What Is a ‘Fleshly’ Christian? - Ask Pastor John

Video from Desiring God

What Is a ‘Fleshly’ Christian? - Ask Pastor John

"Audio Transcript

What is a fleshly Christian? Who are they? Why are they fleshly? And what can we do to help them? We find answers to those questions through today’s email.

“Pastor John, hello to you, and thank you for this podcast. My name is Micah, from Maryland, and I have a question for you about 1 Corinthians 3:1. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul clearly contrasts the unspiritual person, who lacks God’s Spirit, with the spiritual person, who has God’s Spirit. However, in 1 Corinthians 3:1, Paul says he couldn’t speak to the Corinthians as spiritual people but as ‘people of the flesh,’ calling them ‘babies in Christ’ (CSB). This seems confusing because, in 1 Corinthians 1:9 and 3:16, Paul indicates that the Corinthians are saved and possess the Spirit of God, which should make them spiritual. So, why does Paul say they are fleshly and immature? Did they not have God’s Spirit, or is something else going on here? Additionally, it seems Paul refers to ‘people of the flesh’ and ‘babies in Christ’ as the same group in 1 Corinthians 3:1, but I’m struggling to understand how these terms align. Does being ‘fleshly’ and a ‘baby in Christ’ mean the same thing? Thank you!”

I agree with Micah that this could be confusing. And I think Paul would agree that he’s using terminology here in 1 Corinthians 2:14–15 and 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 to make distinctions that are not easy for everyone to grasp, but he has a reason for doing that. Sometimes pastors have to use terminology very carefully and make distinctions where not everybody sees them. And I think, in doing that, Paul is trying to rescue the people he calls babes or infants in Christ.

He’s trying to rescue them from being misled in either of two directions. On the one hand, they could be misled into presumption that there’s no problem, they’re safe, even as they walk in their immaturity and sin. No problem. I’m safe. I’m in Christ. That’s presumption. And on the other hand, they could be misled into despair, thinking, I’m not even a Christian. There’s so little fruit in my life, because they’re babes. And they might say, “Well, there’s just no hope for me,” and throw it away. And he wants to handle them pastorally in a really striking and helpful way. (At least, it seems to me this is an amazing pastoral step that Paul is taking here.)

Paul’s In-Christ Audience

Let me read the text so everybody’s got it in front of them, in their minds. “Brothers,” he starts. Now, that’s significant, right? Because he is going to talk to babes in Christ. “Brothers, [I] could not address you as spiritual people” (1 Corinthians 3:1). So, he signals right off the bat: They’re Christians. At least, he gives them the benefit of the doubt that they’re Christians.

Brothers, [I] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. [“In Christ”: crucial.] I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way [literally, “walking according to man,” mere man]? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? (1 Corinthians 3:1–4)

That’s the text. So, there are two kinds of people here: the spiritual people (verse 1) and the people of the flesh, fleshly — sometimes carnal is the word used — babes in Christ. And he addresses both groups as brothers and as people who are in Christ. And we know from 1 Corinthians 1:30 that to be in Christ is to be justified, to be a Christian.

Natural vs. Spiritual

Now, what makes this confusing to people is that, just a few verses earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:14–15, Paul contrasted spiritual people with natural people who are not Christians — which might then suggest that all Christians are spiritual people, that they’re born of the Spirit, leaving no room for anybody called “babes in Christ” who are Christian but are not spiritual. Because (in 2:14–15) it looks like there are two kinds of people: spiritual people and natural people, Christians and non-Christians. And yet, now he’s saying in 1 Corinthians 3:1 that there are spiritual people who are not the only kind of Christian, because there are babes who are fleshly, not spiritual.

“Humility fits a person to eat and digest profound, Christ-exalting, God-centered, Bible-rich doctrine.”

Here’s what he says in 1 Corinthians 2:14–15: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Those are not Christians. They’re not born again; they’re not saved; they don’t have the Holy Spirit. There’s no spiritual discernment in them at all. In verse 15, he says, “The spiritual person [over against the natural person] [assesses] all things, [and] is himself [assessed] by no one” — I would add the word properly: “[assessed properly] by no one.”

