How to Crucify Carnality and Live a Happy Life

Carnality isn’t a comfortable topic for followers of Jesus, and it becomes even more challenging when we talk about “crucifying” it. Yet, crucifying our carnality is key to a truly happy life. The Bible lays out the keys to real life in Jesus, and who doesn’t want that kind of genuine happiness? The problem arises when there’s a mixture of affections. Many love Jesus, but also indulge in the sins of the world. This creates misery, and happiness evades them. Francis Chan said, “It’s like loving lemonade and Frappuccino and drinking from both instead of one or the other. It will make you sick. Loving the world and loving God will make you miserable.”¹ Some things just don’t mix, like oil and water. While some things complement each other, other mixtures are toxic. The interests of the world and God are contradictory; spiritual life and carnality are the same way. They are mutually exclusive. First Corinthians 10:21 states, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.” Therefore, the path to real happiness and genuine spirituality involves cutting off the carnal component – what the Bible calls “crucifying.” This week’s Light on Life podcast tackles this very subject: “How to Crucify Carnality and Live a Happy Life.”

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The Corinthians were full of jealousy and strife. They were acting like unsaved people. These ‘works of the flesh’ should not be named among Jesus followers.

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Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 48 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God, thank you for another opportunity to jump into your Word and learn of you. Help us to think like you think and see this area of growing up spiritually like you see it. We ask that in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Crucifying Carnality: Reviewing Spiritually Maturity

So, we are in chapter three of First Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 3:3–7 (ESV) — 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? 5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

In a previous podcast, we covered verses 1 and two of First Corinthians three.

1 Corinthians 3:1–2 (ESV) — 1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

In that podcast, we examined the word ‘spiritual’ and this whole concept that the New Testament lays out about the impact of feeding on the Word of God.
If you remember, we also defined the word that Paul uses ‘people of the flesh.’
That phrase ‘people of the flesh’ is translated in the KJV as ‘carnal.’
Carnal is the word I am accustomed to using because the church that I grew up in used this translation.
Other translations like the TNIV, uses the word ‘worldly.’
The God’s Word translation uses the words ‘corrupt nature.’
The Greek word is ‘sarkinos’ and, it’s an adjective, and it means to be controlled by animal appetites.
Today, we want to pickup with verse three because it will explain something to us about these animal appetites and by inference how we need to crucify them.

Crucifying Carnality: What Is Fleshly Behavior?

1 Corinthians 3:3 (ESV) — 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

In verse three, Paul states that the Corinthians were involved in some negative behavior that would indicate that they hadn’t quite grown up out of their babyhood stage of development.
The evidence of this was the jealousy and strife they were operating in.
The Corinthians were ‘behaving in a human way’ not a spiritual way.
The Greek word ‘behaving’ means to go here and there in walking.
It means to conduct one’s life in a certain manner.²
These carnal believers were going here and there walking in jealousy.
Strife filled their interactions with their fellow Jesus follower.
These behaviors they were walking in were holding them back spiritually.
They impacted their growth path forcing Paul to adjust his message to them.
He was disappointed that he couldn’t take them upward in the things of God.
“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not and are not ready for it,” Paul said.
It seems plain that to grow in God, we need a diet rich in spiritual truths.

Crucifying Carnality: The Dilemma

So here’s the dilemma.
The Corinthians were full of jealousy and strife.
They were acting like unsaved people.
The Word of God that they should have been feeding on [that Paul actually fed them] should have been enough to help them begin to control these negative urges.
They had left off feeding on these truths and were totally over into their flesh flesh bickering and fighting with one another.

Crucifying Carnality: We Need the Word

Folks, we need the Word.
Years ago, the Spirit of God said to me, “Write a running commentary on the New Testament and publish it as your life’s written work.”
Why did He commission this?
Because we need the Word.
God has spoken to many a man and woman calling them into a ministry of the Word.
Why, because we need the Word.
The Lord has orchestrated the publishing of millions of books for the Jesus follower.
Religious books sold 179 million copies in 2020.
We’re talking $1.2 billion dollars in sales.³
The year 2019 saw Bible sales reach 9.7 million copies.
You think that’s a lot?
Just four years later, that number has increased by 32% to 14.2 million copies.
The trend in 2024 remained consistent.
Bible sales are off the charts!
J. Mark Bertrand, who produces a Bible design blog assesses the soaring Bible sales in glowing terms.

“We’re in a golden age of Bible publishing,” he says. “It’s never been as good as it is.” Why such an increase at this point in time? Uncertainty in the world given current events and more interest in the Bible stirred by podcasts and social media influencers are likely factors in the sales surge.⁴

Occasionally, I read Mark’s blog and have acted on his recommendations for high end – quality made Bibles.
Why? Because you put your money where your heart is.
I cannot express to all of you in words what the Bible means to me.
For forty-nine years, I have gladly given my whole life to teach it.
Whether to many or to a few, I will teach it.
I will teach an entire lesson to one person because every person counts — because every person needs the Word.
Jesus’ followers need to feed on the Word.
The Word of God is your best friend if you want to crucify carnality.

