It is one thing to recognize the Father's voice in Jesus and connect to him. It is quite another to become like Jesus. The spiritual birth that happens when we put our faith in Jesus naturally leads to "growing" spiritually.
Today we are going to listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 to see the truth that those who connect to Christ need to grow to be like him. You see the believers of Corinth had received the Truth from Paul and had believed on Jesus. They were saved, but there was a resistance in their thinking and actions to becoming like Jesus. Paul clearly expected to be able to talk to them on a more mature level, but discovered from their thinking and actions that he couldn't. They hadn't grown up. Thus the first thing I would point out about believers.
Now for some context let's look at 1 Corinthians 2:13-16. Paul points out two types of people who exist in this world: the Natural Man, and the Spiritual Man. Now it would be easy to say that natural here must be focused on material things. However, the word for natural is "psyche." It is where we get the idea of the mind. Thus natural here has to do not just with the material outward world, but even the inner thoughts and desires of the mind of man. Thus the natural man may talk about spiritual matters. The natural man may appear spiritual for all practical matters. But he does so through human wisdom and human (natural) thinking. Yes the natural man's spirit/soul is heavily involved in this activity.
Now with that in mind the spiritual man must be something more than a person who thinks more about spiritual matters. In fact in verse 14 it is clear that it is the "Spirit of God," who is trying to teach us Truth. Only the "spiritual man" receives the things taught by the Spirit of God. So the mark of a "spiritual man" is that they are receptive to the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Now let me make an important point. The scripture and history has taught us that the Natural Man is receptive to the teaching of evil spirits and thus can be highly religious. But they reject the teaching of the Holy Spirit because it seems foolish to them. So we should not get the mistaken idea that the natural man is irreligious and that the spiritual man is "no earthly good." When we look at Jesus we see him clash with the Natural Men who ruled over Israel. They claimed to be spiritual and represent God, but they only represented the wisdom of natural man misled by demonic forces. When the Truth of God came to them in Jesus, they hated, despised, and killed him.
The reason I bring this up is because it sets the stage for our passage in chapter 3. The Corinthian believers had responded to the Holy Spirit's teaching that they needed to repent of their sins and believe on Jesus Christ the Messiah to cover those sins. They were spiritual and not natural men. However, something was wrong. Paul should have been able to speak to them as people who respond to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. But instead they were resisting. Instead of calling them "natural men" he refers to them as "carnal" and "babies in Christ."
Those who respond to the gospel and are born again are still babies in regard to following Christ. They need to be fed and need to learn to walk, talk and reason. So that they can follow Christ and the Holy Spirit for themselves. During this period of time believers learn to have their mind "renewed" (Romans 12:1-3) and their activities pruned. The old natural way of thinking and living is pruned off and we learn to embrace the way of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The book of Galatians lays this out in chapter 5. Believers need to grow in learning to live their lives as a response to the Holy Spirit versus living their lives as a continual pleasing of their carnal or flesh nature. In fact, Paul warns them in Galatians, that God will not be mocked. They can say they believe in him and appear to embrace him, but if they continue to live their lives for the pleasures of their flesh instead of the Spirit then it will destroy them. Here we see with Paul that his first reaction is not, "you guys aren't Christians." Rather he points to their need to grow-up. They have remained babies too long. Our journey of learning to hear and listen to the Holy Spirit and growing to be more like Jesus is a messy one that is frought with mistakes on our part. However, the Lord is faithful to us and will continue his work of making us to be like Jesus. Paul doesn't coin the term "carnal Christians." Rather he says that they are "brothers" and "in Christ" and immature. Clearly God is using Paul under the help of the Holy Spirit to call them to growth. Some will respond and grow in spite of their past immaturity. Others will persist in living to their flesh and ultimately be destroyed by it. It is not for us to determine who is what, but to speak the truth to one another in love.
