What is the Carnal Mind?

What Is the Carnal Mind? By H.A. Erdmann

In dealing with the thought of what the carnal mind is, let us first briefly note what it is not. Many have made the mistake, and many still make the mistake, of confusing the carnal mind with something that it is not.

In the first place, it is not humanity. Often when a person does that which is not seemly, we hear someone say, "That is human nature." They make the mistake of confusing human nature with human nature plus sin. God created the first human pair and placed them in the Garden of Eden, and we infer from the Bible that God walked and communed with them, and there was perfect fellowship and harmony between them and God. But in this state they were human, endowed with human natures. After God had created them and breathed into them the breath of life, He looked at His work and pronounced it very good. Human nature was created by God and God never created anything base, or mean, or tricky. Human nature is good. What is so often called human nature is human nature filled with sin. Sin warps human nature and puts it out of harmony with God and the things of God. Sin thus causes the entire life to be out of joint with the divine plan. Human nature plus sin does not follow the divine plan and program, not because human nature is contrary to God and God's program, but because human nature is warped and twisted by a terrible disease called sin.

The carnal mind is not our appetites. Man is created a physical being and has physical needs and appetites. When the sin principle is removed, the appetites are not destroyed, i.e., those appetites that are normal and not unnatural. If you were fond of strawberries before sin was destroyed, you will, very likely, still be fond of strawberries after the destruction of sin. We are also endowed with mental appetites. There is a desire for knowledge. All our appetites may be so depraved by sin that the individual no longer desires that which is best for him, but rather that which is harmful. But appetites not depraved are for our best interests and do not constitute sin.

The carnal mind is not sin as an act. St. John gives us a clear distinction between sin as an act and sin as a principle in I John, the first chapter. In the seventh verse he tells us," If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Sin is here spoken of in the singular number and does not mean the transgressions that men commit, but sin as a principle. He takes up sin as an act in the ninth verse where he uses the plural number. In the seventh verse he speaks of the defilement of sin, of a something that is not forgiven, but must be cleansed. In the ninth verse he speaks of something that is forgiven when he says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." There is a vast difference between cleansing and forgiving. Let us illustrate: Let us presume that you are cross-eyed. You are walking along on the sidewalk, and because you are cross-eyed you do not look where the spectator thinks you are looking. From the opposite direction comes a surgeon. He sees you but does not get off the sidewalk because he thinks you see him and will turn out to give him part of the sidewalk; but because you are cross-eyed you do not see him and bump into him. Now it would seem ridiculous for you to ask him to forgive you for being cross-eyed. You would not do such a thing; but on the other hand, you would ask him to forgive you for bumping into him. He forgives you. But that still leaves you cross-eyed, and you will very likely bump into him again the next time you meet him if you are left in your present cross-eyed condition. So the proper thing to do, after he forgives you, is for you to go with him to his surgery and have him perform an operation that will straighten out your eyes and thus remove that condition that was back of the conduct for which you before asked forgiveness. He could not forgive you for being cross-eyed, but he can remove the condition. So Saint John speaks of something that needs to be cleansed away, in the seventh-verse, and of something that needs to be forgiven in the ninth verse.

In the seventh and eighth verses he treats of sin as a principle, and in the ninth and tenth verses he treats of sin as an act. We have found not a few who are described by the eighth verse. Upon being asked whether they did not want to be sanctified and have the carnal mind destroyed, they answered that they did not have the carnal mind and never had had. But John says in this epistle that only those who are deceived would make such a statement. We have also found some who placed themselves in the tenth verse by saying that they had never committed any sins and therefore did not need to repent and confess any sins.

Sabbath breaking, stealing, cursing, driving sharp bargains, lying, etc. do not constitute the carnal mind, but are evidences that the deadly thing is lurking in the heart. When the physician is called to the home of a sick man, he feels the pulse, takes the temperature, looks into the throat, punches here and there, turns the sick man over and examines him on all sides. What is he doing? You say, "He is diagnosing the sick man's trouble." In "diagnosing the trouble" he is looking for evidences of the thing that is giving the sick man trouble. If he were to find some small eruptions on the skin, perhaps a few on the back, and one or two on the breast of the man. and perhaps a few on the soles of his feet, he would no doubt tell the sick man that he had small pox. Now he might put something on those eruptions that would cause them to disappear and heal over, but in a very short time they would break out again. The thing to do is to give him something to take internally, because the real trouble is on the inside. If the disease is taken care of properly. the eruptions on the skin will disappear as a matter of course. Swearing, driving sharp bargains, lying, stealing are the skin eruptions, that indicate there is something far worse the matter on the inside. Conversion heals the eruptions so that they all vanish. No visible trace is left. But in a few weeks or months, we so often notice them break out again, perhaps not in what we would term the grosser sins at first, but minor ones. The soul backslides and the grosser eruptions are again manifest. But when the inside is properly dealt with, the skin eruptions will naturally adjust themselves to normal, and the chances of their again appearing are many, many fold reduced. No longer does that soul sing, "Prone to wander Lord, I feel it"; but he will burst forth in glad refrain, "Prone to serve Thee, Lord, I have it."

