TOPIC:“Three Men - And Which One are You?”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:I Corinthians 2:14-16; 3:1-6
“But the natural man… But he that is spiritual… For ye are yet carnal” (I Corinthians 2:14, 15; 3:3)
Whether you have ever realized it or not plants are assigned to groups within a system distinguished by structure. People are somewhat like that. Walk down the main street in any town or city of this country and you will discover that unconsciously people are divided up into different groups according to their racial, economic, political, cultural and religious beliefs. Consider, for example, the classification in Hinduism. Here people are divided into a cast which is an artificial division of social prestige into which the Hindus are rigidly separated. Their privileges or disabilities are dependent upon what division they have been put.
Now somewhat in a different manner the Apostle Paul has divided the whole human race into three distinct groups - the natural man, the carnal man, and the spiritual man. Paul spends a great deal of his time on this matter. Let us consider these three categories of people and see in which one we find ourselves.
I.
Consider, first of all, life as we view it in the NATURAL man whom Paul describes as SENSUOUS. The Apostle Paul writes in chapter 2 verse 14 these words about the natural man: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them” (I Corinthians 2:14). I like the way the New English Bible renders these words: "A man who is unspiritual refuses what belongs to the Spirit of God; it is folly to him; he cannot grasp it." The meaning of the word “natural” as we find it expressed in the Authorized Version means sensual, earthly, or life as it is lived under the senses of the flesh. That is why the Apostle Jude describes the natural man as those “who walk after their own ungodly lusts” (Jude 18). They are dominated by the sensual.
Think of the DESCRIPTION of the natural man. He has never been touched and transformed by the Spirit of God. That is why the NIV translates the word natural this way: "The man without the Spirit." Moffart has it: "The unspiritual man." The NLT puts it: "But people who aren't Christians." He has only one birth that of the physical. He considers the Gospel to be foolishness. He lives only for this life. He smirks at Christ and His free offer of forgiveness. Jesus called the natural man a fool.
The natural man does not understand the Bible nor appreciate its truth. The words "receiveth not" in verse 14 means "welcome" or "accept" or "acknowledge" . . .