How can a saved believer in Christ still be called carnal and a babe?

Les explains that the word carnal in this context speaks of believers who have not really come out of the fleshly experience and are still under the control of the Old Adam rather than the Holy Spirit. He contrasts this with Romans chapter 8, where Paul uses carnal as applied to the unsaved individual, who is carnal because he is still of the flesh. Here, however, Paul is speaking of believers who are saved and in Christ, yet are still so weak spiritually that he speaks of them even as babes. Paul says he fed them with milk. This is an analogy with the human: you do not give a newborn baby solid food, but start with milk. It is the same way with a believer. Les says he has patience with new believers and does not expect them to suddenly comprehend all the deep things of God’s Word; what he looks for is growth. He tells his classes that if they are not more steeped in the Word now than a year ago, then he has failed and they have failed, because God expects growth from His children. But the Corinthians were still so steeped in the flesh, and Paul calls them believers—born again and placed into the Body of Christ, but still so fleshly minded.