" They were Christians, in Christ,
but instead of being spiritual Christians, they were carnal. "I have fed
you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,
neither yet are ye able, for ye are yet carnal." Here is that word a second
time. "For whereas"--this is the proof--"there is among you envying, and
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one
saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?" Four
times the apostle uses that word carnal. In the wisdom which the Holy Ghost
gives him, Paul feels:--I can not write to these Corinthian Christians
unless I know their state, and unless I tell them of it. If I give
spiritual food to men who are carnal Christians, I am doing them more harm
than good, for they are not fit to take it. I cannot feed them with meat,
I must feed them with milk. And so he tells them at the very outset of the
epistle what he sees to be their state. In the two previous chapters he had
spoken about his ministry being by the Holy Spirit; now he begins to tell
them what must be the state of a people in order to accept spiritual truth,
and he says: "I have not liberty to speak to you as I would, for you are
carnal, and you cannot receive Spiritual truth.
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