How Carnal are you - 1 Corinthians 3:1-3

This text reveals that there are strong Christians and there are weak Christians.

We know that there are newborn Christians, and if you're just recently born again, then it makes sense that you're a newborn Christian. But this text talks about those who have been a Christian for a good while. We know historically it's been five years since this church was planted, and Paul calls this church, he calls them his children of the faith because he's their spiritual father, he says. So he's writing this epistle five years after the church plant, and they're full of problems, as we know, and he calls them infants in our text, chapter three, he calls them infants. And it's not saying they were just recently born again, he's saying they're infants when you should be mature. He says that they are acting as people of the flesh. He calls them carnal or fleshling, which some translation says carnal. One translation says worldly. So here he's addressing worldly Christians that are still infants, when by this time they should be spiritually mature. Now we know that there are some who profess to be Christ that are not Christians because they're enslaved to sin. Paul tells us later on in this epistles that certain, if you're living in habitual sin, if you're a liar or cheat or sexual immoral, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. So many people who are living in sin, who claim to be Christians, Paul would say, "No, you're not a Christian. Evaluate yourself.

You don't have the marks of Christianity in your lives." But apparently, they're not just bifurcation between non-Christians and Christians. Within Christianity, there's a range of maturity.

You have infant Christians to spiritually mature Christians.

And he's addressing to the Corinthians, immature Christians.

He says, "You're still needing milk, and I can't give you solid food. I have to limit what I say.

I can't give you solid food, deeper truths, because you're not able to assess them.

I'm still having to give you milk. Milk's good for babies. But what if you're a teenager or adult and all you're living off of is milk? That's all you've ever had is milk." Well, there would be something that would stunt your growth. There would be something that's not, you're not getting all the nutrients that you need. You need a whole diet. You need more than just milk. And doesn't mean you don't go back and drink milk. We all need the milk of the gospel.

No matter how mature we are, we still go back to the simplicity of the gospel, and we feed and nourish ourselves off that milk. But as we grow, we need more than milk. We need solid food.

And apparently, these Christians and Corinth, after five years, still wasn't ready for solid food. Read with me in verse one.

"But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And even now you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says,'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not being merely human?" So as we think about this text, I know within this congregation we have newborn Christians, Christians that are only been believers for less than a year. And we have very seasoned saints.

Some of the more, most mature Christians I know was in this congregation. And as a whole, I evaluate our church as a very spiritually mature group of brothers and sisters.

But some of us in this group may still be infants, still very immature after many years, you're stagnant in your growth. You're not developing as you should. So as we work our way through this text, I want us to all not evaluate our neighbors. I want us to all evaluate ourselves. How spiritually mature are we? And I actually believe the more spiritually mature we are, the more of these immaturities we'll still see in ourselves. It's amazing, the more immature you are, the harder it is to see your sins, harder to see your weaknesses, the more mature you become, the more sensitive you are to your own weaknesses. But let's look at some of the weaknesses that are the hindrance towards maturity, some of the things that will keep us from growing as we should, stumbling blocks in our own lives. And I would say there's a correlation, at least according to this text, there's a correlation to our understanding scriptures and our spiritual growth. In other words, immaturity hinders our understanding of scriptures and our lack of understanding of the scriptures hinder spiritual growth. And so what are some of the hindrances to spiritual maturity or the hindrances to hearing the Word of God? Why do we not get more from the sermons?

Why do we not get more from our personal Bible reading? Why do we not see ourselves as we devour the Word of God that we don't grow more and more? Maybe it's a lack of Bible intake which will hinder us. Maybe it's a lack of understanding what we're reading which hinders us. Well, in this text, we see there are three hindrances to hearing God, three hindrances towards spiritual maturities, three hindrances to listening and understanding God. One, our lack of spiritual maturity hinders our ability to understand God's Word. We'll see that it's not just knowing how to properly exegete a passage. You can learn that in seminary and still be very immature, knowing how to parse verb endings but still be very immature in your behavior.

Second, a lack of understanding hinders our ability to understand the Word of God.

And third, our lack of love.

And I want to stress this point, especially when we get to there, that love, as John Calvin would say, is the best hermeneutic to Scriptures. If you want to understand the Scriptures, you need love. And without love, love for God and love for your neighbor, love for your fellow brothers and sisters, it will hinder your ability to hear from God.

