CARNALITY AND NATURE

     The dividing line between carnality and the natural appetites and desires is hard to define. The two principles lie deep and in the uncleansed person their inevitable sequences are thoroughly interwoven with each other as well as with the physical and moral texture of the being and the manifestations of the two elements at times are very closely allied. Notwithstanding these facts, there are a few points that can be settled immediately.

     Carnality is in the spirit, while what we have been pleased to call nature is in the body or mind. Carnality is a bent of the soul toward evil, and is enmity against God, while nature includes all those appetites and desires that are ours as a result of our human estate, which, in their normal condition, are not enmity against God. Carnality is removed by the cleansing blood, while nature will remain with us as long as we live, no matter how holy we may become. Carnality has no rightful place in the heart of any person, while nature is a perfectly legitimate tenant of this clay house. Carnality is never right and cannot be so cultivated or denied as that it shall be made better; the only way to deal with it is by death; while, on the other hand, nature, although it may have tendencies that are inordinate, can be so controlled and kept under that it will gradually lose its biased and inordinate characteristics, and be supplanted more and more by the manifestations of the indwelling nature of Christ. The method of dealing with the natural appetites and desires is to "mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth."

     The appetites and desires were given us by God, and were ours before the fall, but carnality came primarily from the devil or because of obedience to the devil, and is a result of the fall. Although it is true that we possessed these natural propensities before the fall, yet it is also true that they were not then as they are now. They fell along with the rest of the being, and as a result became so warped and twisted that at times they have almost lost any resemblance to the original.

     The Word "inordinate" is the best that can be used in describing the present condition of the natural propensities. "Inordinate" is an overreaching, an over-strength of the desires; it reveals the fact that a certain bent is given more than its legitimate place in the life. To illustrate: The taste for pleasing food is natural and perfectly lawful, but when this taste gains such a supremacy that one will overindulge or use unlawful means to obtain that which will gratify, or pay extravagant prices for one's pet indulgence, the taste is properly called inordinate. When desire for the gratification of appetite reaches the point of a controlling passion and causes uneasiness when denied, the appetite has become inordinate; such is the desire for tobacco, liquor, and other drugs. In this latter case the appetites are not only inordinate in the common acceptation of that term, but they are actually vicious.

     While from the nature of the case there is a possibility that a person who possesses real grace may be annoyed by tendencies toward inordinate indulgence, yet it is also true that if he keeps clear he must steadfastly deny these tendencies and keep his body under or he will become a castaway. It is possible that a person may partake moderately of some lawful but unnecessary things simply because they are a pleasure, and still retain a measure of the grace of God, yet if he persists in following out any line of indulgence he will gradually become lean and will eventually fall. To allow full reign to the appetites and indulge their inordinate cravings on all occasions is a positive sign of a lack of grace. Grace and vicious appetites cannot exist together.

     The tendency of nature is always toward inordinate indulgence, but nature must be controlled by grace, or it will ruin grace.

     The natural appetites and desires can exist with a clean heart, but they cannot predominate and the heart remain pure. If we habitually yield to the lowest tendencies of our natures we will eventually become brutish. Such a degradation is inconsistent with grace.

     This point might be traced out along various lines of natural appetites. Back in the heart, behind the purely natural tendencies, is the unclean principle, called carnality; this principle uses the natural impulses for a channel or outlet. James says, "Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" The members are not, per se, sinful, but lust back of them "wars" in them and forces them out to an unlawful or inordinate degree. Every natural appetite has a corresponding carnal tendency which, allowed to control, gives this appetite energy and viciousness; take out this carnal thing and nature will remain strong enough still, but, in comparison, it is tame and easily controlled.

     Both carnality and nature are involuntary, and, as a consequence, we are unaccountable for their existence, but we are accountable when we willingly yield. Willingly yielding to carnality causes backsliding, and willfully yielding to the inordinate demands of nature causes spiritual decay and eventually entire loss of grace.

     Beware, shun the first approach of self-indulgence as you would Satan himself; keep a spirit of carefulness in all things and God will cause your infirmities to be a means of grace.