A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. His problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.
Author: Vance Havner
Devotion of the Day
Carnalities and Spiritualities
Ye are yet carnal.
I Corinthians 3:3
Now concerning spiritual gifts…
I Corinthians 12:1
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan has pointed out that Paul in First Corinthians begins with the carnalities and then moves in the latter part of the book to the spiritualities. In doing so he runs counter to the modern policy of “accentuating the positive” and not dealing with sins in the church on the premise that if we emphasize love the problems in the church will vanish. If the modern approach is correct, then Paul should have begun with the thirteenth chapter of this epistle. Instead, he dealt with definite sins, following pet preachers, schisms, immorality, disorders at the Lord’s table. Then he was ready to consider spiritual gifts, preach on love and the resurrection – and even take a collection!
In Christian experience, we cannot move on to deeper things until sin has been faced in our lives. Nor can we in the church. Joshua on his face was no substitute for cleansing the camp from Achan, and prayer meetings cannot compensate for not getting rid of golden wedges and all accursed things.
We must deal with our carnalities if we desire the spiritualities.