So let's look at these things in turn. Let's go through this text, verse by verse. First of all, we see in verse 1 that lack of spiritual maturity is going to hinder us in our understanding of God's Word. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. Now, we seek to diagnose our own spiritual maturity or lack of it. First question I have for us is, how spiritually minded are we?

He says, I couldn't address the Corinthians. I couldn't address them as spiritual people.

I'm having to address you as carnal people or people of the flesh.

But you understand that the Bible is commanded, commanding us to be spiritually minded.

Romans 5, 8 says, "For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit." So as we think about our own lives and where we're at on our spiritual growth, how spiritually minded are we? How focused or fixated are we on heavenly things, spiritually things? Or how focused and fixated are we on earthly things, physical things? You know, there's two realms. There's the spiritual realm, the unseen realm, which Paul says is more real and eternal than this physical realm, the realm that you see and live in and operate. I know it's easy for us because we see the world is easy for us to be distracted by the world. And it's hard for us to see the invisible world. It takes faith to make the invisible world real to us. And so because we live in this physical world, it's easy to become distracted by it and set our minds and our thoughts on just earthly things and what we're doing, the to-do list for the day, our business or our problems or concerns or the cares of this world. Things that are not necessarily sinful. To be earthly minded, you don't have to be sinful minded. You just need to be fixated on earthly things. That's how humans act. That's the unbelieve ram. Unbelievers are not necessarily thinking how evil they can be. They're just worldly. They're just godless. They're just focused on this life and this life alone.

But Paul tells us in Colossians 3, 2, set your mind on things above. Set your affections. Put your heart. Put your thoughts on spiritual things, on things above. Put your mind on Christ.

Husbands, how often do you think about your wives? Your marriage will be somewhat determined by the the degree that you meditate and think and dwell upon your wife.

Your relationship with Christ and your maturity will be measured to the degree in some sense to the degree that you think and dwell on Christ. Do you want to really know Him?

Is He important to you? Are you constantly thinking about Him and His character and His love and His kindness? And are you seeking to get to know Him better? Are you praying and meditating upon Him?

Are you kingdom focused? Are you thinking, "How can I live my life to advance the kingdom of God?" Or is it self-focused? Too often we become distracted with the cares and concerns of the world. It starts off with a distraction and we know what it's like. There's a fire and you have to put out the fire. And it's not wrong to set your mind on putting out the distraction or the fire. You've got to do it. But the devil will come in after that distraction and say, "Now keep your mind on these things." And then before you know it, we're fixated on earthly things.

We move from one problem to the next problem. And the next thing you know, we've made sports an idol in our lives or we've made our business an idol in our lives or we've made our marriage an idol in our life. Or hey, even good things like children become an idol in our lives. Even ministry can become an idol in our lives. Anything other than Jesus Christ and knowing Him is idolatry if it's set above Christ. And we can get distracted. We think, "Well, we're serving the Lord. We're doing this and I'm not intentionally doing anything wrong." But we forgot that we're not Christ-focused. We're not kingdom-focused. We're not putting our hearts in affections where they belong. And these little idols creep up. And see, this is the problem with unbelievers.

Paul in Philippians 3, 18 starts talking about how wicked certain people are. And he concludes, by saying, "They set their minds on earthly things." The problem with these unbelievers in Philippians 3 is that they are focused merely on this realm.

You see, once our minds are fixed on worldly concerns, our affections soon follow what we think about. Now there's truth to this. If you want to love your wife more or your husband more, think about them more. It's really not a lot of rocket science to this.

Whatever you put your mind on, your affections will follow. Well, if your mind is set on earthly things or fleshly things, what do you think is going to happen by tomorrow or the next day or the third day? Your affections will be on these things. And the Bible tells us to be careful because you cannot love God and money. You cannot love this world and God. These are competing desires. So, "Well, I can love..." You know, you can love all your kids, and loving one kid doesn't hinder your love for your other kid, does it? But that's not how it works with God in this world.

He said, "Well, I can love God and this world. I can have both." No, the more you love this world, the less you love God. And the more you love God, the less you love this world.

John tells us in 1 John, "Do not love the world or the things in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, this is not from the Father, but it's from the world." And this is why James calls the love of this world spiritual idolatry.

James 4, "For you adulterers know you not that friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." And so this is a hindrance to spiritual role is still being of the flesh, carnal, worldly-minded.

