life, perhaps how many times in your life, we have been absorbing through the process of virtually memorization the words of God. We have been drinking it in be cause it was easier to drink in, but we have never chewed, that is, be come involved, eagerly involved, in analyzing, in applying these truths to our own life. Paul moves on, and indicates why these people are carnal. “ For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" You have in the English language the exact same word “ for ye are yet carnal" (I Cor inthians 3:3) and that parallels the word “ carnal" in verse one. Now I think that the majority of the text that make the distinction make it correctly. Paul is moving to a slight ly different term of this word that is translated "carnal." It is the same Greek word, but the suffix or the ending of that Greek word is changed. And whereas in the first verse where he spoke of them as being carnal Christians, he or the word carries the concept of being of material nature, that is, it is a relationship of the material par ticle of flesh. Here I believe it is conveying the idea of the rela tionship itself, not simply that they were fleshly but they were acting like they were fleshly Paul says, “Why are you this way? Because among you there is envying and strife and divisions." The word "envyings" here, I think, gets us into an area that is most fascinating. It talks about being zealous, to move ahead. It talks about an eager rivalry. It talks about being, if you will, number one, or trying to be number one in any given community.
think that this is an excellent prac tice, but we ought to see it for what it is. I remember years ago a gradu ate student who was outstanding in the area of memorizing. He went through a number of grad uate courses and got not outstand ing grades, but acceptable grades. He challenged the languages and he literally memorized the lan guages that were necessary for the exam. In that particular institution it was possible for an individual to take the book that was essential for his given field and use that as the book that would be used in the test on the language that he was going to be tested on. And this person, instead of really learn ing the rudiments of the language, virtually memorized that text in English and so when a particular passage was asked for translation, by memory he gave it rather than by translation. Now this student had the capac ity to comprehend elements, but he did not have the capacity to integrate them and to pass them back. This happened many years ago and I remember one of his professors told me afterwards that “ There is something peculiar about this man. He learns so quickly the basic elements of anything that you give him and somehow or another he never assimilates them into his life. He never applies them, he nev er uses them." I know, too, that this individual was capable in the classroom in many ways, but the advance work that he was taking somehow or other did not show up in the pat tern of instruction that was offered. And the question comes to my mind, how many times in my own
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