The Problem of Immaturity

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) I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, 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? For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,”(D) are you not acting like mere humans?

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Footnotes

  1. 3:3 Other mss add and divisions

Wisdom applied to divisions in the church

Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren’t up to it yet. Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren’t you unspiritual and living by human standards? When someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and someone else says, “I belong to Apollos,” aren’t you acting like people without the Spirit?

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