Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.
4 sermons cite this verse
It is wonderful to be back at Duke Chapel. I was beginning to think that I was not going to be able to get back. Over the last few years, I've been scheduled several times to preach here on Sunday, but it was always one of those February weekends when the snowflakes flew, but the airlines didn't, and I wasn't able to get here. I began to fret a little bit that they were inviting me in February, confident that the weather would wipe me off the schedule. But the weather has held this weekend, and the greetings and hospitality have been very warm indeed, and it's always a joy to be in worship with you here. Will you join me in prayer? O God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On a warm April night in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly 52 years ago now, Dr. Martin Luther King, even though he did not know it at the time, gave what was his last speech. …
… jealousy and spats and division. And you see, Paul says in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, he says this, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly. May are infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready. Indeed, you are still not ready since there is jealousy and quarreling among you. Jealousy and quarreling proves, he says, that no matter how brilliant you seem to be, you are spiritual infants. You are utter drooling babies. And then in chapter 14, which is after this chapter, later on he says, So stop thinking like children in regard to evil, be babes, but in understanding, be adults. So what Paul is actually doing in 1 Corinthians 13 is he is saying, Babies are rude. Babies are impatient. Babies keep a record of wrong. Babies are self-seeking. Babies are proud. Babies are always fighting. You're a bunch of babies. Now, that's the reason why this whole chapter is a terrible rebuke. But when Paul calls them babes, when Paul says, get rid of the childish, he's not just rebuking, he's also instructing. …
4. They are not condemned, secondly, for any present sins, for now transgressing the commandments of God. For they do not transgress them: they do not “walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is the continual proof of their “love of God, that they keep his commandments”; even as St. John bears witness. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God:” he cannot, so long as that seed of God, that loving, holy faith remaineth in him. So long as “he keepeth himself” herein, “that wicked one toucheth him not.” Now it is evident, he is not condemned for the sins which he doth not commit at all. They, therefore, who are thus “led by the Spirit, are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18): not under the curse or condemnation of it; for it condemns none but those who break it. Thus, that law of God, “Thou shalt not steal,” condemns none but those who do steal. Thus, “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,” condemns those only who do not keep it holy. But against the fruits of the Spirit “there is no law” (5:23); as the Apostle more largely declares in those memorable words of his former epistle to Timothy: “We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this,” (if, while he uses the law of God, in order either to convince or direct, he know and remember this), hoti dikaio nomos ou keitai, (not, “that the law is not made for a righteous man,” but) “that the law does not lie against a righteous man:” it has no force against him, no power to condemn him; “but against the lawless and disobedient, against the ungodly and sinners, against the unholy and profane; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” (1 Tim. 1:8, 9, 11). …
III. 1. “But was he not then freed from all sin, so that there is no sin in his heart?” I cannot say this; I cannot believe it; because St. Paul says the contrary. He is speaking to believers, and describing the state of believers in general, when he says, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: These are contrary the one to the other.” (Gal. 5:17) Nothing can be more express. The Apostle here directly affirms that the flesh, evil nature, opposes the Spirit, even in believers; that even in the regenerate there are two principles, “contrary the one to the other.” 2. Again: When he writes to the believers at Corinth, to those who were sanctified in Christ Jesus, (1 Cor. 1:2) he says, “I, brethren, could not speak unto you, as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. Ye are yet carnal: For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal?” (1 Cor. 3:13) Now here the Apostle speaks unto those who were unquestionably believers, whom, in the same breath, he styles his brethren in Christ, — as being still, in a measure, carnal. He affirms, there was envying, (an evil temper,) occasioning strife among them, and yet does not give the least intimation that they had lost their faith. Nay, he manifestly declares they had not; for then they would not have been babes in Christ. And (what is most remarkable of all) he speaks of being carnal, and babes in Christ, as one and the same thing; plainly showing that every believer is (in a degree) carnal, while he is only a babe in Christ. …