The Problem of Immaturity

3 For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.^{(A) 2} I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, ³ because you are still worldly. For since there is envy^(B) and strife^[a](C) among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans? ⁴ For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,”^(D) are you not acting like mere humans?

The Role of God’s Servants

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. ⁶ I planted,^(E) Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one,^[b] and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s coworkers.^[c] You are God’s field, God’s building.^(F)

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.