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. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Sometimes, the best way that we as people learn something is to have it blatantly called out and corrected. That seems to be what Paul is doing here with the people of the Corinthian church. He addresses two specific issues in this passage: spiritual immaturity and divisiveness.
Paul first addresses the spiritual immaturity of the people. He had previously been discussing the wisdom of God and how that differs from the world’s wisdom, which set the foundation for this accusation. Now, he lays it on them: “I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ” (verse 1). He has been setting up the contrast between God and the world, and the people were likely thinking they were on the God side of that contrast.
While the people may have been believers in Jesus Christ, they were too immature and worldly. They were not yet living by the Spirit fully in their lives. Perhaps this was because they were still learning about the faith and how to live as a believer, but they can’t continue to live like that. He explains this immaturity with a food analogy in verse 2.
Babies drink milk before they’re able to eat solid food, but if they didn’t grow up and start eating solid food, they would not continue to live and thrive. When Paul first came to them, he had to start with the milk – simply sharing the Gospel truth with them so they would begin that relationship with Jesus Christ. Just like you can’t feed steak to an infant, the people were not ready for deeper Christian teachings just yet.
The problem is that now when Paul is writing to them, they are still not ready for solid food. They have not grown and matured in their faith as Paul hoped and expected that they would. In verse 3, Paul points out some specific ways that he can tell they’re not ready – they’re still experiencing jealousy and quarreling among themselves, and they’re acting like “mere humans.” In Greek, the questions Paul asks here are set up in such a way that expects an affirmative response. He was trying to get the Corinthians to acknowledge their spiritual immaturity. Realizing that they need to grow is the first step toward growth.
In verse 4, Paul points out that they were focused on the human teachers among them, namely Paul and Apollos. We see more about the ministry of these two teachers (and a few others) in Acts 18:1-28. Paul reminds them that he and Apollos are mere human beings just like them. Again, this question is set up to elicit an affirmative response, acknowledging that these men are not superhuman in any way but rather they are human teachers too, though likely more spiritually mature than the Corinthians at that point.
Paul emphasizes this in verse 5 where he reminds them that he and Apollos are only servants of God who have been assigned the task of sharing the Gospel to the Corinthians. Paul’s point here is that no human should be the focus of worship or idolized in any way by fellow believers. Even though they may have more mature faith than the believers at Corinth, they are not to be viewed as better than them.
This sets up the next point in Paul’s argument: divisiveness. If the Corinthian believers were following human teachers instead of God, this would cause divisions in the church. The faction that followed Paul may consider themselves separate from the faction that followed Apollos, for example. But Paul emphasizes their unity in the faith. Paul and Apollos had different roles, but God used both of them for His good purposes (verse 6). Paul may have initially shared the Gospel with them, but Apollos discipled them, and that was all through God’s power and for His glory. It’s not the people who do the work that are important but God and what God does in each believer’s heart and life (verse 7).
It is important to not be divided because of the work of various people in the Church because we are all called to work together on God’s mission (verses 8-9). We are all on the same team, working to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not separate but need to be working together. We are all part of one body, the body of Christ! We are all coworkers for God in what God is building in this world.
Today, the Church has been divided significantly. It has been estimated that there are over 45,000 Christian denominations globally! Back in Paul’s day, there was one – either you were a Christian and believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior, or you did not. A lot has changed in 2,000 years! People have followed certain teachers and divided the Church because of them, and the Church has divided due to debates on teachings that have some interpretational differences in the Bible. But even with these divisions, we need to remember that we are all on the same mission together; we are all coworkers for God in what He is doing in this world.
We are all called to grow spiritually, to move away from just drinking the milk of the Gospel message and move into the solid food of deeper doctrines. If you want some resources to help you grow into the solid food of your faith, check out our hundreds of blog posts and our book resources available at WorldviewWarriors.org. All the while, we are not to follow human teachers as if they are God but to truly follow, worship, and glorify God and God alone. Desire unity among your fellow believers on the things we agree on rather than divisiveness.
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