Paul's Problem with the Corinthians

Paul had a problem with the Corinthian church. He did not pussyfoot around about it either. He told them pointblank:
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
The problem was that they were "people of the flesh." 1 Corinthians 3:1

As we continue reading past verse 1, we discover the reason that they are still fleshly, even though they had been fed good "milk." The same milk metaphor is used in Hebrews: every one who is partaking of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness — for he is an infant.  Hebrews 5:13
Milk is wholesome and easily digestible. Paul was not finding fault with them for a drinking nutritious beverage. He was disgruntled that they remained happy doing so. They did not want to move on and step up to meat.

The Taste Test
How can you know if someone is not ready for solid foods? What foolproof sign can you use to make a determination? People can become very good at saying all the right things to make you think well of them. A lot of people know how to look like Christians when they are in a church. The preaching goes out to the entire congregation, but how can one gauge if someone is eating the meat or is content with their liquid diet?

There's an answer for that! We can use 1 Corinthians 3:3 to know when people are immature and unskilled in righteousness: Believers who display envying, and strife, and divisions are acting in the flesh, not with their recreated spirit. They are acting and making decisions as if they were not saved, as if they had never heard God. Here's the verse in the International Standard Version:
That's because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren't you? 1 Corinthians 3:3

And that answer really surprised me because it pointed straight at the chief reason KatieLyn gave in her blog for calling off the wedding!!!!!!!  She said, and I quote: If you and your loved ones are constantly fighting about your relationship and you normally don't fight long term about things, you might want to take a good long hard look at what is causing the arguments.

It is important to point out that she was not arguing with Joe, but with her mother. At the end, she said that she was constantly fighting, even though she had told Joe that it was periodic fighting. (I suspect she was trying to protect her family's reputation by not admitting to Joe how bad it really was.)

Apparently KatieLyn took a good long hard look at what was causing the arguments and came to an unscriptural conclusion. Apparently, she thought that her mom might have been right, even though God had previously told her that Joe was to be her husband.

The Lesson
That KatieLyn failed to discern the real cause that she lost faith is not the main point of this post, however. The BIGGIE is that the real reason for their fighting is revealed in 1 Corinthians 3:3,  You are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?

I have explained in previous posts that Gwen was envious of her daughter's joy in answered prayer. I don't know that Gwen ever had a dating relationship that wasn't based on sexual manipulation in one form or another. God answered KatieLyn and gave her the real thing that Gwen had missed. But rather than being happy for her daughter, Gwen was disbelieving and envious. This quite naturally led to strife between them. As her mother succeeded in sowing doubt into KatieLyn's beliefs that God had really answered her fifteen years of prayers, KatieLyn lost her her sense of closeness to the Lord. They were both acting in the flesh and living like unbelievers. KatieLyn had lost her confidence in hearing God, and Gwen had never been convinced that God had answered in the first place.

KatieLyn knew that she had lost her faith that the marriage was God's design for her and she felt distanced from God, but she never suspected that the chief reason for that emptiness was Satan had used her mom's immaturity to steal the promise from her.  This is why she could not give Joe a reason for calling it off that made sense—she did not know or even suspect the real reason. 

My next post will develop this concept further based on Romans 8:6
  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
You will see that it was being carnally minded that brought death to God's plan for this marriage.