“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ — Paul shifts to direct address and gentle rebuke. The Corinthians are 'infants' (nēpioi) despite their spiritual gifts. 'Worldly' (sarkikoi, 'fleshly') does not mean the flesh as body but flesh as the fallen nature focused on self-interest. One can possess the Spirit and still operate in fleshly competition over status and teachers—the Corinthian predicament.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 3:1
After having overturned the philosophy which is from without, and cast down all its arrogance, he comes unto another argument. For it was likely that they would say, “If we were putting forth the opinions of Plato, or of Pythagoras, or any other of the philosophers, reason were you should draw out such a long discourse against us. But if we announce the things of the Spirit, for what reason do you turn and toss up and down (ἄνω καὶ κάτω στρέφεις) the wisdom which is from…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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