So Paul approaches them as fellow believers, but challenges them to grow up. He continues the illustration in verse 2 of chapter 3 and says that when he taught them he taught them with "milk" because they couldn't handle "solid food." This clear analogy speaks to things that are easier versus harder to digest. Just as food is to the natural so Truth is to the spiritual. The "milk" of the truth is that God has loved us and paid the price for our sins. We just need to put our faith in him and we will be saved. However there are further Truths that are harder for us to swallow. It was hard for them to swallow that God is not operating according to man's wisdom. He often calls us to do that which is not "wise" in the natural. Our immaturity finds it hard to digest these things at times. Here we see Paul trying to lay the groundwork so that these immature believers might understand his concerns. They are trying to follow Christ with their Natural Mind and resisting the Holy Spirit's attempts to renew their minds. Even now as Paul addresses them he realizes they are still in the state they were in when he first taught them about Christ.
When Paul states that they are still "carnal" in verse 3, his point is not one of totality. What I mean by that is this: the picture is one of a continuum on which we move more and more closer to being exactly like Jesus. In that sense, everyone of us fights against carnality at ever deeper and harder to discern ways. Paul does not speak down to them as one who has arrived. But rather speaks to them as an older brother who is calling them to follow him on this road of becoming more like Jesus. They are not 100% carnal otherwise they would have never believed on Jesus. But the overall tendency of their life is marked by following their fleshly desires rather than the Spirit of God and this is a real concern. So this is not a new category of Christian (i.e. the carnal Christian) rather it is a battle we all must fight as we follow the Holy Spirit.
Part of our growth is in learning to first hear the Holy Spirit and then second to follow him in thought and action. In Matthew 16:18 when Jesus says, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven," he is commending Peter for hearing the what the Spirit was teaching. Did Peter ever have trouble following the Spirit instead of his flesh after this? Sure, we see it highlighted at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Even if you say, "Yeah, but that was before Peter was filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit." You still have to deal with Galatians 2:11f where Peter follows his flesh. I find it interesting that in verse 2 Paul doesn't say they wouldn't receive it, but rather that they couldn't receive it.
Here is one of the hard truths of God. We cannot in our own strength even take hold of God's Word. It must take hold of us. Through this life God takes us through a journey where our mind and flesh fail us, and we learn the beauty of his hard truths. God himself has to work on us in order for us to be able to receive Truth. The more we receive the easier it is to take on more. The more we resist the harder it is for us to take on more. And, in fact we can be in danger of losing even that which we have.
The Corinthians were still enamored with the natural wisdom of their Greek culture. They approached the gospel and the Scriptures with the natural wisdom of their culture. This was blocking them from growing to be like Jesus. What cultural mindsets are blocking us from becoming more like Jesus? What wisdom of this world is perhaps holding me back? Am I still a baby in Christ?
Now let me blow your mind for a moment. In order to quit being spiritual babies and grow up in Christ we need to become babies in the natural wisdom of this world. "Unless you become like little children you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." They were too sophisticated in the thinking of this world. The Greek people had a long and deep history with so called "philosophy." In a sense they thought they were wise and it was keeping them from following Christ. They needed to drop the wisdom of this world, "become like little children" and be taught the wisdom of God which is found in Jesus Christ.
In John 5:19-23, Jesus exampled this. He says that he only says and only does what he sees the Father saying and doing. Simply put Jesus shows us that true wisdom does not pretend to know anything but rather mimics God. In mimicking God we come to receive true wisdom. In fact it will show the world's wisdom for what it is: earthly, sensual, and demonic.
I don't know if you want to be like Jesus. It is easy enough to say, but Jesus went to the cross and all those disciples who said they wanted to be with and be like him ran. Our flesh is no different. When the Spirit reveals different ways in which I need to become like Jesus, my flesh recoils and resists. That is why Paul said he had to die daily. We have to put our fleshly desires to death every day if we are going to grow to be more like Jesus.
So ask yourself today, do I really want to be like Jesus. And then pray this prayer. Lord, there are parts of me that recoil from who you are. Please save me from myself and teach me to let the "old me" go. Teach me to follow you and to become like you. Amen!