Featured The Natural man

I am having a rough time tracking with what you're saying... To put it another way, I'm not understanding the point you're trying to make.

Yes. I can agree with that. But, I have to ask: How does the natural man discussion of 1 Cor 2:14 relate to what comes before and after?

Now... you've lost me again. Can you explain what you mean rather than just quoting scripture?

Explain further, please

I'm working on it.

The Archangel

 

I have no problem with any of you, was just answering your questions!

 

Paul said to Christians who were not being spiritual as they should be, ". . . I . . . could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: . . ."

 

Ok... But, there's an assumption, I think, that you're making... When Paul is talking to the church here, he's not saying that the believers simply aren't living as they should be. He's saying, in effect, there's something deficient in their Christianity. They are not what they should be, true, but that's not Ok with Paul. The whole "carnal christian" discussion seems to be based on the idea that claiming to be a believer but living like you're not is no problem. Of course, Paul's discussion does not let that idea rest.

Like a child who does not progress to meet developmental benchmarks, it is not Ok for a Christian to not develop and progress in their faith. So, those who are milk-drinkers ("babes in Christ") are possibly non-believers. But that doesn't relate to what Paul has said in ch. 2. His discussion in v. 14 and v. 15 is stating a general principal about the unsaved. The whole discussion hinges on Paul's argument flow. He isn't equating any particular believer with the "natural" man in v. 14, but the entire thrust of his argument has the weight of "if the shoe fits." Paul would tell his readers in this very same group "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?...(2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV"

The Archangel

 

There was a question placed to me about how yo deal with moderators, so just answered it!

 

That is a false narative. Paul was criticizing some of the Corinthian Chrisians for not being as spieitual but as carnal, 1 Corinthians 3:1-2.

 

Think that its more akin to someone is really saved, but seems to be stuck at babes in Christ status!

 

But the word in 1 Cor 3 isn't "carnal" is it? Paul says he can't address them as spiritual, but as "people of the flesh. Then, he qualifies what he said as "infants in Christ." So he isn't saying the Corinthian church is full of unbelievers, per se, but neither is he saying their state is Ok. What is more the "natural" man of 1 Cor 2:14 is not the same word Paul uses here for "people of the flesh." In either case, Paul's discussion of the "natural" man is discussing unbelievers and--save for the qualifier Paul gives (infants in Christ)--he is coming very close to calling these Corinthians "unbelievers."

The Archangel

 

he does seem to want to "spank" many of them and tell them to grow up!

 

Quite obviously, a lost person. One not yet drawn by the supernatural.

 

The immediate context of the passage itself.

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.​

Paul is speaking about the saving faith that comes from the Gospel. He's talking about the Spirit who is given to those who believe.

12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.​

The NIV rendering puts it in those terms.

14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.​

There is a similar theme in Romans 8.

The translations using the term "natural man" are fine also. The term natural means without God or without the supernatural. It is someone left to themselves. It's the soul man or spiritless man.

 

Quote the verse you think is saying this. Particularly, the "of the world" part. I believe you added that.

 

Let me know which translation you would accept.