And if you set your mind on the things of the flesh, it won't be long until you're controlled by the flesh. Look at it, it says, "But brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh." James and Fawcett Brown's commentary says, "The flesh includes all feelings that aim not at the glory of God and the good of our neighbor, but at gratifying self." Your flesh has five senses, and your five senses are inherently selfish. They're made to be. I mean, when you think, "Man, this tastes good," you're not thinking what's best for the food or best for your neighbor or best for anything but what's best for your own appetite. All your five senses, God's made for us to enjoy this world, and we can delight in food and delight in these things, but this is not what we're to live after, the gratification of the flesh, serving the body.

This is not why we live here. This is not why God saved us. He saved us for a higher purpose than just self-satisfaction. People of the flesh is translated in the King James version as carnal, people who are carnal. That which relates to the physical body or the desires and the lust and the passions of the body. Often the Bible calls this the lust of the flesh.

One translation translates this as "wordly people." And a way of trying to discern where we stand in our spiritual maturity is how discontent are we, or where is our contentment found? Are we discontent because we don't know God more? Are we discontent because we don't have more of this world?

As we evaluate, "Where's my heart? What do I really want more?" If you wake up and say, "Man, I want more of Christ today," how are you going to have a lot of time to be perusing eBay and Amazon and get over your want list? Or be upset that you don't have a bigger house or you don't have nicer cars? "I want Christ." It's going to leave you less time and room to be discontent with this world. You know, we cannot love God and this world at the same time.

Jesus says you're going to love one and hate the other. And thus, worldliness is one of the greatest hindrances to spiritual maturity and growth. It's a... I don't know. You used to be told when your kids that coffee will stunt your growth. I don't know if that's true or not, but worldliness will stunt your growth. It does stunt us. It does hinder us.

Paul said it this way, "The flesh craves after what is contrary to the Spirit." And the Spirit is what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other so that you do not do what you want.

So wherever you set your mind upon, that's what you're going to desire. And whatever your desire is going to determine how you live, how your life is controlled. So think about this right now.

What's controlling your life? God, His Word, pursuit of Him.

What's controlling your two most important things that you have? Time and money.

Time and money is where... will indicate where your heart is.

And He goes on to identify those who are carnal or people of the flesh as infants in Christ. Now, it would be okay to be an infant in Christ if you were just a newborn Christian. But in this case, Paul's addressing those who have been a Christian for a good while. So calling them infants or children is not a good thing. It's a rebuke. He's rebuking them.

They're spiritually stunted. They may have grown for a while, but their growth has slowed down, if not retarded.

Do you love God more this year than you did last year?

Do you know more about God this year than you knew last year?

Is the words of God, the Bible, more precious to your heart now than they were last year, the year before? And I know spiritual growth, just like physical growth, it's hard to see in yourself and it takes people who haven't seen you in years to come back and say, "Wow, you've really grown. You've really matured." So sometimes it's hard to evaluate our own spiritual growth. But Paul told Timothy, "Let your progress be made known to all." Study the word, be diligent so that your progression and your maturity and development can be witnessed by others.

And that should be our goal. I want to be a maturer Christian. I want to be a seasoned saint.

I don't want to be an infant for the duration of my Christian life. I want more than just milk.

I want solid food.

Paul, or the author of Hebrews, told his hears, "By this time, you ought to be teachers and you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God's word. You need milk and not solid food." So here we see that sometimes there may be even among us.

So that you may know, I don't have anybody in my mind. I'm not thinking, "Hey, it's not you." But I'm just saying potentially there is someone among us that really haven't developed in years.

It doesn't mean you're not a Christian. Paul says, "You're infants in Christ. You're a believer." He calls them brothers. So it doesn't necessarily mean that you're unconverted, but there's just been little to no growth. And I think one of the hindrance to lack of growth and lack of understanding the word is still too much wordliness, still too much of this world.

So we need to say, "Lord, forgive me of my idolatry. Help me to put aside these things, every weight that so easily entangles my affections. Let me cut off my right hand and my left hand and pluck out my eyes. There are anything else that hinders me from knowing you.

Let me be like the apostle Paul who counted all things but rubbish that he may gain Christ, that we might grow and leave these things aside, leave aside the things that easily distract us.

So evaluate your life and potential idols that have come in. The second thing that will hinder understanding of the word and growth and maturity is inability to eat solid meat, a lack of spiritual understanding of the word. Look at verse 2, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. Even now you are not ready." That is, you needed milk when you're infants. That makes sense. When I came to you and you were converted, I fed you with milk.

