Seeking Him Early
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 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. They are still being controlled by their life experiences prior to accepting Christ. 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 knew 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. 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 love for God is greater than their love for themselves and what they want.
A love for God, the greatest commandment that He gives us (Matthew 22:36-37) is key here. If we don’t love God 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 read their Bible. These things are good, 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 from our heads to our hearts (spirit or inner man) is by meditating upon it, praying it and applying it. For example, the greatest commandment, as referenced above, is to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. But we are not capable of doing this ourselves. We must meditate upon that scripture and pray it for ourselves. God will work it in us (in our spirit) so that it becomes a reality (Philippians 2:13).
Romans 8:6 tells us that being carnal-minded is fatal to the Believer. God is a spirit and His Word tells us that our flesh is an enemy of God.