for ye are yet carnal. For whereas [there are] among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?
Paul is writing to real believers, yet he says they act just like people of the world. How can someone truly converted still be "of the flesh," and why do jealousy and quarrelling prove it?
The word Paul uses does not put the Corinthians outside the family. One writer draws a careful line. On one side stands a person never born again. On the other stands a believer who still finds the flesh attractive.
It is not that the Corinthian saints were "natural" men, for that would imply they were not born of God. The apostle does not say or mean this. He says they were "carnal," or "fleshly": flesh still had attractions for them. It was not judged, detected in principle, or hated in all its forms and degrees. They still valued what was of man — wisdom, ability, or eloquence — as such. They had no adequate sense of nature's worthlessness in divine things.
Paul's charge sounds mild at first. It was not.
He charges them with walking as men. How remarkable such a reproach is! Walking as men! Why, one might ask, how else could they walk? Many a Christian today would feel the same difficulty: why should walking as men be a reproach? To the proud but poor spirits at Corinth, it must have been a clap of thunder. Yes, walking as men is a departure from Christianity. It is giving up the distinctive power and place that belongs to us.
Another writer marks off what the phrase does not mean.
Don't we all, and necessarily, walk as men? Not in the sense the expression is used here. Walking as men means without reference to God and His wisdom and teaching, the flesh unjudged.
Paul names jealousy first, then strife. That order matters: the quarrel is the symptom, envy is the disease.
In their practical ways they walked as natural men. Instead of serving one another in love, as saints should, they were envious of one another. Like men of the world, they tried to equal or outdo each other in knowledge and in the use of gifts. Envy was the root of all their strife. Perhaps there is no greater power for evil in the world than envy. Envy led to the first murder, when Cain rose up against his brother and killed him. Envy led to the greatest murder too, when the Jews killed the Prince of life. We read that Pilate "knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up."
People defend party spirit by saying it is just how people are. Paul turns that defence into the verdict.
Here the Holy Spirit teaches clearly that sects and divisions are not of God but of man. They are the result of unspirituality, carnality, and walking as men. Yet Christians defend them as the result of man's nature. "We are only walking as men," they say. The apostle replies, "If you are walking as men, you are carnal, and I cannot speak to you as spiritual." What a fearful gap between the thoughts of Christians and the thoughts of Christ!
One writer turns this on the most confident readers first.
Those who make the loudest boast of walking in the truth are often the most sectarian in spirit and practice.
Their state set a limit on what Paul could teach them.
Envy and strife are works of the flesh. While these things were present among them, they showed a state of soul that faithful warning might help. But more doctrinal knowledge would only damage it further. There was indeed a dead stop to their growth in grace while this spirit reigned among them. For although God's gifts were with them in abundance, He was not honoured in His gifts.
The remedy is not more information but a different power directing the life.
As a warning, we should always remember this: when we are not walking in the Spirit, the flesh will surely assert its power and show itself. This is why Paul writes elsewhere, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh."
- Three states, not two. Natural means not born of God. Carnal and spiritual both describe Christians. The difference is which power governs them.
- Envy is the root. Jealousy over gift and standing comes first; strife and parties are what grow out of it.
- "As men" is the charge. It means living without reference to God, with the flesh left unjudged. That surrenders what makes a Christian distinct.
- Growth stops. While that spirit rules, deeper teaching would harm rather than feed. So it waits.
- Self-judgment restarts it. Judge the flesh instead of excusing it, and walk by the Spirit. That is the road back.
For when one says, *I* am of Paul, and another, *I* of Apollos, are ye not men?
The Corinthians were not divided over doctrine but over preachers, and Paul treats their slogans as a symptom of something wrong in them. Why does favouring one teacher over another prove an unspiritual state, and what were these believers losing by it?
Paul does not ask about their knowledge or their gifts. He looks at how they talk about their teachers. One writer explains what "walking as men" means here:
They were not spiritual but carnal (3:1). How could Paul tell? It was very simple: 'Are you not carnal, and walk as men?' (3:3). Don't we all have to walk as men? Not in the sense the words are used here. Walking as men means living without reference to God and His wisdom and teaching, with the flesh unjudged. This was the deeper reason for the party spirit and contention among them.
Translations differ at the end of this verse. Some read "are you not carnal?" Others read "are you not men?" The ESV has "are you not being merely human?" One writer sharpens the point: the reproof is not that they behaved like bad men, but that they behaved like men at all.
The apostle rebukes them for walking not merely as bad men, but "according to man." They lined up under their new favourites, forgetting Christ and abusing their own mercies received through His servants. "Are you not men?" he says, protesting in anger against such a state of things. They were saints and ought to walk as such.
The problem was not that they listened to Paul or Apollos. It was that they accepted a teaching because of who said it:
These Corinthian saints fed this spirit of rivalry. They attached themselves to certain gifted teachers. They followed them closely and accepted all they said — not always because it was the truth according to the word of God, but because a favourite teacher had said it. Each one then defended his favourite teacher, and that led to strife, and strife to divisions. Two evils followed: one was sectarianism, which set aside the truth of the church, the other clericalism, which set aside Christ as the Head of the church.
The habit was not new to them. They carried the party ways of the schools of men into the church, and only changed the names:
Rivalry and strife were works of the flesh, not fruits of the Spirit. Their existence among them showed how little they walked in self-judgment. It was the party work they were used to in the schools of men. Certainly party zeal for Paul or Apollos was no better than for Plato or Aristotle.
One writer traces how the rivalry spreads from one person to the next:
The evidence of their fleshliness was in their rivalry, strife, and factions. The spirit of rivalry is so contrary to Him who, though He is Himself the Highest, has come among us "gentle and lowly in heart." And of course, when one person makes a fleshly effort to reach a high place, it wakes the fleshly resentment of another. Strife follows, and it breaks the people of God into factions.
Those who took sides also robbed themselves:
They stood in the way of their own spiritual growth by encouraging the forming of parties. They also robbed themselves of the value and profit of gifts the Lord had given for building up. If we take up only one line of teaching and follow only one teacher, we lose the benefit we might get from the other gifts given to men.
The remedy is not fewer teachers, but room for all of them:
There are different kinds of workmen, and different lines of truth. It is our happy privilege, and indeed our holy duty, to recognise and rejoice in them all. To be puffed up for one against another is to be "carnal and walk as men." To run down any of Christ's servants is to run down the truth he carries, and to forsake our own mercies.
- Symptom — The slogans are Paul's evidence, not his subject. How believers talk about their teachers shows whether the flesh is judged.
- Diagnosis — "Walking as men" means acting without reference to God and His wisdom, with the flesh left unjudged. The shame is that saints were living on that level at all.
- Root — Rivalry is the opposite of the One who came gentle and lowly. One person's push for a high place stirs another's resentment, and factions follow.
- Damage — Following only one favourite teacher stunts growth and robs you of gifts the Lord gave for building up. Two evils grow from it: sectarianism and clericalism.
- Cure — Recognise and rejoice in every workman and every line of truth. Running one down means losing the truth he carries and forsaking your own mercies.