But even now, that's good back then, but it's been five years, even now I can't get past the infant stage and I still have to feed you with milk.

By now you should be ready for solid food, but you're not.

I mean, think about how terrible it would be to eat baby food for the duration of your life.

When I had babies, Leith and I, I tried that, the little jars. I don't know why they have to make baby food so nasty. I mean, is it just required babies don't have good taste and they just need to make it, I mean, applesauce tastes okay. But could you imagine that, hey, you're 40 years old and here, you know, here's some baby food for you?

But this is what's happening to the Corinthians.

They weren't able to handle steak, solid food.

John 16, 12 says, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Hebrews 5, "Of whom we have many things to say and hard to utter, seeing that you are dull of hearing." You know, there are many things in scriptures that are beyond our ability to comprehend and it might not be an inability to intellectually grasp them. It's just a spiritual immaturity that hinders us. John 16, 12, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." The author of Hebrews tells us, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone else to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who protects only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are full of age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised discern both good and evil." Apparently the Corinthians, and we can look at all the theological and ethical problems of this church and realize they're just still acting like children. It's like going into the nursery and seeing kids fighting and feud and bicker. It's like you're acting like infants here, you're acting like the world, like mere men, you're not acting like godly Christians.

Your discernment level is low. So are we satisfied with our knowledge of Christ, our knowledge of scriptures, or are we going deeper into the word of God each and every year?

Are we becoming theologians? Are we staying just, "Only we can handle the gospel." Only the gospel is that we can understand anything beyond the gospel. You have to understand the gospel to be a Christian. Invent Christians understand the gospel, but if we can't get beyond into the deeper things of God, it's a lack of spiritual growth.

We see the reason was because of their inability to grow spiritually. It says, verse 2, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for, even now you are not ready." And the reason they weren't ready is because they were still people of the flesh. They were too carnal or too worldly. You remember this is the reason unbelievers do not come to the knowledge of truth. Paul tells us in 2nd Thessalonians, they did not come to the knowledge truth because they did not love the truth, but rather had pleasure and unrighteousness.

You see, it's sin that blinds people from accepting and embracing the truth, from loving the truth.

It's a lack of love for the truth, a lack of appreciation for the truth, a lack of entrance. I know for parents that are trying to train their kids and say, "Hey, my kid's got a reading comprehension problem and he's reading science or history and he just can't get the test right." But you put sports in front of them or you put this or that in front of the kid and the kid gobbles it up and understands everything he reads, everything he's interested in, because he's interested in it. So sometimes it's not a comprehension problem, it's an interest problem.

You read the Bible, you know what it's like, and I'm not the only one who's done this. You read a whole chapter and you realize that you were distracted in daydreaming and you don't know anything that you read. How are you going to tell people, "What was that chapter about?""I don't know." "What was that sermon about?" "Well, I don't know. I don't remember.""I was daydreaming. I was interested in other things. I was thinking about the football games afterwards. I was thinking about this or thinking about that." You see, it's your lack of interest in the Word of God that hinders you from embracing it and understanding and growing in it.

It may be because you're more interested in other things. In the Word of God is a distraction to you, rather than being the main thing to you. But Christ has called us to take heed to how we hear.

He says in this parable in Mark 4 and Matthew 13, "Why do you speak in parables?" He says,"Because to you has been given to understand, but to them it's not." And it's amazing. The parable is made to give understanding to believers and made to make things confusing for the unbelievers.

So the same sermon can lead to illumination and lead to confusion. And today you can hear and set under the preached Word and you can either be edified and grow and be built up or you can leave more confused than when you came here by the same message, by the same words. But that's why Jesus says, "Take heed. Be careful how you listen. Take heed how you listen. To the degree that you're listening will be the degree that I give to you. The more you listen well and basically apply what you know. Hear to understand so that you may apply what you understand. The more I will turn around and give you. If you're faithful with little knowledge, I'll give you more knowledge." But if you don't take heed to how you hear, He says, that little knowledge that you have, you're in danger of losing. And I've seen over the years, we all witness men and women who have professed wonderful truths early on, claim to believe them, and then they make slight compromises in their life and before you know it, they're denying the very truths that they once confess.

It's like the Lord says, "If you're not faithful with what you know, if you're not doing well with what I give you, then don't expect me to give you more and maybe I might take away what you already have." That is, how do you listen well? You obey. "Blessed is the one who hears and does what I say," Jesus says. The key to hearing is obedience. You listen in order to one believe and then to obey.

