“For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?”
For when one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere humans? — the return to the faction language (v. 4 echoes 1:12) now exposes the humiliating truth: they are 'mere humans' (anthropoi), not yet mature believers. The divisions they treasure as marks of discernment are actually signs of spiritual infancy. Paul is not naming individuals but the faction mentality itself.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 3:4
“For when one says, I am Paul, and I of Apollos, are you not carnal?” And he points out that this, so far from helping them at all or causing them to acquire anything, had even become an obstacle to their profiting in the greater things. For this it was which brought forth jealousy, and jealousy had made them “carnal;” and the having become “carnal” left them not at liberty to hear truths of the sublimer sort.
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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