What is a Carnal-Minded Believer?

The word carnal is derived from the Latin word carnalis, meaning fleshly or ‘of the flesh’.  We as humans, are trichotomous beings, meaning we are made up of three distinct parts: spirit, soul and body or flesh. Before turning to Christ, the spirit-man (inner man), lies dormant (asleep) within us. But when we accept Christ, God, who is spiritual, breathes life into our spirit-man. We are born again! However, just as we begin life in the natural as babies, we also begin life in the spirit as babies and must be taught how to live a spirit-led life (John 14:26). The soul-man, which consists of our intellect, our will and our emotions (our mind) controls us. It tells our body, or flesh how to behave. The soul-man and body were being developed as we grew in the natural, and when we first come to Christ, everything that we have experienced in our lives that has shaped our intellect, our will and our emotions is still present.

As stated above, we must be taught by the Holy Spirit to live spiritually. A carnal-minded Believer is one whose mind (intellect, will and emotions) is not being transformed as God desires (Romans 12:2) because they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to teach them. Tests, trials and temptations are met with failures. Either they believe they did no wrong because their thinking or their emotions justified their actions, even if their actions were contrary to God’s Word. Or they know they did wrong, but believe that God will forgive so they ask for forgiveness, but not with a heart to change, because pleasing God is not above their desire to please themselves. Often, words like “God is not done with me yet” are provided as an excuse, when, in reality, they are not allowing God to work change in them.

Now, a Believer who is growing in the spirit (spiritually-minded) will have failures as well, but the difference is that they are convicted by those failures and truly have a heart of repentance (desire to change) because their desire to please God is above their desire to please themselves. They will not only ask for forgiveness, but will also pray and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to them about the situation and teach them so they can be victorious in the next test, trial or temptation. The Bible tells us that King David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), but he failed the test of temptation when he lay with Bathsheba, and basically committed murder against her husband Uriah to cover it up. (Read 2 Samuel 11:1-17 NIV for the full account).  Some believers have the mind-set that if God can forgive David for what he did and say that he was a man after God’s own heart, then surely He can forgive me.  Psalm 51:1-19 reveals the true heart of King David after he failed against temptation. He not only asked for forgiveness, but also asked that God change his heart. His prayer demonstrates true repentance.

A desire to please God is key here. If we don’t desire to please Him above all else, we will not be able to do what is necessary to allow His word to change us. A carnal-minded Believer may confess their love for God, attend church regularly and casually read their Bible. But these things alone will not change us. These things alone will not feed our spirit so that it grows and our flesh dies. The power to change us lies strictly in God’s word, and not just listening to it or reading it casually (James 1:22). It must be in our hearts Matthew 15:8) and the only way to get it into our hearts (spirit or inner man) is by meditating upon it, praying it and applying it. For example, the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). But we are not capable of doing this ourselves. We must meditate upon that scripture and earnestly pray it for ourselves. God will work it in us (in our spirit) so that it becomes a reality (Philippians 2:13). A reverential fear and love for God and His word will develop.

Romans 8:6 tells us that being carnal-minded is fatal to the Believer. God is a spirit and His Word tells us that the mind of the flesh is hostile to God (Romans 8:7 AMP).  A Carnal-minded believer is also dangerous to non-Believers. Instead of being a testimony to the power of God and His word, they tarnish the minds of non-Believers who are watching them, against God.