Who does the word carnal normally describe in the Bible?
Normally, the word carnal describes the lost individual—the unsaved person still under the control of old Adam, still in the flesh, and having nothing of eternal life. Scripture contrasts this with a carnal believer, but the ordinary biblical sense points to the unbeliever, whose fleshly mind is death.
Les explains that sometimes Paul speaks of a carnal Christian, a carnal believer—someone genuinely in the body of Christ but not Spirit-filled or Spirit-directed, whose priorities are mixed up and who remains more in the flesh than in the Spirit. However, normally when we see the word carnal, it refers to the lost individual, still under old Adam's control, still in the flesh, with nothing of eternal life. To be carnally or fleshly minded is death, because such a person is headed only toward spiritual and eternal death.