Four Kinds Of Men

by 

Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

 

 

According to St. Paul’s inspired epistles, the human race is divided into four categories:

1. The natural man, i.e., the fallen son of Adam, as he is, without God. Of him the Apostle says: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
2. The babe in Christ.  When a person sees himself as a sinner and trusts Christ as his Saviour, he is “born again” and becomes a “babe in Christ”. But babes can and should grow, so these are exhorted: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere [pure] milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2).
3. The carnal Christian is one who, though perhaps a Christian for years, has not grown, due to indifference and neglect of the Word of God. He still has to be treated as a babe in Christ. The Corinthian believers were examples of this. Paul had to write them: “I…could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear [digest] it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Cor. 3:1, 2). Everybody loves a baby, but the joy that fills the hearts of loving parents turns to bitterest sorrow if their baby fails to grow.
4. The spiritual Christian is one who, through prayerful study of the Word of God, has grown to spiritual maturity. He is no longer merely a child of God; he is a “man of God”. We should all “desire the sincere [pure] milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2) — “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). Let us then heed St. Peter’s inspired exhortation: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).