Sold Out to Our Desires - 1 Corinthians 2:9-3:6

It is hard to discern whether a person is a genuine Christian when their lives are characterized as one driven by their base instincts, ruled by their passions, given over to their appetites and sensual desires? When a genuine believer live is characterized in this manner, the bible calls them carnal or fleshly, because they are sold out to the base instincts of this flesh. When this conduct occurs over a long period of time, it raises the question about their salvation. Are they carnal or lost?

In the 1 Corinthians passage the apostle Paul is addressing three groups of people. 1) Men who are natural (unsaved). “But 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) Men who are spiritual (1 Cor. 2:15-16) - “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ" and 3) Men who are carnal (1 Cor. 3:1)
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”