Pulpit Today

When Paul wrote the Corinthians his primary objective was to rescue them from carnality and lead them toward spirituality.  1 Corinthians 3:1-2 says: “I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.  (2) I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.”

        When he called them “worldly” the Greek word was, sarkinos, which meant, “comprised of the flesh.”  That was no rebuke because they were new converts.  Paul understood that new Christians, like infants, need nurturing with milk.  Paul’s rebuke followed when he said, “Indeed, you are still not ready. (3) You are still worldly.”  Here he utilized a linguistic twist of the word “worldly” to describe their immaturity.  Although it’s not evident in our English translation he changed the suffix of sarkinos, “comprised of the flesh,” to sarkikos, which meant they were “dominated by the flesh.”  They should have matured but they were dominated by greed, pride, division, and worldliness.

Paul’s efforts attempted to produce spiritual Christians—Christians “dominated by the Spirit.”  Spiritual involves manifesting God’s love, joy, peace, goodness, temperance, etc.  It means abandoning selfish pursuits and seeking to please God and obey Him.  And Paul knew the benefits of spiritual living too.  He said in Romans 8:13, “If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”