Crucifying Carnality: Feed on the Fundamentals

We need to feed on the fundamentals of salvation until we get past the petty, unimportant, absolutely not helpful works of the flesh.
Paul, moved by the Spirit of God, informs us that the Church must progress beyond the fundamentals of salvation.
What are those fundamentals?
Hebrews six verses one and two is your reference for this.
This passage outlines these essential components.

Hebrews 6:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

In his interaction with the Corinthian believers, Paul couldn’t teach past the basics.
He had to feed them the milk of the Word.
He wanted to feed these people a stronger diet.
Notice, I am using the word ‘feed’ to describe our interaction with God’s Word.
Bible reading is Bible feeding.
Feeding involves chewing of the subject you are reading.
No one puts food in their mouth and just swallows.
You must chew food before it can go down.
Feed on God’s Word — chew on it — meditate on it.
Think about it.
Ask the Lord questions about it.
Own the Word.
It must become God speaking to you.
I read this quote, and I thought it was great.
With that, here is the Quote of the Day.

Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.⁵

Think of your Bible as feeding your faith.
Engage it like you’re eating dinner.
Paul could not feed the steak of God’s Word to the Corinthians because they were still struggling with their fleshly desires and ignoring the very thing that would help them grow out of it: the milk of God’s Word.
Not having the right attitude towards the Word, resulted in, can we say it this way? — Clogged hearing.
And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

Responding to some trash talking aimed in his direction, Patrick Roy, a world -class goaltender who had won two championships with the Montreal Canadiens, gave the following comeback. “I can’t really hear what [named the player who was trash talking] says because I’ve got my two Stanley Cup Rings plugging my ears. It’s hard for me to understand what he says,” Roy had replied in response.

Corinthians experienced a blockage in their hearing.
They could not hear because they had jealousy plugged in one ear and strife plugged in the other.
If Paul had had tried to push ahead and cram spiritual realities down their throats, it would have been like trying to explain math to a one-year-old.
Jealousy and strife are indicators one is not in a place of receptivity.
Again, think of the conversation between you and a one-year-old.
How would that go?
That baby would look up in your face and smile, and blow bubbles and have no clue what you just said.
You just be babbling.
So you see, there are signs of receptivity.
A wise parent will allow the developmental process to take its course.
They would feed the child food appropriate to their physical development.
God is a wise parent.
The wisest of all parents.
Operating in jealousy and strife is an indicator of where believers are in their development.
Flowing in these negative areas is a sure sign that one will be stone deaf to the things of God.
Jealousy and strife are not the only negative things that will short-circuit one’s development.
They are just two out of a list Paul gave the Galatians called the ‘works of the flesh.’

Crucifying Carnality: More Negative Hold Back Traits

Galatians 5:19–21 (ESV) — 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There are fifteen specifically mentioned works of the flesh in this list.
Jealousy is one of those fifteen.
I say fifteen specifically mentioned works of the flesh because Paul adds this language to the back side of this ‘and things like these.’
If you are in these areas, you will be stuck in your development.
You plateau at the level of your carnality.
You lose ground at whatever work of the flesh you visit.
It’s time to grow up.
If you operate in wrong sex and you’re going to lose ground.
Walk in dissensions like the scripture says here, you know strife is dissensions, you’re going to not be what you could be that day.
Strife is a work of the flesh.
It’s so simple: operating in the flesh cuts off spiritual hearing.
When your flesh gets inflamed, your spirit remains dull.
That’s what happened to the Corinthians.
And if it happened to them, it can happen to you.
No one can walk in the flesh and have the things of the Holy Spirit of God at the same time.
It’s one or the other.
You cannot have both.

Matthew 10:39 (AMP) — 39 Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].

Higher life is spirit life.
Lower life is flesh life.

Crucifying Carnality: An Ongoing OneTime Decision

Here’s is the grown up life.
You make a one-time decision to go with the Word.
You commit with words like these.

The Bible says it — I believe it, and that settles it for me.

Once you make that commitment, the fight is on.
This fight will take you to the end of your life.

Galatians 5:17 (ESV) — 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Jesus’ followers will always have the opposition of the flesh because the flesh, the sin nature, is part of their bodies.

Galatians 5:24 (ESV) — 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Have crucified is past tense.
It means you’ve already done this.
If you haven’t, it’s time to step up to the plate.
Here’s the next part.

Galatians 5:24–25 (ESV) — 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

To get to verse 25, ‘keeping in step with the Spirit’ takes verse 24 to accomplish.
Listen to Romans on this.

Romans 8:6 (TNIV) — 6 The mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

There’s a decision to make here.
The flesh and the Holy Spirit cannot control someone at the same time.
It’s one or the other.
If sexual immorality is an ongoing thing in your life, spiritual revelation is dead.

