Consider the Icing on the Cake of Your Carnality
Consider the Icing on the Cake of Your Carnality
“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” — 1 Corinthians 3:3
There are many instances in Scripture when Paul doesn’t slide into the truth. He walks straight into the room, turns on the lights, and calls out characters, naming what everyone else is purposing to pass over. Our opening text (1 Corinthians 3:3) is one of those instances. He gazes at a gifted, church-going, spiritually active community and says, “You’re still carnal.” Not because they didn’t love Jesus, but because they were decorating their immaturity instead of dealing with it (like a cake).
And if we’re honest, we do the same.
We don’t always confront our carnality; we often cover it. We dress it up. We add explanations, excuses, and spiritual language to make it look better than it is. It’s the icing we spread over attitudes we don’t want to admit are still rooted in the flesh.
This week’s blog is an invitation not to shame you, but to help you see what Paul was putting down and what the Corinthians needed to pick up! Sometimes the real issue isn’t the cake of carnality itself, but the icing we keep adding to make it easier to swallow.
Let’s consider the layers of this cake of carnality together.
In 1 Corinthians 3:3, Paul wasn’t communicating with unbelievers. He was communicating to church people who had experienced Jesus, received the Spirit, and yet were still living like spiritual infants. BTW (by the way), all church leaders—pastors, ministers, elders, and deacons—will have to manage some DIAPER DUTY because of baby believers as well as those who resist potty training. They weren’t denying Christ; they were simply decorating their immaturity.
1 Corinthians 3:1–4
“And 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. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
Sometimes the most serious form of carnality isn’t the obvious sin; it’s the icing we put on top of it. You see, it’s the decorations, excuses, and the spiritual language we use to dress up what is still flesh/carnal. Carnality has a cake, and it has icing.
Paul identifies the ingredients of the cake of carnality:
Envy
Strife
Division
These are the foundational ingredients of a flesh-driven life. But most believers don’t want to admit they’re operating in the flesh, so we add icing—something that makes it look more acceptable.
Join me next time as we continue to consider the icing on the cake of your carnality.
Not a sermon—just some thoughts.
FtGGConsider the Icing on the Cake of Your Carnality
“For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” — 1 Corinthians 3:3
There are many instances in Scripture when Paul doesn’t slide into the truth. He walks straight into the room, turns on the lights, and calls out characters, naming what everyone else is purposing to pass over. Our opening text (1 Corinthians 3:3) is one of those instances. He gazes at a gifted, church-going, spiritually active community and says, “You’re still carnal.” Not because they didn’t love Jesus, but because they were decorating their immaturity instead of dealing with it (like a cake).
And if we’re honest, we do the same.
We don’t always confront our carnality; we often cover it. We dress it up. We add explanations, excuses, and spiritual language to make it look better than it is. It’s the icing we spread over attitudes we don’t want to admit are still rooted in the flesh.
This week’s blog is an invitation not to shame you, but to help you see what Paul was putting down and what the Corinthians needed to pick up! Sometimes the real issue isn’t the cake of carnality itself, but the icing we keep adding to make it easier to swallow.
Let’s consider the layers of this cake of carnality together.
In 1 Corinthians 3:3, Paul wasn’t communicating with unbelievers. He was communicating to church people who had experienced Jesus, received the Spirit, and yet were still living like spiritual infants. BTW (by the way), all church leaders—pastors, ministers, elders, and deacons—will have to manage some DIAPER DUTY because of baby believers as well as those who resist potty training. They weren’t denying Christ; they were simply decorating their immaturity.
1 Corinthians 3:1–4
“And 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. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
Sometimes the most serious form of carnality isn’t the obvious sin; it’s the icing we put on top of it. You see, it’s the decorations, excuses, and the spiritual language we use to dress up what is still flesh/carnal. Carnality has a cake, and it has icing.
Paul identifies the ingredients of the cake of carnality:
Envy
Strife
Division
These are the foundational ingredients of a flesh-driven life. But most believers don’t want to admit they’re operating in the flesh, so we add icing—something that makes it look more acceptable.
Join me next time as we continue to consider the icing on the cake of your carnality.
Not a sermon—just some thoughts.
FtGG