Then what is the carnal mind?

1) Paul, the great apostle, tells us in Romans 8:6, 7 that it is enmity against God. Note that he does not say that it is at enmity against God, but that it is enmity -- the very essence of enmity -- and that it is not subject to God's law. Law cannot control it. People of all ages have tried to control the carnal mind with laws and statutes. Some have tried to accomplish it with culture, or education, or rules of ethics. Others still have tried to whitewash it and make it look as nice as possible, vainly hoping that by making it look nice they could make it act nice. All these remedies have been signal failures. The carnal mind is an outlaw and refuses to be controlled. Some have tried to solve the problem by what is termed "suppression" and have tried to hold it in subjection, but they, too, have met with defeat and sorrow.

2) Paul the apostle tells us again that it is indwelling sin, or a soul-inhabitant. "Sin that dwelleth in me." It is a something that lives, abides, dwells in man. It makes its home there. Paul also tells us that by its dwelling in him it caused him to do things that he did not really want to do. And when he wanted to do that which he knew to be good, this thing would prevent him. It would get in his way. It would place itself between him and the good that he wanted to do. It is the housed-up sin, born in him, and to his sorrow still residing there, even though he himself protests against it. This thing is the source of all his trouble. It is the enemy of all his noblest endeavors. The apostle Paul found, as many others have, that they of our own house are our greatest foes.

It was this same thing that got in the way of the people of old, causing God to cry out, as recorded in Deut. 5:29, "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them."

3) In Romans 7:21 we find that it is a law of evil. A law is a rule of action. A law is an impulse, a sudden force. The apostle Paul tells us that, when he would do good, he was ever reminded that this law that worked to the contrary was ever present. This is not an excuse for wrongdoing as the passage clearly indicates. Dr. W. B. Godbey says in discussing this statement of Paul, "This is where the counterfeit professors woefully lie on Paul, making his language an apology for committing sin. They differ from Paul wide as the poles. While hey wickedly pervert this scripture to their own destruction, making it an apology for known and willing sin, Paul positively and repeatedly certifies that he did no such thing, and the only trouble in his case was the inward conflict of an indwelling enemy. His testimony in this verse is that the evil is ever present to menace, tempt and antagonize him in his enterprises to glorify God. While this is true we must remember his positive abnegation of at all yielding to it, and repeated affirmation that this indwelling sin, of its own spontaneity, was really doing all the mischief in the case, while he pleads constantly his own innocency."

4) It is a law of captivity (Rom. 7:23). Its rule of action is to bring into captivity, to make slaves, to sell as a slave to the law of sin. This does not necessarily mean that it always succeeds in its efforts to bring into captivity. The apostle Paul gives us clear evidence that it puts forth a constant and indefatigable effort to bring him into captivity. But, thank God, in Paul's case it never succeeded, as his testimony ever assures us. While the apostle Paul thus stood out and defeated this law until he was delivered from it, it has brought its thousands, yea, millions, into utter and complete captivity from which they never escaped. While they were well on their road of freedom, this indwelling enemy stormed and reduced their city and carried them with irresistible force into captivity. Adam Clarke says, "This is the consequence of being overcome; he is now in the hands of the foe; as the victor's lawful captive. The word used here is the same as used by our Lord when speaking of the final ruin and captivity of the Jews. He says, "They shall be led away captives into all the nations."

5) It is the "besetting sin." "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1). We would call your attention to the fact that the racer is already a Christian; consequently, this besetting sin cannot mean an outward transgression; or actual sin. Actual sins have been left in the devil's country. Dr. Godbey says, "The Greek adjective euperistaton is from eu, you; peri, around; isteemai, to stand; hence it means the sin always standing around you and sticking close to you. Here the Holy Spirit is addressing the citizens of the kingdom, whose actual sins have all been left in the devil's country, whence they came. Therefore, in harmony with the Greek definition of this word, we see it can be none other than the original inbred sin, which still inheres in the heart of the regenerate."

