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Paul and Apollos, Servants of Christ

Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people.[b] I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

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Footnotes

  1. 3:1a Greek Brothers.
  2. 3:1b Or to people who have the Spirit.

Immaturity and Self-deception

So, brothers and sisters,[a] I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh,[b] as infants in Christ. I fed you milk,[c] not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still influenced by the flesh.[d] For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people?[e] For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?[f]

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 3:1 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.
  2. 1 Corinthians 3:1 tn Grk “fleshly [people]”; the Greek term here is σαρκινός (BDAG 914 s.v. 1).
  3. 1 Corinthians 3:2 sn Milk refers figuratively to basic or elementary Christian teaching. Paul’s point was that the Corinthian believers he was writing to here were not mature enough to receive more advanced teaching. This was not a problem at the time, when they were recent converts, but the problem now is that they are still not ready.
  4. 1 Corinthians 3:3 tn Or “are still merely human”; Grk “fleshly.” Cf. BDAG 914 s.v. σαρκικός 2, “pert. to being human at a disappointing level of behavior or characteristics, (merely) human.” The same phrase occurs again later in this verse.
  5. 1 Corinthians 3:3 tn Grk “and walking in accordance with man,” i.e., living like (fallen) humanity without the Spirit’s influence; hence, “unregenerate people.”
  6. 1 Corinthians 3:4 tn Grk “are you not men,” i.e., (fallen) humanity without the Spirit’s influence. Here Paul does not say “walking in accordance with” as in the previous verse; he actually states the Corinthians are this. However, this is almost certainly rhetorical hyperbole.