and Milk for New Babes
In his letter to the Corinthians the Apostle typically begins with encouragement.
I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all speech and all knowledge.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 1:4-5 CSB
And Paul will, as is his custom, close this epistle written in Greek with the same personalness of the Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.
I Corinthians 16:23-24 CSB
However HERE in the meat of his message Paul addresses the Corinthian church most pointedly, especially its ministers and leaders.
AND the Apostle also will close with a CURSE of those who would divide Christ by their own means.
If anyone does not love the Lord [does not obey and respect and believe in Jesus Christ and His message], he is to be accursed. Maranatha (O our Lord, come)!
1 Corinthians 16:22 AMP
1 Corinthians 3:
Lest we take a more common casual contemporary approach let us begin with the King James Version.
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1 Corinthians 3:1-2 KJV
for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
1 Corinthians 3:3 NKJV
There it is: the Apostle's initial summary of the problem reported to him of the Corinthian church.
NOTE a few of the HEADINGS various Bibles use for their serious doctrinal issues:
- The Church and Its Leaders
- Divisions in the Church
- Sectarianism Is Carnal
- Jesus Christ, Our Foundation
- But I cannot yet call you spiritual
Are you Spiritual? OR Carnal?
Christian, (brother, as Paul addresses the Corinthian readers, who would also read the Apostle’s letter to the whole church, including women) — Dear MINISTER to your Corinthian community — HAVE YOU RECEIVED CHRIST?
or DO you just lift up the preaching of one minister over the teaching of another?
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
HEAR in your heart Paul's CONTRAST of those gathered together as the Corinthian church.
πνευματικός – pneumatikos
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit
1 Corinthians 3:1a NIV
AND the Apostle has already brought our consequent condition IN CHRIST to the forefront.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual…
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
1 Corinthians 2:15 NKJV
Judge ALL things,
yet judge NO ONE.
Are you and your church doing any better than the Corinthians?
Fleshy Carnal ‘christians‘
Paul points to those unbelievers from the world who join us to worship God.
WE ought to influence those who are BABES in their FLESH and FAITH without including their carnality so as to be like them.
CARNAL iS NOT a nice enough word to describe someone sitting next to you on Sunday in your evangelical 21st century C.E. ‘church‘ is it?
Never-the-less, WE all know what WE are by NATURE
and what we were before confessing Christ.
Some translations of the BIBLE describe our carnal ‘worldliness‘ as IN THE FLESH.
The KJV translates Strong’s G4559 in the following manner: carnal (9x), fleshly (2x).
- having the nature of flesh, i.e. under the control of the animal appetites
- governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God
- having its seat in the animal nature or aroused by the animal nature
- human: with the included idea of depravity
The Humanist by embracing ALL humanity denies our demonstrable depravity as godless creatures of desire.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
PAUL had nurtured the Corinthians with SPIRITUAL MILK as babes at the breast. The Corinthians, a NEW church of Hellenists, naturally admired oratory and great emotional appeals. Christ through Paul adopted these children (though they were adults) drawn even as Greeks to this JESUS of the JEWS.
I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal.
1 Corinthians 3:2-3a NKJV
IS IT STILL THE MILK YOU REQUIRE, BELOVED EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN OF THIS COMMON ERA TIME AND PLACE?
What makes US Carnal?
Paul tells the Corinthian believers what to judge — how to identify in others MINISTERS claiming Christ.
- ζῆλος – zēlos – ENVYING
- ἔρις – eris – STRIFE
- διχοστασία – dichostasia – DIVISIONS among you
After sending a second letter to the Corinthians next year, Paul will write to the Romans in A.D. 57:
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
Romans 16:17 NKJV
In essence, give them back to the world and the enemy of Christ.
Mere Men, Mere Ministers
NKJV 3:4
For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
The rhetorical QUESTION of personal accountability in Greek reads:
οὐκ ἄνθρωποί ἐστε
(I imagine that you will recognize the word.)
more literally:
eimi [are you] ou [not] anthrōpos
- LSB v.3 for you are still fleshly [sarkikos]
- .. are you not fleshly [sarkikos]
- are you not walking like mere men? [anthrōpos]?
- are you not carnal [sarkikos] and behaving like mere men [anthrōpos]?
- v.4 .. ARE YOU NOT anthrōpos?
The Apostle goes on to point out through his apologia that PERSONALITIES do not matter OR who it was that BAPTIZED you (where you publically confessed to ALL that JESUS CHRIST is LORD!)
Ministers of Christ
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
1 Corinthians 3:5 NKJV
The Apostle had pointed to their divisions by minister and he will mention Peter [Cephas] even more in his rebuke of their schisms.
- Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” – 1 Cor. 1:12
- whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, – 1 Corinthians 3:22 LSB
Paul uses imagery of sowing [planting a new church in various places] and watering [the very symbol of baptism, cleansing and in a sense the milk of pure nourishment required for growth].
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one..
one? (as opposed to divided?)
What does the Apostle mean by this?
Paul will later emphasize the ONENESS of spirit in ministers of the church writing later in this letter:
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
For even as the body is one G1520 and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one G1520 body, so also is Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:17; 12:12 LSB
3:8b ..and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9a For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field..
the Reward of your Labor
The Apostle now changes the metaphor and picture of faith for the Corinthian church to visualize in his Epistle.
For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. - 1 Cor. 3:9 NLT
..and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
θεοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν συνεργοί θεοῦ γεώργιον θεοῦ οἰκοδομή ἐστε
1 Cor. 3:9 TEXTUS RECEPTUS
For those of us who do not understand Paul's eloquent GREEK text, rather than leaning on a single ENGLISH translation let's observe some of what we know from Paul's Greek words in this verse.
For we are laborers together
synergos – συνεργός
- Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers G4904 in Christ Jesus – Romans 16:3
- Timotheus my workfellow, G4904 – Romans 16:23a
with God [THEOS], you are God’s
geōrgion – γεώργιον
I didn't know this one. a (presumed) derivative of γεωργός (G1092) husbandman
husbandry – a cultivated field, husbandry (as in the animal husbandry of tending sheep), tillage (tilling soil for planting and growth)
It is the WORK -early work – BEFORE the harvest.
You are God’s farming, translates the HNV and in most English translations: you are God’s field.
SO Paul has been preaching that it does not matter to YOU THE SOIL in Corinth (or in your home church) the names of the MINISTERS who labored in you.
EACH will have their separate reward.
The Apostle then builds on this:
You are God’s [Theos]
oikodomē – οἰκοδομή
metaph. edifying, edification
the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness
..and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 1 Cor. 3:8b RSV
What wage have you earned for edifying other Christians?
(Paul will speak more to this later.)
NEXT: Christ’s Contractor
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation..
1 Corinthians 3:10a NKJV – Paulos klētos apostolos iēsous christos
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