6) It is that which the devil planted in the heart. It is the same wherever it is found. It is very cunning and shrewd. It will pawn off anything to keep from being crucified. It will pawn off some things that in themselves are to be desired and good, but that can never take the place of, nor substitute for, heart purity. The carnal mind will pawn off healing, "tongues," human demonstration, or anything spectacular. We once heard one preacher put it thus: "The old man, the carnal mind, will do anything under the sun to keep from being crucified, for it nearly kills him to have to die." The carnal mind will take the sublimest passages of scripture and so materialize them as to take out of them all spiritual import and thus leave us nothing but a Bible for the ills of the body only. Carnal people will put up with some preaching they do not like. They will sanction a healing service, or even a tarrying service; but when it comes to the old-fashioned mourners' bench they draw a line. They will tell us that all our diseases are met in the atonement, and then will quote such passages as Malachi 4:2, 3. "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." Here they stop as a rule. But let us read on: "And ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked . . . in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord." Now, we are not against divine healing. We have seen God vindicate Himself too often in this way to say that He does not heal our bodies. In our own ministry we have anointed the sick, laid hands on them, prayed for them, and seen them instantly healed. We could relate some marvelous cases of divine healing under our own ministry, but shall refrain here, for this is not a treatise on divine healing. No, we are not adverse to divine healing; but we do object to carnal people taking the great promises of the Bible and robbing them of all spiritual meaning and force, to dodge the issue regarding the carnal mind and to bolster up a healing doctrine. Let us look for a moment at the above text. If we make the healing part physical, we must make the rest of it physical, or we shall be deplorably inconsistent. Does it then mean that we will grow fat physically as the stall-fed calf? We once saw a calf that was stall-fed and prepared for the show pen. That calf weighed eleven hundred pounds when it was only nine months old. Are we thus to grow physically if we fear His name? Shall we tread down the wicked with physical force if we fear His name?

This passage is only one of the many that various people use to preach divine healing. This is a trick of the carnal mind thus to eliminate from the Bible all spiritual healing. There are plenty of promises for physical healing in the Bible without thus mutilating those passages that promise us spiritual healing. After all, the healing of the ills of the soul are far more important than the healing of the ills of the body. One may have a sick body all the days of his earthly sojourn and then go triumphantly home to glory, as Lazarus surely proved; but one cannot go through life here with a diseased soul and come with rejoicing on that "great day." Beware! Consider!

The carnal mind has also pawned off "speaking with tongues" on many to keep from being crucified. This is not to be a treatise on the "tongues" question; but let us deviate long enough to say just a few things because it is used as a substitute for the destruction of the carnal mind. We find more in regard to "tongues" mentioned in the Epistle to the Corinthians than in all other scripture combined. The Corinthian church seemed to be very gifted, yet they were not spiritually healthy. There were contentions among them; in at least one instance there was practiced the most shameful licentiousness: they were unsound in their views concerning marriage; some of the men were gluttonous and others drunken; others of them seem to have been afflicted with conceit and spiritual pride. The apostle Paul fairly meets all these conditions, and writes a letter full of spiritual instruction to enlighten their understanding and correct their glaring faults. He says gifts are not permanent, for "whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease." Some say the significance of this chapter is a thing of the past, and without application to us. But this is not true. The gift of tongues may or may not have ceased; but the great principles of the chapter abide for our guidance, and we are safe from the delusions of the devil and inbred sin only as we carefully follow its plain principles and instructions. Running through it all is the heavenly love which seeks to edify rather than to amaze and mystify, which knits hearts together in divine love and fellowship. The one sign which shall not be cut off, the everlasting sign, is this fullness of love. Have you this love? You may have it in some measure, and yet not have it in its fullness. If you do not have it, get down before the Lord and search your heart, and ask Him to search it for anything contrary to love. What He shows you, confess frankly, and, in faith, ask of Him a heart full of Christlike love, and He will give it you. "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." Nowhere in the Bible do we read that gifts are required, but in numerous places do we find that fruits are required. There is a difference that is wide between gifts and fruits. "Every branch in me that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2) -- not that it may possess -- gifts. It is fruit that God is looking for. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away."

Are you a fruit bearer? Is it good fruit? "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7:17,18). Is the fruit you bear sweet and juicy and free from worms? Can you recommend it as number one? Or is it an inferior grade and will have to be classed as "culls"?

Some fruit is very desirable, and the sight of it makes one hungry. It is sweet and juicy. It has just the proper amount of sugar in it. But there is fruit that is sour, and scaly, and worm-eaten. Nobody cares for it. There are the scales of crabbedness, of faultfinding, of retaliation. There is fruit that does not attract, but is repulsive and nauseating because it is worm-eaten. The worms of self-conceit, worms of pride, and worms of selfishness and self-seeking, etc., have spoiled much apparently good fruit.