>> Jen: Hello there, friends and faith listeners. Welcome to season eight of the Bible explained podcast, where today we're going to be discussing first corinthians. Stay tuned. Okay, so today's topic is the three states of a man, the natural man, the fleshly man, and the spiritual man, and which Mandev, uh, us christians ought to be, I imagine you can guess. But anyway, we'll talk about that in one
corinthians three one through nine. Today. Make sure to grab your Bible in the version that you prefer, and also your cup of coffee this morning or your cup of tea. I did switch back to tea today. I had a, uh, jasmine green tea. It was very good. But anyway, grab the beverage of your choice and let's go ahead and read. First corinthians three one through nine. Today, brothers, I couldnt speak to you as to spiritual, but as
to fleshly, as to babies. In Christ, I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you werent yet ready. Indeed, you arent even ready now, for you are still fleshly. For in so far as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, arent you fleshly, and dont you walk in the ways of men. For when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow apollos, aren't you fleshly? Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul but servants through whom you
believed? And each as the Lord gave to him, I planted, apollos watered, but God gave the increase, so that neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now, he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's farming, God's building.
So far in the first two chapters of one corinthians, Paul's been talking about how the gospel message sounds foolish to people who are perishing, meaning people who just refuse God. They don't want anything to do with God. So the gospel message is going to sound very foolish to them. The reason Paul lays that out is because he's, uh, talking to the Corinthian church. Corinth was known for being a very scandalous city. You could engage in all sorts of various sins, and that's
what Corinth was known for. So the church in Corinth that Paul planted really had its work cut out for them because they were in a debaucherous city where they were being influenced to do all sorts of, uh, things that were against God. So that is why I, Paul mentions in the first two chapters that the corinthian church is different because they did accept the things of God, and so they need to accept those things, and they need to not be influenced by the
people of Corinth. So Paul, in the first two chapters, says, you are set apart. You are supposed to be different. But now in one corinthians three, this is where Paul really starts laying it into the corinthian church, because Paul wrote this letter because he was concerned for the church in Corinth, because after he left, he started hearing all of these reports about what was going
on in the Corinthian church. He was hearing that these divisions were happening, that people weren't worshiping God in an orderly fashion. We'll talk about that later, that there was sexual immorality happening inside the church and even being, like, praised. So Paul, of course, is very concerned for the corinthian church. So this entire letter to the Corinthians was basically reprimanding them lovingly and telling them, no, you cannot do these things. You
have to stop. So in chapter three, he starts out by saying, brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. So he says, look, brothers. So he addresses them very kindly and often, you'll see Paul do this. Whenever he's about to say, um, something kind of harsh to somebody, he will say something kind at the very beginning. So, first and foremost, he calls them brothers, meaning that Paul thinks of them as on the same level as him. He considers them
brothers and sisters in Christ. And even though Paul is about to reprimand them for something, he wants them to remember that he thinks of them as equal. And all of this is coming from a place of love. So he says, brothers, when I first got to Corinth, I had to speak to you as if you were babies, not like mature, spiritual christians. He said, I had to speak to you as if you were fleshly, as to babies in Christ, which makes a lot of sense, just based upon what Corinth
was like. Paul couldn't just go into Corinth to all of these, uh, people who didn't understand or know the gospel and start talking to them as if they have been following Jesus for 20 years. He had to speak to them as if they never the gospel message before once in their entire life. This doesn't mean, by the way, that there are two gospel messages, one for babies and one for christians. That's not what it means at all. Rather, it means that Paul would tailor his
language based upon who he was talking to. We see a lot of evidence for that in the book of acts. Actually, Paul was a very gifted orator. There's a story in acts about Paul going and talking to some greek philosophers who invited him to speak at some sort of, like, conference they
wanted him to speak at. Paul goes, and you'll notice in that speech that Paul gives to those greek philosophers, he was speaking just in a more simplistic way about the gospel versus, say, if he goes and talks to the Jews, who already have a great understanding of the Old Testament scriptures, Paul would tailor his language to the Jews, and he would quote all sorts of different Old Testament scriptures to them because they already understood that. So that's what Paul is talking about
here. When he went at first to Corinth, he made sure to tailor his language based upon who he was talking to, and he was talking to babies. This is where we get our idea of babies in Christ, meaning very new believers who don't have a lot of understanding about a lot of things yet, but do believe in Christ and want to understand more.
