The Carnal Christian and Spiritual Christian

The essence of true spirituality

True spirituality is a function of true worship, because God requires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth, according to the words of Jesus in John 4:23. For you to be truly spiritual, you must discard the carnal nature and put on the new nature in Christ.

Like we saw, the carnal man cannot progress, unless he/she examines himself in the light of God’s word and makes intentional effort to grow spiritually, thereby producing spiritual fruit. You can’t be spiritual and carnal at the same time; either you are carnal, or you are spiritual. They are polar opposites.

We are going to look at 3 practical steps we can follow to attain true spirituality. Please, don’t forget that you can’t follow these steps if you have not yet been born again of water and the Spirit of God. That is the foundation of true spirituality.

Anything outside of this is not of God, and we have many examples such as occultism, witchcraft, etc. So, you must first be born again before you can make the effort of attaining true spirituality.

What are those 3 practical steps:

• Discard the old man
• Bear spiritual fruit
• Walking in love

Discard the old man and put on the new man

We have discussed what the “old man” is, and how to discard it. However, you need to put on the “new man” in place of the old man. If you don’t put on the new man, you have not yet fulfilled all righteousness. The old man is corrupt, sinful, and patterned after Adam. On the other hand, the new man is righteous, holy, and patterned after Christ.

So, we have to be intentional about putting of the old man. Here are some scriptures to help explain this:

Colossians 3:5-9
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,

Colossians 3:10-14
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put-on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

How do we put these things to death? By starving them. One of the practical ways of starving your flesh is by fasting and prayer. Remember, we said this is one of the spiritual disciplines we can engage in to overcome carnality.

Most of the time we fast and pray for material things, yet we have even greater spiritual needs. I have seen God answer my prayer points for spiritual needs, while ignoring the request for material things. He however answered the prayer much later. Putting off the old man is what we have to be intentional about, while cooperating with the Holy Spirit through prayer and a yielded heart.

Bear spiritual fruit

We discussed what the bible calls works of the flesh. Now these works of the flesh are products of a carnal lifestyle. On the other hand, there’s the fruit of the Spirit. These fruits are a product of a spiritual lifestyle, which the Holy Spirit produces in us. We find these in Galatians 5:19-23.

Galatians 5:19-23
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

There are 9 fruits of the spirit including:

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Longsuffering
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

All these fruits are attributes of the Holy Spirit, and He produces them in us when we submit to Him by discarding carnality and pursuing a true spiritual lifestyle. Of all the fruits of the spirit, the principal fruit is Love, and we are going to look it critically.

Walking in love

When we talk about walking in love, we mean allowing the love of God to shape our view of people, not our feelings. It means we intentionally love people. It has to do with our day to day lives. We intentionally love people by displaying that love in our speech and actions.

God’s Definition of Love

Love is affection, to cherish someone or something. It used to be called charity in old English. Love means so many things to different people, but God has given us a definition of love. God’s love is called agape in Greek, and it is the highest expression of love. Agape is selfless, unconditional and unfailing love.

There are other expressions of love such as eros, or romantic love between a man and wife, phileo or brotherly love between friends, and storge, or familial love between siblings or between parent and child.

However, all these expressions of love are inferior to agape. God’s definition of love can be found in 1 Corinthians 13:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13 (NLT)
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
13 Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.

A truly spiritual Christian loves people in-spite of their failings. The hallmark of true spirituality is not just the exercise of spiritual gifts, but manifestation of the fruit of the spirit. The reason why we focus on love among all the fruits of the spirit is because it occupies a special place. It encapsulates all the attributes of the Holy Spirit.

The bible says that God is love. It didn’t place faith or patience or self-control on that pedestal as love. If you’re looking for God’s definition of love, you’ll find it in 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is a command from Christ

John 13:34-35
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus commanded His disciples, and by extension His body (the church) to love one another. He called it “a new commandment”. Jesus was very specific about us loving one another. By doing so, the world will know that we are followers of Jesus.

They won’t identify us by our tongue-speaking. They won’t identify us because we attend church or church programs. No. They also won’t identify us because we call ourselves Christians. If we truly love people, then we are truly spiritual.

Love by being sensitive to others

Romans 14:15-17
15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil;
17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Paul wrote these lines to buttress the fact that we should be sensitive to other believers, especially new believers in Christ. The preceding verses talks about not judging each other, especially when it comes to food.

The truth is some believers consider eating some foods sinful. So, a mature believer knows that this is not true, but for the sake of the new believer, he does not eat that food in the presence of the new believer. He does this out of love, so as not to give the new convert a wrong impression.

This principle applies to so many things, not just food. It could apply to things like gambling, betting, alcohol, listening so some secular music which are wholesome, etc.

Love as a weapon against evil

Romans 12:19-21
19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Matthew 5:43-45
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Love is a weapon against evil. There is no power greater than the power of love. We are taught to overcome evil with good, not evil with evil. If we repay evil for evil, the evil continues to perpetuate itself until either of the parties or both are destroyed completely. Jesus gave us the perfect example when He was on the cross. He forgave His enemies and prayed for them.

Love in sincerity

Romans 12:9
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

1 Peter 1:22
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart

We are commanded to love from the heart, not just with our mouths. This is genuine love. When we love people genuinely, they will know. Likewise, if we love hypocritically, people will also know. However, we demonstrate the love of God when we love sincerely.

Love as a fulfilment of the Law

Romans 13:8-10
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

The law of Moses was not easy to keep, partly because there was so much (over 600 laws), and mainly because the law didn’t empower the Israelites to keep it. It was just there, a grim reminder of human weakness and shortcoming. However, Jesus gave us a new commandment which is to “Love one another”. From the above passage, Paul the apostle explains why love is a fulfilment of the law.

A truly spiritual believer doesn’t need to worry about which laws to keep, as long as they are walking in love, they have fulfilled the whole law. Walking in love is a manifestation of true spirituality. Just like Paul said, if we possess all the spiritual gifts but are not walking in love, then our gifts aren’t worth anything.

Love endures forever

1 Corinthians 13:8-10
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

Out of the fruit of the spirit, love is the greatest. The gifts of the spirit would not stay with you forever, because you are not going to need them in the next world. This is because in the spiritual realm, knowledge is complete. You don’t need the gift of prophecy, word of wisdom or knowledge.

 Moreover, once you enter that realm, you are no longer going to experience temptation and all the challenges of the Christian walk. You will no longer need the gift of faith or miracles, prophecy, and the rest of them. But then, the fruit of the spirit will still be in you, because they have become a part of your character. They will be a part of you forever.

Concluding Thoughts

Having examined what it means to be carnal and spiritual, I hope this teaching will challenge you to examine yourself and make amends where necessary. You have seen the dangers of carnality, and the blessings of true spirituality. God’s intention is that we become like Christ, according to Romans 8:29.

May God help us to correct what we need to correct in our lives, and to attain true spirituality, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.