Carnal and Spiritual

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1

The first address in The Master’s Indwelling is titled Carnal Christians, and it opens with a sentence that frames much of Murray’s teaching on the deeper life. In 1 Corinthians 3, he says, the apostle speaks of two stages of the Christian life, two types of Christians. The Corinthians were truly in Christ. They were not unbelievers. But Paul could not speak to them as spiritual, because they were carnal — babes still, when they should have grown.

Murray believed this distinction explained a great deal of what he saw in the churches: believers who were genuinely converted, sincere and active, and yet lived in continual defeat, bitterness and worldliness. The problem, he said, was not that they needed to be converted again. It was that they were living in the carnal state and had not yet yielded themselves wholly to the Spirit.

Four marks of the carnal state

Murray drew four marks of the carnal Christian from the Corinthian letters, and they are worth examining honestly.

The first is prolonged infancy. The Corinthians should have been eating meat, and they could still only take milk. The same complaint is made in Hebrews: by this time they ought to have been teachers, and they needed someone to teach them the first principles again.

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. HEBREWS 5:12

The second is continual sin and failure — especially, in Corinth, envying, strife and division. Murray urged his hearers not merely to confess individual sins but to recognise the pattern behind them: that repeated failure is a sign that the life is not healthy.

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 1 CORINTHIANS 3:3

The third mark is the one that makes this teaching so searching. The carnal state, Murray said, can exist alongside great spiritual gifts. The Corinthians came behind in no gift, and yet they were carnal. A minister, he warned, may preach beautifully, gather a large congregation and be used by God to bless others, and still be a carnal man. Gifts are not a measure of spirituality. That is a warning every person in Christian service needs to hear.

The fourth mark is that the carnal state makes a person unable to receive spiritual truth. This is why Paul could not give the Corinthians more: they were not fit to take it. Murray thought that much preaching of the deeper life fell on ears that could not hear it, because the hearers had not yet dealt with the carnal life itself.

The root and the fruit

What is the remedy? Murray’s answer is characteristic. Many people, he said, go to Christ to have a hasty temper or a proud disposition taken away, and are puzzled when He does not do it. The reason, he suggested, is that “you wanted Him to take away the ugly fruits while the poisonous root was to stay in you.” They had not asked that the flesh itself should be nailed to the cross and that they should give themselves entirely to the power of His Spirit.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. GALATIANS 5:24

He used an illustration of a painter and a canvas. Would a painter labour over a canvas that did not belong to him, which anyone else might take and use? No more will Christ work His picture in a life that has not been given into His hands. The call, then, is to yield oneself wholly to the Spirit as an empty vessel. Murray ended the address with a prayer he urged his hearers to make their own: “Lord, I give myself an empty vessel to be filled with your Spirit.”

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. GALATIANS 5:16

What is true here

There is a great deal of truth in this teaching, and churches that have rejected it outright have often lost something. It is true that Scripture distinguishes between believers who are maturing and believers who are stuck. It is true that Paul rebuked the Corinthians as carnal and expected them to grow. It is true that gifts, activity and success are not proof of spiritual health. And it is true that many believers live far below what Scripture holds out to them, and have settled for it. Murray’s insistence that God has more for them — that the Spirit is given not merely to regenerate but to rule — is a word that many need.

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. EPHESIANS 3:16

Where the scheme needs care

But the framework of two types of Christians, carnal and spiritual, must be handled with care. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 was rebuking a church for a condition, not dividing all believers into two fixed classes, one of which had entered a second experience and the other had not. Every believer is in some respects still carnal and in some respects spiritual, and growth is usually gradual as well as marked by moments of decision. When the distinction hardens into two castes, several harms follow. Some believers conclude that they belong to the upper class and look down on others. Some conclude that they belong to the lower class and must seek a crisis that never seems to come. And some, told that the blessing will certainly come if they yield wholly, blame themselves endlessly when they do not feel it.

Murray’s best counsel guards against this. He urged believers to abide in humble surrender and childlike trust — not to measure themselves, but to look to God. That is the right place to stand, whichever words we use for the stages of growth.

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 PETER 3:18

The honest question this chapter leaves is not, Which kind of Christian am I? It is, What in me is still ruled by the flesh, and will I give it to the Spirit today?

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Consider Murray’s four marks — prolonged infancy, repeated failure, gifts without spirituality, inability to receive truth. Which one describes you most honestly?

2. If you serve in any Christian work, ask whether you have mistaken usefulness for spiritual health.

3. Name a recurring sin you have asked God to remove. Ask whether you have brought Him the root as well as the fruit.

4. Pray Murray’s prayer, offering yourself as an empty vessel to be filled with the Spirit, and then leave the result with God.

5. Resist sorting other believers into carnal and spiritual. Apply this chapter only to yourself.

A PRAYER

Holy Spirit, I confess that much in me is still carnal: envy, strife, pride, and the desire to be seen.

I have asked You to take away the fruit while I kept the root. Take the root.

I give myself to You as an empty vessel. Fill me, rule me, and lead me into maturity.

Keep me from measuring myself or others, and let me simply grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. Amen.