So Paul talked to them as if they were babies in Christ, not giving them all sorts of, you know, spiritual and difficult and philosophical and theological things for them to understand, but giving them just bare bones basics until they were mature enough to start understanding some of those greater ideas in scripture. So he says, I fed you with milk, not with meat, for you weren't ready yet. And this is just an analogy. You know, a
baby cannot eat meat. The baby does not have the teeth or the stomach to be able to digest meat. And so babies do not eat meat. Infants drink milk. That is how they get their nourishment. That's what Paul is saying here. He said, because you're babies, I fed you with milk, not with meat, because you weren't yet ready. Indeed, you aren't even ready now. And, uh, so this is the reprimanding that Paul gives the corinthians. He's like, you should be ready, and
yet you're not. And I still have to talk to you as if you are babies in this. But yet this church has been around for several years at this point, I shouldn't keep talking to you as if you are babies or children. You should be moving on to the more advanced stuff at this point. He says, you are still fleshly, for insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren't you fleshly? And don't you walk in the ways of men.
Now, in the last chapter, Paul mentioned the natural man we talked about that on Tuesday. The natural man is just somebody who remains in their natural state of sin. Every single person was born into sin, right? Every child that is born is a sinner. I am a sinner, you are a sinner. Every single person is a sinner, meaning we fall short of God. We cannot make it into heaven on our own, because God is perfection. You and I, we
sin. We do not achieve perfection. We cannot achieve perfection, and so we cannot live with God, because God is absolute perfection. But we don't want to stay in that natural state. We don't want to stay in that sin nature. And that's where Jesus comes in, and he gives us the free gift of salvation from nothing we've done on our own. When we accept that free gift, that is when we can have a relationship with God, and that is when we start to, uh, move past that
natural state of man. However, we can still sin. And that is exactly what Paul is talking about right here. Just because we move past that natural state of man, that does not mean that we just never sin again. Paul talks about the corinthian church. They are still sinning even though they believe in Jesus. He calls them fleshly. Some versions will say carnal. So this is the second type of man. The first man is the natural man, and the second man is the
fleshly man. And when I say man, I just mean humanity in general, just to clear that one up. The fleshly man is somebody who is saved, who understands that they need a savior, but yet still chooses to sin, still chooses to remain a baby Christian like Paul's talking about here, still just wants to live the way that they were previously living, but wants the benefits of Christianity and wants the benefits of salvation.
And Paul is accusing the corinthian church of this, and you're going to see why he accuses the corinthian church of this. He's going to lay out in the coming chapters problem after problem after problem that the corinthian church is experiencing. And these problems are not just like, oh, our budget is all messed up. No, these problems are sin problems that the people are partaking in. He says, you are still fleshly. You are still acting like the natural man even though you are
a Christian. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren't you fleshly? And don't you walk in the ways of men. For when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow apollos, aren't you fleshly? So apparently, this was a bigger problem. It sounds like, in the corinthian church than I initially had stated. When we first talked about this back in one
corinthians one, Paul's mentioned this problem. Now, I think this is the third time where apparently the Corinthians were so divided, because they're like, no, I don't follow the teaching of, of apollos. I follow the teaching of Paul. And then the other half of the church would be like, well, I follow the teachings of apollos. And this was causing all sorts of division inside of the
church. But the fact of the matter was, Paul and Apollos were both teaching the same thing, which was so silly about this entire thing. It wasn't like it was opposing viewpoints. Apollos and Paul were teaching the exact same gospel message. And yet because some people liked Paul better, they were siding with Paul and becoming team Paul. And then because other people liked Apollos better, they were becoming team Apollos. And this was causing
so much problems in the church. And what a silly thing to be divided over about what person, what preacher you like better, even though those two preachers are preaching the exact same thing. Now, I would argue that discussion needs to happen, and sometimes members of the church need to break away from a church where they are supporting a preacher or a minister who is preaching a different gospel or who is preaching, um, something anti biblical. But that is not
what was happening in the corinthian church. Now, who is Apollos, you might ask? Apollos was mentioned in, I think it was acts, chapter 19, I believe it was. Right after Paul started the corinthian church, he left, and so did Priscilla and Aquila. Paul's, uh, uh, co ministers, Priscilla and Aquila met this guy named Apollos. He was teaching in the temple all about the baptism of John and how you need to turn from your sins and become baptized and believe in the messiah.
But Apollos, at that point in time, didn't actually understand that Jesus had died and been resurrected from the dead. And so he was teaching only half of the gospel because he didn't know the whole gospel. So that was when Priscilla Quilla took Apollos aside and told him the entire story of the gospel message. So after that, Apollos basically became like a powerhouse for Christianity. He ended up going to Corinth after Paul left and helped build that church there
after Paul had planted it. So that's who Apollos was. But Apollos was teaching the exact same gospel, especially now that he understood the full gospel. He was going and teaching the corinthian church all about that gospel. So the corinthians they should have not been the babies that Paul is talking about here, because think about it, they had Paul for like a year and a half helping them, Paul in person helping them. And then they have Apollos helping them.
