I Corinthians 3:1 – 3 – I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”

Paul is talking about the difference between a person who is spiritual and understands spiritual truths and a person whose self-interest and aims do not go beyond material things and physical life. It is a person who is unable to understand spiritual truths.

I have belonged to churches where there have been major differences and dissention. There may be quarrelling over non-essential doctrine. It could be the color of the carpeting that needs to be installed. It seems like there are Christians who never change their worldly attitudes. It appears they never grasp spiritual truths and stagnate, unwilling to strive to become spiritually mature. Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are still worldly and they are allowing the world to dominate their thinking.

No matter how spiritual we become our human nature has a tendency to cloud our thinking. But we must become more God-serving and less self-serving and become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we listen and are conscious of the Holy Spirit we will be checked in situations that require a Christ-like attitude.

I have found that you can usually tell the relationship a person has with God by how they relate to and treat others. If someone is quarrelsome, argumentative, a troublemaking type, that person may be a committed church attender, even a church leader, however, may not be a child of God. A person having relationships that have love, unity and are agreeable are more likely to be a child of God.

It is so hard for many new and some long time believers to switch from living and thinking as the world lives and thinks to living with Christ-like behavior. The question we must ask is the same that Paul asked: “Are you not acting like mere men?” Meaning, are we still worldly in our actions and motives?