| Some believe that there is no such thing as a carnal Christian, but that a person is either all out for God or not saved at all. God’s Word, however, contradicts such teaching. Paul told the Corinthian believers, “them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” that “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.” It is a sad fact that among God’s redeemed people there are those who, because of ignorance of God’s Word or because of their own unyieldedness to the Lord, have failed to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Considering “the time” since their salvation, “ye ought to be teachers, [but] ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.” A carnal Christian is not necessarily worldly in character, though this is certainly included in the designation. It may be one who has remained a “babe in Christ” and did not “follow on to know the Lord” wholeheartedly. |
