The Characteristics of a Carnal Christian

Part II

by A.W. Tozer

From his book “Reclaiming Christianity: A Call to Authentic Faith”

Without Purpose

Another characteristic of a baby is his complete absence of purpose. A baby sees a ball and wants it. He does not know what the ball is or what he will do with it once he gets it; but he wants that red ball that lies just beyond his reach. He has not yet learned to crawl and so he must howl for it, and when he gets it, he is let down. He did not want the ball for any purpose, and once he has it, no purpose would be fulfilled. That, of course, is characteristic of babies.

Sweet as they are, and I would not want them different – they are the loveliest things on earth – they lack purpose in life. But when a child gets a little older and starts crawling, he begins to say things, begins to put things away or starts to work toward something. By the time he reaches his teen years, he will have a life purpose worked out for himself.

Just as a baby has no purpose at all, I find that the carnal Christian has no purpose either. He lives for the next lesson. He wants to know where the good preacher is going to be and he goes to hear him. He wants to know where the fine choir is going to sing and he goes and sits down and tickles his carnality by listening to the finest choir he can find. Or he wants to know where the biggest crowd is assembled and he gets a charge out of the crowd. There is no purpose there; he never went aside and got on his knees and said, “God, why was I ever born, and why have I been redeemed, and what is this about?” His life is totally without purpose.

Unproductive

Then, a baby lives a life of playing with trifles. A baby is the most unproductive creature on the planet. We love them, but all they do is create work for their parents. They live a life of play and trifles altogether. Everything they do has to be turned into play. A baby will nurse on his bottle for a while, toss it out on the floor and then laugh hilariously when he sees the milk spill and the top come down on the rug. Everything has to be turned into play with the babies.

I am trying hard to be nice about this, but if you are realistic at all, you will have to say that the modern generation of Christians is living for play and trifles. I have a folder from a Bible conference advertising a trip out on top of the bounding billows on a luxury liner. They are going to have everything their herats could wish. There are pictures of the beautiful palm trees and all the rest, like in Florida or California. It is going to be strictly a chaperoned luxury liner with a chaplain on board that will give talks on the Book of Romans just before the shuffleboard game every morning, to give it a religious flavor. According to the brochure, the purpose is to promote interest in missions. I did not get the connection. To me it would be more missions-wise to have everyone give that money to missions instead of spending it on the cruise.

Another group advertises, “Walk today where Jesus walked yesterday.” I liked what a certain evangelist wrote: “Yes, but not with the same purpose.”

We want to play and have no hesitation advertising our Bible conferences as religious playgrounds, which proves how carnal we are. We live a life of play and trifles. In order to get many Christians interested in Bible study or missions, it must be camouflaged as play to make it more palatable. A carnal Christian must be tricked into studying the Bible and it must be made out to be something that is fun.

Shifts Blame Away from Self

Another characteristic of a baby is that they are given to petulance, fretfulness and quarrelsomeness. A mother tells how her baby is a nice little angel. The mother means well, but that little girl is not a perfect little angel. She is a normal baby; she kicks and makes ugly sounds when she is only two months old. This petulance and fretfulness is strictly an immature reaction, because it is the temptation to blame secondary causes. All babies do it and eventually grow out of that stage.

I can always tell a carnal Christian because he blames secondary causes. When he loses his job, he blames his boss instead of blaming his sheer ineptitude and inability to come through. And some Christian women say that if only they had a good spiritual husband they would be better Christians. You know you would not be; you just think you would, because you would have fewer reasons.

As long as there is nothing there to think about, you think that you are better than you are. However, have a grouchy husband that will not shave on Sunday morning and sits around in a T-shirt and you say he is your trouble. No, he is not your trouble. He could be your sanctification if you knew how to use him. And if you knew how to use opposition, you could turn it into a help.

A carnal Christian always blames secondary causes. You never knew a baby that took the blame for anything; it is always somebody else that is at fault.

Eats a limited Diet

A baby lives on a diet of milk and strained vegetables. Now, that is a picture of a baby. They are not yet able to digest solid food. Everything has to be processed to accommodate the delicate digestive system.

A carnal Christian marks his Bible from tender little passages and skips over those rough passages that tear you apart, bring you down, discipline you and chasten you. The carnal Christian is not able to handle the “meat of the Word.” Everything must be predigested and given in measured doses so as not to offend their delicate digestive system. The apostle Paul addressed this in Hebrews 5:13-14, “For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

A carnal Christian and a baby share common characteristics: a self-centered little person affected by his senses; resting in the external; without purpose; loving to play, and having no serious purpose in life; living on a simple diet. Well, there you have a baby. Nature takes care of a baby pretty soon. Nature begins to shift the baby out from the center, but not completely, of course; that is part of sin. The baby gets some interest away from itself and learns to stand up and defy the senses. It learns to reason instead of living by his senses; learns to live for the character within rather than for external things; learns to have purpose in life even if it only is to be an actor or a ball player or something else. Having a purpose – nature takes care of that for most of us as we mature; but regarding spiritual things, that is another matter, dealing with fallen nature.

To be continued…

Part III – From Carnal to Spiritual