The Myth of the Carnal Christian

I remember when I first became a Christian, there was a discussion of discipleship in church, and the statement was made, that not every Christian is a disciple. I was told that there are converts and there are disciples. Our goal was to help get converts to become disciples. I had a lot of trouble with this because I could not find any evidence of a non-disciple convert in the Bible.

I found out that this was partially based on the doctrine of the "carnal Christian."

1 Cor 3:1-4
3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal?
NKJV

The Greek word carnal here is sarkinos ,which means literally fleshly. Now some have interpreted this scripture to mean that there are three kinds of people in the world:
The unbeliever, the Carnal Christian and the Spiritual Christian. People use this carnal/spiritual distinction to justify the convert/disciple distinction. This gives the impression that a carnal Christian can be a Christian even though he remains in carnality.

Is that what this scripture is really saying?

From the context, we see that Paul is talking about maturity, not about separate classes of Christians. He equates carnality with being “babes in Christ.” Therefore, "carnal" is not addressing their state, but their behavior as immature Christians. He is rebuking their behavior. Why? So that they will stop it immediately and line up with the word of God . He was rebuking them for being divisive and breaking into factions. One was saying I am for Paul, the other I am for Apollos. So we see that …..

“Carnal” and “Spiritual” has to do with behavior not with states!

In other words, these terms are not describing the perpetual position of people but the current behavior of people.

Some have even made the mistake to say that "carnal" is referring to unbelievers. They say that all Christians are spiritual. But Paul flat our says that the "brethren" were not spiritual--not meaning that they did not have the Holy Spirit, but that they were not walking according to the Spirit. Paul rebukes them because there was an expectation of growth in spirituality. Unfortunately, when we adhere to this doctrine as referring to states, we have no absolute expectation of growth. This is not biblical.

There is no such thing as a perpetual “carnal” Christian. Christians acting carnally need to repent and mature.