It appears that we have two groups, the natural person and the spiritual person, in 1 Corinthians 2:14–15. The natural person has no spiritual life and is not a Christian, and the spiritual person has spiritual life and appears to be a Christian, pure and simple. However, Paul says just a few verses later in 1 Corinthians 3:1 that there are two groups of Christians: the spiritual and the babes, the carnal and the spiritual, the fleshly and the spiritual.

Natural, Spiritual, and Carnal

So, what do we do? What do we make of that seeming tension? I think we should look in the context for some definition of spiritual in 1 Corinthians 2:15 that would make sense out of this. And I think the clue is found a few verses earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:6, where Paul says, “Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age.” So, I think these mature Christians that he refers to in verse 6 are what he’s referring to in verse 15 when he speaks of the spiritual person properly assessing all things.

And then he says, in 1 Corinthians 3:1, that he could not address the babes as mature, as spiritual. In other words, they weren’t mature. That’s what he means when he says they weren’t spiritual.

So, we have three categories of persons: the unbeliever (who’s called a natural person), the mature Christian (who in this context is called a spiritual person), and the immature Christian (who in this case is called a babe, or carnal, or fleshly).

Reassurance and Warning

Now, why does Paul talk like this? Why give a category of Christian that is fleshly? And the answer is that he wants to help them avoid being misled in either of two directions. First, he doesn’t want them to despair that their immaturity means they’re not Christians. So, he calls them brothers, and he calls them babes in Christ. Those are strong reassurances to the immature Christian that Paul is not yet willing to write them off as natural people.

But now, in 1 Corinthians 3:3, the note changes — the tone changes. In verses 1 and 2, he’s speaking in the past tense. “I was not able to address you as spiritual. I had to address you as babes. You were not able to eat solid food.” But now, in verse 3, he shifts to the present tense, and his words take on a tone of warning, as if to say, “Don’t keep on like this; you are still of the flesh. I’m not giving up on you, but you’re acting as if you were mere men.”

Now, that’s devastating. He’s not saying they are mere men: “You are acting like mere men — that is, without the Holy Spirit, without life from God, just mere fallen human beings. That’s the way you’re acting. I’m not saying that you are, but that’s the way you’re acting. And sooner or later, if you act only as mere humans, you’re going to prove you are only mere humans; you are a natural person.”

Humility for Doctrine

So, what’s the issue? Verse 3 tells us, “While there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not . . . behaving [as merely human]?” So, why is it that they can’t eat solid food, mature doctrine? Why? Well, the answer would be (wouldn’t it?) whatever is at the root of jealousy and strife. Jealousy and strife is what’s marking them out as babes, immature and unable to eat what they ought to be eating.

And what’s at the root of jealousy and strife? Pride. That’s what this whole first four chapters are about. The reason they could not receive solid food is that they didn’t have sufficient humility. The issue is not, Oh, heavy doctrine, rich, mature doctrine — you’ve got to have an intellect for that. Paul says, “No, you don’t. You’ve got to have humility. That’s what you’ve got to have. You’ve got to stop trying to puff yourself up with jealousy and strife. As long as you’re acting in jealous ways and creating strife, you’re not going to be able to handle mature doctrine.”

Humility fits a person to eat and digest profound, Christ-exalting, God-centered, Bible-rich, sometimes mind-blowing doctrine. And that makes sense, doesn’t it? If you’re a proud person, you’re just going to stiff-arm the God-centeredness of the Bible.

So, yes, Micah, it can be confusing. I admit that. I think Paul would say, “I’m doing the best I can, with God’s guidance, to help these dear babes.” But I encourage you to take heart and press in and look for the wisdom of the apostle Paul in the way he deals with different kinds of people, always trying to rescue us from presumption and despair." from the Transcript

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy. Read more about John.

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