Crucifying Carnality: Jealousy and Strife in Particular

Let’s talk about the two works of the flesh that Paul calls out with the Corinthians, jealousy and strife.
Jealousy is an interesting word in the Greek language.
It’s an interesting word in the English language.
The last five letters spell ‘lousy.’
That describes jealousy, sure enough.
The first of jealousy is ‘jeal.’
Switch the first letter out with a ‘z’ and you have ‘zeal’ instead of ‘jeal.’
Can I tell you, that’s what the Greek definition means?
Jealousy is an intense negative feelings over another’s achievements or success.⁶
Jealousy is related to zeal.
Zeal is a positive, intense feeling — jealousy is its negative counterpart.
Jealousy represents a focused and intense emotion toward an individual that manifests as envy.
Zeal represents a focused and intense emotion toward an individual, God.
Scripture lists the negative aspects of jealousy.

Song of Solomon 8:6 (NKJV) — 6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame.

Jealousy is as cruel as the grave.
And with that Word from God, here is the Illustration of the Day.

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other, and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?” The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, “Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!”⁷

Jealousy is cruel as the grave.
It is petty, self-centered, and destructive.

James 3:16 (ESV) — 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

Can you see how bad this is?
Jealousy links to every disorder and vile practice.
It’s bad — it’s major bad.

Crucifying Carnality: The Lineage of Zeal

Its righteous counterpart, zeal? — well, Paul knew something about that.

Acts 22:3 (ESV) — 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

Zealous for God is so much better than envious jealousy of people.’
Jealously is lousy.
Zeal for God has a glorious lineage that is part of your spiritual DNA.

Phineas

Numbers 25:6–11 (ESV) — 6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. 10 And the Lord said to Moses 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.

Do you see zeal here operating in the same sense as jealousy?

Elijah

I’m talking about your lineage of zeal.
Elijah is part of your spiritual DNA.

1 Kings 19:14 (ESV) — 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

ELijah was hiding in a cave, scared of Jezebel, after the tremendous nation altering encounter at Carmel where the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifices.
That boldness, that zeal are part of your life in the Spirit.

Judas Maccabaeus

About 200 years before Jesus, a man named Judas Maccabaeus aka “Judah the Hammer” led a revolt against a Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes.
This terrible ungodly king tried to choke out the Jewish nation by forcing the priests of God to sacrifice pigs in the Temple.
Many of Jews were prepared to compromise and go along with Syrian King.
But, Judas Maccabees and his brothers decided to act – a small revolutionary group against the powerful pagan empire.
Against all odds, they succeeded.
They beat off the Syrians, reconsecrated the Temple, and established, for a century, an independent Jewish state.
Zeal worked.
It showed utter loyalty to the One God.⁸

Jesus

Of course, Jesus, our hero is the number one example of zeal.
He’s your example — He’s my example.

John 2:14–17 (ESV) — 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Zeal is in your spiritual lineage — not envious, cruel as the grave, lousy, stinking, jealously.
Feed on this Word of God.
Tap into all that is available in God.
Make the decision to crucify carnality so that you can walk in the liberty of the sons of God.

Now Father God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for your precious written holy Word of God that by it we can grow. We choose to grow. We choose Jesus. We choose the Word. We say no to carnality and we do it once and for all in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Now, in this podcast, we ran out of time before we could get to the second negative trait that Paul mentioned was at work among the Corinthians.
With the current state of affairs, that, in itself, will take, at minimum, an entire podcast to cover.
How to Crucify Carnality and Live a Happy Life.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Being Zealous for God’s Remarkable Vision is Right

___________
References:

https://illustrationexchange.com/illustrations?category=490 ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 803. ↩
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/feettofaith/2025/03/christian-publishing-bible-sales-soaring/ ↩
ibid ↩
Elesha Hodge, ed., Today’s Best Illustrations, vol. 1–4, Today’s Best Illustrations (Christianity Today International, 1997). ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 427. ↩
Thomas Lindberg, Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 4. ↩
NT Wright, Paul a Biography location 542 ↩

emeryhorvath.com

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How to Crucify Carnality and Live a Happy Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season Twelve Episode Thirty-Two

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Crucifying Carnality: Reviewing Spiritually Maturity

Crucifying Carnality: What Is Fleshly Behavior?

Crucifying Carnality: The Dilemma

Crucifying Carnality: We Need the Word

Crucifying Carnality: Feed on the Fundamentals

Crucifying Carnality: More Negative Hold Back Traits

Crucifying Carnality: An Ongoing OneTime Decision

Crucifying Carnality: Jealousy and Strife in Particular

Crucifying Carnality: The Lineage of Zeal

Phineas

Elijah

Judas Maccabaeus

Jesus

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Crucifying Carnality: Reviewing Spiritually Maturity

Crucifying Carnality: What Is Fleshly Behavior?

Crucifying Carnality: The Dilemma

Crucifying Carnality: We Need the Word

Crucifying Carnality: Feed on the Fundamentals

Crucifying Carnality: More Negative Hold Back Traits

Crucifying Carnality: An Ongoing OneTime Decision

Crucifying Carnality: Jealousy and Strife in Particular

Crucifying Carnality: The Lineage of Zeal

Phineas

Elijah

Judas Maccabaeus

Jesus

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