And some of us already have more knowledge than we're implementing. We have more understanding than what we're living out. And we say, "God, give me more understanding." The Lord says,"Wait a minute. You're not ready for that. You're still infants. You still need to work out what you already got. You need to implement what I've already told you. You need to apply that what you already know. And once you show yourself faithful with what I've revealed to you, and then I will give you more, and you can grow, you can mature, and you can become, I really believe, a theologian." More than just a theologian, you can become a mature Christian who lives out your theology in everyday life. You can be holy, you can be godly, you can be turned into the very image and stature of the person of Jesus Christ. That's all set before you. All of us can grow. We're children of God. We're infants. We can mature. Let's make sure we're applying what God has already given to us. And this leads me to the last hindrance that keeps us from understanding the Word of God and growing as Christians is a lack of love.

We see that in the last two verses, verses three and four.

How do you know you believe what you understand is by the degree of love that it has produced in you?

Love for God and love for your brothers and sisters.

Love is not a theological examination. It determines how big of a, or smart, or great of a theologian you are. The examination, God's examination of what level of a theologian you are, how verse you are in theology is the degree of love that you have.

Love is the get in of scriptures. All scriptures is written so we may love God more and love our neighbor as ourselves. Augustine wrote this book called Christian Doctrine, kind of like a systematic, early systematic theology book. And he says, "How you know you understand any text of scriptures is if after you understood the text, has it produced a greater love for God and a greater love for your brothers. If it hasn't produced love in you, then you need to go back and restudy." One person interprets Augustine's comments as if you're not reading the text as love, you're not reading it right. Augustine says, "So anyone who thinks that he understands the scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them." You see, God's word never leads us away from ethics. Knowledge and love in the scriptures are interconnected, interwoven together.

You need knowledge to love and you need love to know.

The word of God would never lead us to be more carnally minded and self-centered.

The reason Paul knew that the Corinthians were still infants is not because he put a theological doctrinal exam in front of them and asked them to take it. No, he observed their lives and he wasn't concerned about how much of the confession that they could recite. He says, "Just by looking at your squabbles, your jealousy, your contentions, I know your infants. By observing your lack of love, you're feuding and fighting. I know you're still infants. I know that you're not ready for doctrinally solid sound food because you're still acting like children." Look at verse 3, "For you are still of the flesh, for whether it's jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For one says, 'I follow Paul, another I follow Paul'is, are you not being merely human?'" That is, if the word of God is not producing a greater love, not just for God, but for the saints, and even for unbelievers, then you're not maturing.

"For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only as a human way?" You see, we don't understand the word properly if the word of God is causing us to be contentious. You know how you've heard about a cage stage Calvinist? It's a young man or woman who comes to the doctrines of grace, and the word of God, it's like giving chainsaws to infants, power tools to children. You know, you're given wonderful truths, glorious truths. I hope we all come to these glorious truths of the doctrines of grace, but in the wrong hands of the wrong people you can do a lot of damage with sound doctrine. You forget, "Hey, I need a love, those who disagree with me." You forget that, "Hey, understanding the word of God takes spiritual illumination and maturity," and then you get someone who's got a little theology and they beat up everybody with it.

And it's like, "Wait, where's the love? Where's the speaking the truth in love and kindness and patience and long suffering?" No, it's just a matter of proving a point and being right. Get into debates, quarreling and fighting, and trying to win the theological battle. Those who like contentions and fighting and feuding just to win debates. It's not maturity, but immaturity.

The Bible tells us over and over not to be "curlsome." The Lord's servant must not be"curlsome," but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently and during evil. 2 Timothy 2, 24.

1 Timothy 6, 3, "If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ and teaches that according with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversies and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, decisions, slander, evil, suspicions, constant friction among people who are deprived in mind and deprived of the truth." 2 Timothy 2, 14, "Remind them these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which is just no good, but only ruins the hearers." Matthew Henry says, "Those disposed to strive, commonly strive about matters of small importance, but strife over words destroy the things of God." Titus 3, 9, "Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, and quarrels about the wall, because these things are pointless and worthless." 2 Timothy 2, 23, "But reject foolish and ignorant speculations, for you know that it breeds quarreling." Concerning our very text, Matthew Henry says, "Contentious and quarrels about religion are sad, evidence are carnality. True religion makes men peaceable, not contentious, but is to be limited, that many who should walk as Christians live and act too much like other men.

