Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS (Part 6):

VII: THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE CHURCH IN CORINTH:

Notice this scripture. This is 1 Corinthians 3:1-4. This section of scripture tells us the spiritual condition of the church in Corinth. Paul says in Verse 1 "And I brethren, I could not speak to you as unto spiritual." When he came there, they were babes in Christ. So, he could not talk to them as spiritually mature people. He says, "But as unto carnal."

Now there are two Greek words for carnal. The only difference in the two words is one letter. We have SARKINOS, and SARKIKOS. It is the word for flesh. That's what the word carnal means.

In the oldest manuscripts (not in the Textus Receptus), but in some of the older manuscripts, the first word here in Verse 1 of Chapter 3 is SARKINOS. "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as to SARKINOS, fleshly, even as unto babes in Christ."

So, he says you just received the Lord and you're very young in the Lord and you don't understand those things, so I cannot speak spiritual things to you. I had to speak as unto fleshly people. In Verse 2, he says I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto, that is up to now, you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.

Approximately five years after Paul visited Corinth, he's writing to them, and what he's saying is that carnal, SARKINOS, is a normal condition. When a person first receives Christ, they are a babe in Christ. They don't know the things of the Lord. They don't have any spiritual development because they've just been born of the Spirit of God.