Carnal

Even church members can be carnal, being only babes in Christ, as Paul indicated in writing the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3:1-4 ). Such Christians are jealous of one another and quarrel with one another. Christians should solve their problems with different “weapons” (2 Corinthians 10:4 ). Such weapons serve God's purposes, destroy human arguments and human divisions, and bring glory to Christ.

Hebrews teaches that Christ had a distinct kind of priesthood from that of Jewish priests. Priests had always served on the basis of commandments written to meet fleshly needs. Christ served on the basis of His indestructible, eternal life (Hebrews 7:16 ). In Hebrews 9:10 the writer of Hebrews made clear the fleshly nature of the law. It consisted of commandments for the old order dealing with external matters until Christ came to deal with the spiritual matters of eternal redemption, sanctification, cleansing, and eternal life.

Using the same Greek word (sarkikos ), Peter issued a battle cry against “fleshly lusts” so that glory would go to God and people would be attracted to His way of life (1 Peter 2:11 ).