And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. . . . For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? — 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1,3

With most Christians, I’m sorry to say, the inward man does not rule the outward man. Instead, the body rules the inward man — and that’s what makes carnal Christians. One translation of our text says “bodyruled” instead of “carnal.” And that’s what carnal Christians are — body-ruled.

“. . . Ye are yet carnal . . . and walk as men,” Paul told the Corinthians. In other words, they were living like people who had never been born again. I like the Amplified Bible translation of verse 3: “. . . For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?”

Don’t do it! Refuse to live like mere men! Live like the new creature you are! Determine to let the new man in Christ dominate your being.

Confession: I refuse to walk as a mere man. I am changed. I am a new creature in Christ. I will grow up in Christ. I will grow up spiritually. “I” — the man on the inside — will dominate my being. I will walk as a spiritual man. I will behave myself after the standard of God’s Word. I will walk in love. I will walk in faith!