Carnal State of the Believers - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:1

Carnal State of the Believers
The apostle brings the Corinthians face to face with their true condition in very plain words. They were not natural, for “the natural man” is man in his unconverted condition. Nor were they spiritual, for the spiritual man is man enlightened and controlled by the Spirit of God. They were carnal, for the carnal man, as spoken of in this passage, is man, who though possessing the Spirit, is controlled not by the Spirit but by the flesh. Being that they were carnal, Paul had hitherto fed them with milk not meat; that is, he had only instructed them in the elementary things of the faith.

The Corinthians, however, might resent Paul’s charge against them and wish to rebut it. So Paul proves his point by again referring to their divisions under party leaders, which generated envyings and strifes. In all this they were walking according to man and not according to the Spirit of God.

If the apostle Paul wrote to us today, what would he say? What could he say, but the same thing with greatly added emphasis? The division of true saints into many parties and sects could hardly go further than it has gone.

In so saying we are not unmindful of the fact that there are to be found some who are spiritually minded. There were some among the Corinthians, as a later chapter reveals. But this we do say, that they who really are spiritual will be the last people on earth who desire to stand out as exceptions, prominent and distinguished. Their spirituality will rather express itself in humility of mind and that confession which makes the sin of all the people of God their own. They will pray in the spirit of Ezra 9, where Ezra said, “Our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens,” though personally he had had very little share in all the wickedness, but rather was marked by a very exceptional piety.

F. B. Hole