Many professors and preachers also show themselves to be yet carnal, but vain, glorious strife, eagerness for dispute, readiness to despise and speak evil of others." I mean, this is a sad state. And often it happens, sadly, among those who are the most theologically averse. Again, children do not need power tools. They're not ready for such equipment.

It's dangerous. They're going to hurt themselves and hurt others.

Likewise, immature Christians can only handle the gospel. If you're a new saint, just keep the gospel. Grace, grace, grace. Apply it to yourself. Apply grace to everybody. Matters of the law, you need to be very mature. You can lead into legalism or antinomianism very quickly.

There are some doctrines that are being disputed on social media today that are very hard and complex to understand. And I think people who really don't know what they're talking about are just ready to dispute and argue and fight and wrangle. They're more worried about winning the debate than they are loving their neighbor. I mean, true Christians are acting in very childish and immature ways today. And it's very sad. And it doesn't speak of their wisdom. It doesn't speak of their knowledge. It doesn't speak of how wonderful they are. It speaks of their childlessness, how immature they actually are. It's sad. On social media, you can go and follow politicians and see how ungodly people use social media to war and fight, cut down one another.

But you expect that with unbelievers. It's even true when you follow sports.

It's sad to see. But you know what's worse is even among Christians, you see the same behavior.

Jealousy, strife, contention. It's ungodly. It's behaving in the flesh.

The Word of God is not designed for us to beat up people with. It's designed for us to love God and love our neighbor. Yes, we have to defend the truth and defend God's glory. But there's a difference between defending God's glory and defending our glory. And it takes wisdom and skill and maturity to know the difference between God's glory and self-glory. Sometimes the best thing we do is just be quiet. Hold off. Learn. You see, this is what's going on in the church of Corinth.

I mean, what would they do if they had social media? But even without social media, you could still act this way. Look at verse 4. For one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos." Are you not being merely human? And the rest of this chapter, and even in chapter 4, Paul says, you know, "I water, I planted Apollos water, but God gives the increase. Therefore, he who waters and he who plants are nothing." We're nothing. It's God who's something. He says in verse 21 of chapter 3, "So let no one boast in men." Don't think about Apollos or Apollos. This is not the deal. It's God.

Keep your mind on God, not His servants. Then in chapter 4, verse 6, "I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another." The problem with the Corinthians and going, "I'm Apollos and Apollos," is the fact that we're more worried about the messenger than they were the message. They were more focused upon the human instrumentality than they are the God who's being communicated or the word that is being communicated through the messenger. And thus, this made them jealous, contentious, more worried about preaching styles and giftings and things of this nature. Paul says, "Hey, we are nothing. It's God that is everything." You see, these are hindrances.

Lack of spiritual maturity and lack of understanding and lack of love. But let me give you and conclude with some hope. If you're a Christian, then you can mature.

And how do you mature then? Well, you start with the gospel. You don't start with the law, you start with the gospel, that God has forgiven you. He's already forgiven you of your immaturity.

He's already looking at you as a perfect saint in Jesus Christ. And based on the gospel, you should be motivated out of love, not out of pure duty, but out of love to go, "I love God for what he's done for me. Help me to not love this world. Out of love, I want to put the things of the world behind me. Out of love, I want to be less distracted with sports and entertainment and business and this and that, out of love. So put away this world out of love for God." And two, open up the Scriptures with a desire to obey.

Three, open the Scriptures with a desire to love God and love your neighbor.

To the degree that you love will be the degree that the Word of God speaks to you.

And the degree that you can handle what God speaks to you. I pray that we all are spiritual giants.

I pray that we're all growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I pray that we're all spiritually mature. But it comes through the Word of God and the Word of God comes to us and speaks to us when we can be less carnally minded and more spiritually minded. May the Word of God do that for us this morning. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we do ask that you would forgive us of our carnality that's still remaining within us. Lord, we know that none of us are perfect. We've not lived in the most loving and kind way that you've called us to live. Help us, dear Lord, with the things that we do know to apply it to our lives. Help us to be kind, even to our enemies.

Help us, dear Lord, to walk in a way that pleases and honors you. Lord, to help us, Lord, to get much from the Scriptures. Speak to us, dear God. Open up your Word to us. We want to grow.

We don't want to stay infants. This we pray in your Son's name. Amen.

Thank you.