1 Corinthians 3:1 - Exposition

I… could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. Though softened by the word brethren, there was a crushing irony of reproof in these words: "You thought yourselves quite above the need of my simple teaching. You were looking down on me from the whole height of your inferiority. The elementary character of my doctrine was after all the necessary consequence of your own incapacity for anything more profound." As unto carnal. The true reading here is sarkinois, fleshen, not sarkikois, fleshly, or carnal; the later and severer word is perhaps first used in 1 Corinthians 3:3 . The word sarkinos ( earneus ) , fleshen, implies earthliness and weakness and the absence of spirituality; but sarkikos ( carnalis ) involves the dominance of the lower nature and antagonism to the spiritual. As mite babes in Christ. The word "babes" has a good and a bad sense. In its good sense it implies humility and teachableness, as in 1 Corinthians 14:20 , "In malice be ye babes;" and in 1 Peter 2:2 , "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word;" and in Matthew 11:25 . Here it is used in its bad sense of spiritual childishness.