Apollos who Paul considers to be a friend and a co minister. So the corinthian church, they were really being influenced by the city of Corinth instead of doing the influencing. And that was what Paul was so concerned about. So he says here, you know, when you're dividing over stupid things like, oh, I'm following Paul, or, oh, I'm following apollos. Is that not fleshly to have this, like, division and this jealousy and this anger amongst
you guys? He says, look, I planted and Apollos watered, but God was the one who gave the increase. He also says here, who is Pauldin and who is Apollos but servants through whom you believed? And each is the Lord gave to him. So Paul's like, look, I am nothing special and neither is Apollos and neither is anybody else. The only person who is actually special is God. He is the one who gave the gospel message to us. He's the one who
did all the work on the cross. But yet the people of Corinth weren't idolizing goddesse. Instead, they were idolizing Apollos and Paul, the messengers of the gospel, instead of the one who did all the work for us. So he says, look, me and Apollos are human beings. You know, I planted the church. Apollo came and watered the church. He says, he who plants and he who waters are the same, meaning we're all just human beings. We are all just human
beings. You know, human beings have a really bad tendency to idolize other human beings. This is even true in churches and in Christianity in general, where these Bible teachers will just be idolized and they can do no wrong, and the pastor can't do any wrong, and he's above sin or something like that. And
I went to a church that was kind of like that. And my sister and my brother in law, who, by the way, are going to be sharing their story, part three of their story, rather, on my YouTube channel very soon. They went to a church like that. And it was really intense at their church, where the pastor could do absolutely zero wrong at all. So humans have a tendency to idolize other humans instead of idolizing God, who deserves to be idolized.
You know, there's a verse in scripture that says instead of worshipping the creator, they worshiped the creation. So anything that we idolize that is not God is a false idol. Whether it's a human being, whether it's our family members or our children or our spouses or our parents or whoever you are idolizing, that person is not God. And so you should not be idolizing those people. And so Paul says, who is Paul? Who am I? I am a mere human being. It is Goddesse who gives
the increase. It is God who does all the work. It is God who you should be following. He says, for we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building. And I just love that each and every human being has been given a gift to be able to partner with God in something like, God gives you something to do. Even though God could do it all himself, he could do anything he wanted to do because he created the entire world. He puts oxygen in your lungs. Currently,
he can do whatever he wants. And yet he uses people like me and people like you to partner with. And how cool is that? And that's exactly what Paul says here. He says, we are God's fellow workers. We work alongside with Goddesse. But that doesn't mean we are God. That means that we are mere human beings that God is choosing to use for some reason. And then he ends this by saying, you also are God's farming or God's field, and you are God's building. So God is using
you to do something great. And that is why we can't keep living in a fleshly way the scripture talks about right here, because we are called to something so much greater and something so much bigger than us. And if we are just caught up in these sins and these vices, that's going to hinder us from truly spreading the gospel and truly being effective for God
the way that we could be. And also, it's going to hinder other people as well, who see our lifestyle and see us falling back into these sins and these vices time and time again. They're going to look at that and they're going to be like, well, why would I follow a gospel that she teaches? It's not much different than what I'm currently doing right now. That is why we have to reject those fleshly desires that are always popping up. And we have to become the third type of person. Remember, the
first type was the natural man. The second type was the fleshly man. And the third type is the spiritual mandehead. The spiritual man is the, uh, the person who just wants to do God's will. And they will still make mistakes and they will still sin. But those sins don't have the power over them like the fleshly man. The fleshly man. These sins are like vices to them. They can't seem to escape them. Whereas a spiritual man, they may fall back into those sins, but they
are truly sorry for those sins. They don't want to live in that sin nature. They are just trying to live for God as best as they possibly can. That is the third type of man, the spiritual man. And that is what each and every person who is listening to this podcast should aim to become. Because we want to partner with God. Because of this wonderful calling that God has given each one of us to become workers side by side with God. Well, faithful listeners, I hope you've been enjoying season eight
so far. Don't forget that tomorrow we don't have an episode because the Friday podcast episode that I do through the Book of Psalms now is reserved for members on Ko Fi. So if you'd like to gain access to the Friday podcast episode through the Book of Psalms, make sure to become a Ko fi tier member on Ko fi that is all linked in the description of this episode. Papa listeners, have a fantastic rest of your weekend. I will see you all Monday for an episode from first
kings. Happy listening and God bless.