"Mansion in Heaven" Christian ForumAnswers
Dec 01, 2014 - 09:05 PM
Another good article, thanks for sharing. I would like to just piggyback off what the person who wrote that article said. One word that was not mentioned is the word Sarkinos.
There are two different Greek words used in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 Verses 1 through 4 for our one English word “carnal.” One is a normal carnal and one is an abnormal carnal.
First of all, when Paul came into town, he could not minister to them as to spiritually mature people, but as to carnal. The word carnal, and if use the King James text, the manuscript for the King James text used the word Sarkikos and it means “Fleshy.”
Now, the older manuscripts use the word Sarkinos, not Sarkikos. This is important to know when studying these first few verses in 1 Corinthians Chapter 3.
Sarkinos means to be “fleshy” in a natural sense. So Paul says that when I came and spoke to you as unto “fleshy” people, as to babes in Christ, that was natural because they were babes in Christ. He says I fed you with milk and not with solid food for until now you were not able to receive it and even now you still are not able.
Do you see the word able in your text? That is the Greek word for capacity. So Paul says that when I came and ministered to you, I could only feed you with the milk, the simple things of Christ, because as far as maturity goes, you did not have the spiritual capacity to receive the solid food of the word. And he says that even now, you still are not able. You still don’t have the capacity, for you are still carnal. That is the word Sarkikos.
So you have Sarkinos in Verse 1, meaning that you are “fleshy” in a natural sense in that you are babes in Christ. But Paul says that now you are Sarkikos. You are fleshly. That is to say that you are fleshly in an abnormal sense.
Now according to the best research that we have, there was approximately a 5 year period from the time that Paul first went in to minister to them, to the time that he wrote this letter to them.
So what Paul is saying is that when I was first with you 5 years ago and could only minister the milk of the things of Christ to you, it was because you were naturally just babes in Christ and you didn’t have the spiritual maturity and the capacity to understand the things of Christ. And that is natural.
But now 5 years later, you should be able to handle the solid food of the word. You should have grown over those 5 years and developed a spiritual capacity to be able to entertain the meat of the word. But because after 5 years, you are still the same as you were five years ago. 5 years ago it was natural, but now it is unnatural. You should have grown but you still do not have the capacity because you are still fleshly.
Paul tells them in 1 Corinthians 3:3 that they are still carnal (Sarkinos/Abnormal). It goes on to say, and this is how it literally reads in the Greek, “For where there is envy, strife, and divisions amongst you, are you not fleshly and are walking according to the human.”
If you are doing everything according to the human, what is logical and what is reasonable, then that person is carnal. In case you have not noticed, there is a lot of carnality in the body of Christ today. There is a philosophy going around in churches today that Jesus ascended up into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and that while He is gone, He has left us to run His church for Him and that He has left it up to us to think of methods and formulas to get people saved, and methods and formulas to get people to respond and get them to believe.
That is not what Paul said in Chapter 2. In Chapter 2, he says that we go by the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit that teaches spiritual things to spiritual people and he says that I did not use persuasive words of human reason and logic so that you might be established in the spirit and power of God and not in the wisdom of man. He says I don’t use human devices to get people to respond and believe. I want people to be established in the Spirit of God, not in the persuasive words of man’s wisdom.
So now 5 years later, Paul is saying that you have not grown, you have not developed the capacity to be able to handle solid food and the meat of the things of Christ. He says that this is abnormal.
Dec 02, 2014 - 05:27 PM
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