1 Corinthians 3
Paul rebukes the Corinthians for remaining infants in Christ, still on milk rather than solid food, their immaturity exposed by the divisions among them—quarreling as though they belonged to the world. He redirects their focus: Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth; the ministers are servants, not masters or sources of loyalty. The foundation is Christ alone, and others build upon it with different materials—gold, silver, precious stones versus wood, hay, straw—and the Day will reveal each one's work, for it will be disclosed by fire and tested to determine its quality. Each worker will receive wages according to their labor, or lose reward if the work burns. The temple metaphor shifts focus: you are God's temple, and if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person, for the temple is holy. Paul closes with a reversal of status: all things are yours—whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, world, life, death, things present or things to come—but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
1 Corinthians 3:1
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.
1 Corinthians 3:2
I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready — the metaphor of milk versus solid food echoes Hebrews 5:12-14. Infants require milk; the mature eat solid food. Paul fed them foundational gospel; they remain unable to digest its implications for humility, unity, and the cross's centrality. The repetition 'you are still not ready' (oupe gar dynasthe) signals stalled spiritual development.
1 Corinthians 3:3
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? — 'jealousy and quarreling' (zēlos kai eris) are quintessential flesh-works. 'Acting like mere humans' (kata anthrōpon peripateitē, 'walking according to human standards') means living by the world's logic of status competition rather than Christ's logic of sacrifice. The Corinthians' divisions are not theological disagreement but social jockeying.
1 Corinthians 3:4
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.