining of the flesh with rides and oddities, all for amusement.
The word sarkinos is also seen in Romans 8:5-8, which says, “For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
We see that Paul, who wrote Corinthians and Romans, views the world as sharply divided. There is the pneumatikos and the sarkinos. People are divided between those who are spiritual people or who are carnal people.
The ERV translates verse 1 as, “Brothers and sisters, when I was there, I could not talk to you the way I talk to people who are led by the Spirit. I had to talk to you like ordinary people of the world. You were like babies in Christ.” That translation uses the words “ordinary people” which is a phrase we see in verse 3 of the NASB. But in verse 3, the word is not sarkinos, but anthrópos, which simply means humankind.
Are carnal people and ordinary people the same people? Are there three distinctions to humanity? It seems like a lot of people think there are three different kinds. They view the world as divided up into Christians, ordinary people, and carnal people. But I don’t see that in Scripture. There are only two kinds of people. Those who are born again and those who are not.
I think the ERV was wise to translate verse 1 as “ordinary people” even though that word is sarkinos, for that is what “ordinary people” are. In Paul’s, and more importantly, in God’s mind, ordinary people are fleshly carnal people. There is no difference between those terms. And even more interesting than that, Paul is calling these particular Christians by that same term. How can Christians who have been redeemed by Jesus still be sarkinos people? Are they not pneumatikos, now being filled with the Holy Spirit?
Paul is telling them that they are acting like sarkinos people and so he cannot speak to them as though they are indeed pneumatikos, for they are not acting or thinking like pneumatikos people. To simplify, these Christians are still acting like worldly, fleshly people, not like the spiritual people they are supposed to be.
For starters, these Christians are fighting amongst themselves. They have picked sides and pitted themselves against each other. Paul writes, continuing in 1 Corinthians 3:4 -5, “For when one person says, ‘I am with Paul,’ and another, ‘I am with Apollos,’ are you not ordinary people? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.”
Instead of appreciating each other, these Christians have divided themselves, saying that those who followed Paul were better than those who followed Apollos. This is similar to how people will say they follow Calvin or Luther, or they follow modern people like John Piper. Many Calvinists have elevated Piper to a pope like status. I think Paul would take issue with them if he was writing this letter today.
In the Corinthians’ situation, it seems like some people thought Apollos was “better” than Paul for the reasons he gives in verses 6 through 9, which say, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
Apollos was able to build off the work that Paul began and so people thought Apollos was better, but Paul is adamant that neither of them is special for it is God who accomplishes the actual results. That tells us that we should all do the work God has given us to do, but we shouldn’t think we are more special than someone else who is called to different work from us. Just as we should not elevate the person who has the more “important” looking ministry above the worker for God who is toiling namelessly. Neither the person on stage, nor the person behind the scenes is anything, Paul would say, but God is the one to exalt, for He is the one causing the good results from the work his laborers are doing.
Yet society today falls into this same trap that tripped up the Corinthians. People today tend to give all the accolades and credit to the person who has the more flashy ministry. Churches still tend to elevate the person who leads the people to Christ over the person who first lays the foundation for that faith to be harvested. Back when I was in Bible college, I used to go with a team into downtown Hollywood and witness to people. We would walk around and pray and look for opportunities to share the gospel. We witnessed to a lot of people each week. According to the college rules, I needed to have my pastor sign off on any ministry I was participating in, and so I told him about the outreach. He asked me how many people I had led to the Lord through it. I told him that I had not personally led anyone to Jesus yet, but I had talked to a lot of people about Jesus and witnessed to them. He told me he wouldn’t “sign off” on the ministry because it wasn’t a “real ministry” unless people were getting saved. That pastor was completely wrong to say that to me. He must not have read this passage of scripture, for if he had, he would have understood that “the one who plants and the one who waters are one.” They are equal tasks and cannot be accomplished without one another. All of us students who were talking to people each week were planting seeds. I believe that many of those people we talked to have come to faith. My hope is when I get to heaven, some of those people I shared the gospel with will find me and tell me the rest of their story so I can rejoice with them in their salvation. How amazing will it be to know that I got to play a role in leading them to Jesus?
Paul goes on to explain more about this concept, which that pastor who chastised me clearly did not understand. Starting in verse 10 through 15, it says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.”
If we are viewing the world through fleshly, ordinary people’s eyes, then we will think as that pastor did: what are the results?; how big is my church?; show me the numbers. But that is fleshly, carnal thinking. We must not view things as ordinary people do. We must view things through spiritual eyes. Then we will see clearly that it is not people who are anything, as Paul stated it, but it is God who accomplishes the work. We get to be a part of the work, but only if we are doing the thing God has given us to do. And only if we are following the plans given to us by God. Paul says that “each person must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Yet, how many people are trying to build something other than what God had given them instructions to do? Too many people are laying foundations for a Christianity that is not built on the message of the cross. That “work” that they are laying, it will not last. It will be burnt up in the fire at the end of the world. Our work for the Lord is going to be tested. Anything that is not from the Lord will not last.
