the "spiritual man"

[Steve Burden Bearers]

What is the criteria behind being a "spiritual man" and is there any difference in its use between 1 Corinthians 3:1 and Galatians 6:1 (or for that matter other passages using this phrase)?

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. 1 Cor 3:1

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Gal.6:1

 

[Contra_Mundum]

In a very broad way, perhaps we can understand Paul to refer to mature spirituality in both instances; but a look at each passage may be helpful for pursuing the nuances distinguishing each place and use.

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What does it mean to be “spiritual?” In Gal.6:1, Paul gives an exhortation to “you, the spiritual ones.” His exhortation is to those who have received Holy Spirit by faith (3:2), who now live in the same Spirit (5:25), and when acting in accord with their new habits in the fruit he bears in them, do keep in step with that same Spirit.

That’s the basic meaning: to be a Christian is to be “spiritual.” However, it would appear that more is in view than simply an appeal to Christians. If considering Paul’s address to the Corinthians,1Cor.3:1, he addresses them as “not spiritual, but carnal, as babes in Christ.” (see below for further exposition on 1Cor.3) That is, he spoke to them as if they were people whose new-birth was so recent, they were still nearly more dead than alive.

He said elsewhere (Php.1:6) that all truly good beginnings see a good end; but at the place each new spiritual life begins, God starts with the same dead mass in order to transform it. It takes time for spirituality to make a proper showing. To use a newborn illustration: for a while that infant just seems to have no personality and no intention to its actions. But after a few weeks, all the input she’s received suddenly begins to show. Not much; there’s still hardly any intent to her movements or glances; but you can start to see the mind, the personality, emerging.

So, “spiritual” in Gal.6:1 means more than new Christian life. It is an appeal to those of mature Christian understanding. Even more specifically, it is an appeal to those who have listened to Paul’s letter and understood the issues, either agreeing with him from the beginning, or having been moved by his argument.

In effect, Paul asks each reader (the you of address) first to make a judgment and a choice just now to find himself on his side of the controversy that precipitated the Galatian letter. As he’s drawn the line, it is a choice between you as spiritual, or you as legal. Which of these adjectives defines you essentially? The spiritual man or woman is best empowered to love the overtaken brother, and to help him in his weakness.

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Paul in vv1-4 of 1Cor.3 frankly describes the Corinthian church as “carnal,” so there's a slightly different line being drawn. That statement made twice (vv1&3) is followed by the rhetorical question, twice asked (vv3-4): “Given the foregoing facts, aren’t you carnal? The implication of his chiding terms and tone throughout conveys Paul’s disappointment with their carnal-condition, when all of his previous investment in them (not to mention the work of others) might have yielded a happier return.

All the reference to “carnality” a basic apprehension by the Corinthians of Paul's meaning for the term, even prior to introducing the comparison in v1. There, “spiritual” people are contrasted (in some sense) with “carnal” people. “Carnal” people are further related (again, in some sense) to “babes in Christ,” a comparison that takes on more clarity in v2. Carnality is then equated with certain vices and negative tendencies against which Paul has already expressed himself critically back in the earliest portion of the body of the letter (beginning in 1:10).

“Carnal”in this context (context always determines meaning, not a single definition for a term) describes someone whose thoughts and actions are driven by the simplest, basest, most animal-like urges. He is not much more than a stimulus-response being. Of course, in terms of physical and mental maturity, ordinary human life progresses to the place where these desires become both more sophisticated and more adult-oriented. But as Scripture teaches, there is a profound moral defect present in man resulting in ethically stunted growth, deformation and mutation, and ultimately death. Man’s carnality is corrupted, and always overcomes what might be termed his “higher”aspirations.

Paul, reminds the Corinthians that they were (most of them) carnally-minded adults, when he first came to them preaching Christ and his cross. Spiritually, however, they were stillborn. Now, new life in Christ had opened doors into a whole new way of living, a way dominated by thoughts and actions elevated beyond any mere philosophy (varieties of which were the pride of Greece). But no one vaults over the fields of patient instruction and practice, as if zapped by a spiritual muse into realms of knowledge and spirituality apart from some earning.

The Corinthians began their “new lives” as babes, as those who were “born again.” Paul characterizes his labors with them as feeding them spiritual nourishment geared to that infant-level, with “milk not solid food.” Solid food is for the mature, Heb.5:14. Little ones cannot, due to their low level of maturity--lack of teeth for instance--handle the rigor of meat and potatoes meals. They need simple food, and new Christians need basic teaching, so as to give them a suitable foundation from which to advance.

Paul declares that even now, these Christians are not very mature—although, the implication seems to be that they had had enough time and instruction to be so, if they would have applied themselves. They had the teachers, they had the time. They might have gone on from being essentially driven by carnal-principles. But they had been lazy, or sidetracked, or unmotivated. The congregation's factionalism (v3) was evidence enough. The doctor can tell what is wrong by the symptoms, usually. These who were Christians were yet acting “like mere men.”

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As I try to explain, by considering each passage in its own context the generalities that may broadly connect two similar terms (even the exact wording) will be clarified and distinguished by their respective passages, and the writer's pastoral intent for two original audiences will speak to us in the variety of our own circumstances.