What are the dangers of being carnal or lukewarm?
It is impossible for us to really know who is carnal and who is spiritual. Only Our Heavenly FATHER knows the Truth thus we are not to judge! That’s Jesus’ business at the Judgment Seat. We are told to simply produce good fruit. Our lives will either show forth the fruit of the Spirit manifested by God’s Love or we will display rotten fruit brought forth by our carnal behavior.
Jesus referred to this when He spoke concerning the parable of the hearts (aka Sower) in Luke chapter 8:
14 The seeds that fall into the weeds represents the hearts of those who hear the word of God but their growth is quickly choked off by their own anxious cares, the riches of this world, and the fleeting pleasures of this life. This is why they never become mature and fruitful.
The danger of being carnal is that we can be born-again by God’s Spirit (justified) and yet spend most of our time in the soulish or fleshly realm. If this is the case, our ministry, our teaching, and our preaching will not produce any real Godly fruit.
Jesus spoke in John chapter 6:
63 It is the Spirit who gives Life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life.
Carnal Christians not only quench the power of God from coming forth through them, thereby hindering their own sanctification, they also hinder salvation and/or sanctification in others. They give a false impression of what a true Believer is really like. They can actually become stumbling blocks to passing along the True Gospel because nonbelievers look at them and say, “Hey! If that’s a Christian, I want no part of it.”
If a carnal Christian persists in doing things his own way, he will never grow to full maturity. This results in spiritual dullness, with no possibility of sparking a revival in himself, much less in anyone else. By living this way, he discredits Christ in all his actions.
Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 10:
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father Who is in Heaven.
33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father Who is in Heaven.”
Both our words and our actions create a confession!
If there is no fruit of the Spirit, it doesn’t matter how many verses of Scripture we know, we still will be denying Christ in our actions.
Jesus also spoke in Matthew chapter 16:
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways. 25 For if you choose self-sacrifice and lose your lives for My glory, you will continually discover True Life. But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will forfeit what you try to keep.
26 For even if you were to gain all the wealth and power of this world—at the cost of your own life—what good would that be? And what could be more valuable to you than your own soul?
Jesus addressed His disciples (you and me) when He spoke in Matthew chapter 24:
42 This is why you must stay alert: because no one knows the day your Lord will come.
44 So always be ready, alert, and prepared, because at an hour when you’re not expecting him, the Son of Man will come.”
45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom His Master made ruler over His Household, to give them food in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when He comes, will find so doing.
47 Assuredly, I say to you that He will make him ruler over all His goods.
48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My Master is delaying His coming,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the Master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for Him and at an hour that he is not aware of,
51 and will cut him in two (separate from him) and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus is clearly warning us as believers to not live a carnal life!