This chapter concludes with Paul asking a great question. In verses 16 through 23, he writes, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written: ‘He is the one who catches the wise by their craftiness’; and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless.’ So then, no one is to be boasting in people. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”
Like Paul asks, we should ask the same thing, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We must keep that truth in our minds at all times. I see this dichotomy that Paul is addressing, still taking place in our world today among Christians. If we are born again, the Spirit of God dwells inside of us. We are God’s temple. We are no longer ordinary, fleshly, carnal people even though we live in this world. Why would we settle for allowing our flesh to dictate to us how we think and live when we are not ordinary people anymore? We are spiritual people because God lives inside of us. That should affect every single thing we think and do. Or are we thinking about ourselves and the world through the same lens that the world does? Are we choosing sides and following people and their ideas? Instead, we should view everything through the lens of God’s word.
Unfortunately, many of us are filled with the Spirit of God, but are living and thinking as ordinary people do. Instead of viewing all of our life as spiritual, we’ve compartmentalized our spirituality into narrow areas of our lives. I think a lot of Christians view the world as that three-pronged idea I mentioned earlier: the spiritual (meaning Christian), the carnal (meaning immoral or evil), and the ordinary.
It used to be more common that Christians would at least denote different music, books or movies as either Christian or secular. Then, at some point, this terminology seemed to disappear from mainstream Christianity. I don’t read or hear anybody talk about secular music anymore. I think most Christians think there is music, and then there is Christian music that is worship or been placed in the Christian genre.
Can you image, though, if people used the language Paul uses to describe things that are not spiritual? Instead of saying, “our private school is a non-sectarian homeschool co-op,” what if they described themselves as, “we are a carnal homeschool co-op because we are focused on the flesh, not on the spiritual.” You’d want to run away from that, wouldn’t you?
I enjoy some non-Christian music, video games and books, but if I said I enjoy some carnal music, video games and books, I am not so comfortable saying that sentence out loud. Do you see the difference? Yet I think Paul would tell us not to soften the language we are using to make ourselves more comfortable in the world. Wouldn’t he tell us to call it like it is? Because if we called it carnal, maybe we’d be more careful about how often we partake in it. We would be careful to view it through spiritual eyes and be on guard.
Whatever we do, if we are viewing it through our spiritual eyes, we can make it spiritual or we can recognize it is gratifying the flesh and avoid it. As Paul continues writing this letter, he says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.” For example, we can enjoy an amazing piece of music and realize that God is the one who gifted that musician with such talent and glorify Him while listening to it. We could also hike to the top of a mountain and marvel at God’s beautiful creation or admire an incredible work of art and see how that person mirrors the wonder of God’s creativity. How we view something can change whether it is sacred or carnal. If we bake cookies, but we do that to the glory of God, then our cookies become spiritual. But if we who are born again are not conscious of these things, and we view all but the most evil of things as simply ordinary, we can become lured by the carnal around us and lose our spiritual mindset over time, becoming dulled by the things of this world, and wind up participating and ingesting a whole lot of garbage.
Please note, though, that simply participating in something that is labeled as spiritual or Christian is not enough to keep us thinking with a spiritual mindset. The danger in labeling things Christian, ordinary or carnal is that we could then listen to something deemed Christian because a Christian made it and so, by default, it must be spiritual, yet what if its message has nothing to do with anything spiritual? What if the song is sung by a Christian but the message is one that is totally carnal and we don’t recognize that and it dulls our minds because we are not on guard? I think that happens all the time. We participate in “Christian things” that are just feeding our flesh and not our spirit. As Francis Schaeffer said in his book, Art and the Bible, “Religious subjects are no guarantee that a work of art is Christian.”
Separating our lives into spiritual, ordinary, and carnal categories can lead to a skewed view of life. If we think spiritual activities are regulated to church activities, then the rest of the week we might end up living as ordinary carnal people do; doing as we please. This is a problem, for this is not biblical. There should not be any part of the believer’s life that is not spiritual. Jesus says in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
We must regularly ask ourselves, “How am I living? Am I living as an ordinary carnal person or am I living as a follower of Jesus?” If we are living just like the world lives, participating in all the same things the world participates in, being led by our fleshly desires, then we are not living as followers of Jesus; we are living according to the flesh. That should cause alarm in our hearts if we discover this to be true.
Let us die to the flesh and live according, not to our earthly wants and desires, but according to the desires of Christ in us.
Paul continues in Romans 8:9-13, saying, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
He also writes, in Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.”
Let us strive to be spiritual people in all areas of life. Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to so fill us with His presence that He gives us spiritual eyes to see this world for what it is. Let us not let our guards down and think with carnal minds like ordinary people do. For we have been given the mind of Christ, let us use that mind so that all we do will bring glory to God.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we pray that You would, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, give us spiritual eyes to see as You see. Help us glorify You in every single thing we do each day. Help to bring Your presence into every corner of our lives, so everything we participate in comes under the Lordship of You. Help us not to think as ordinary people do, but give us the mind of Christ in each minute of our day. We love You and praise You for sending us Jesus to bring us to You. And it is in His name we pray, amen.
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