“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #23
“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division, are not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Cor. 3:2-3).
Paul would prefer to teach the Corinthians with “meat,” but he was forced by their carnality to stick to milk. They were not yet weaned, which meant they would not be able to bear it if he did give them meat. They were not able in the past, and they are not able now. Not being able to bear true apostolic meat is not the same thing as being unable to bear what some teachers cook up as meat. An adult can savor a thick steak which a infant would think of as impossibly tough and chewy. But the fact that babies find it tough and chewy does not settle the matter. Babies would also find the sole of an old boot tough and chewy.
Notice that Paul speaks of carnality here, but then he does not list what we would normally call fleshly sins—lust, fornication, and so on. Carnality in his book is into envy, strife, and division. In the verses that follow, he describes this carnality as swirling around the ankles of two apostles and one Bible teacher, not around cocaine dealers and hookers. Carnality loves to do ecclesiastical dress-ups.
But again, this carnality does not mean they are not Christians. This carnality is truly sinful, but it characteristic of “babes in Christ” (v. 1).