1 Corinthians 3:1

2. This God-revealed philosophy not understood by the partisan carnality of the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 3:1-4.

1. And I In accordance with the elevated character of the spiritual in 1 Corinthians 2:14-16.

Could not Consistently with the reality of the case.

Spiritual… carnal… babes In 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, the spiritual man is opposed to the natural, or entirely unregenerate; here he is opposed to the regenerate, who are in Christ, and yet, by being in a degree carnal, are but babes. Were they wholly carnal they would not even be babes, but be unregenerate. Short-comings, infirmities, and sins, have reduced them from spiritual manhood into babyhood. For these carnal are clearly a part of that whole who are called in 1 Corinthians 1:2, saints, sanctified in Christ Jesus. They are that same class as in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 are guilty of the shame of going to law, and yet, 1 Corinthians 3:11, are in part sanctified. And throughout this epistle the class so severely reprehended, and even menaced, by St. Paul, are held by him Christians, but faulty Christians, who needed to ascend into a higher level of holiness. From this it follows that there may be “sin in believers.” Not every sin forfeits regeneration. Such sin dwarfs the spiritual stature, and lessens the glorious reward. But not until all justifying faith is lost is the name blotted from the book of life. As babes is the antithesis in the Greek to perfect adult, in 1 Corinthians 2:6 so it duly defines it. Babes implies childhood; perfect simply implies adulthood. So the Jews had the distinction of novices or babes, and adults or full grown, in knowledge of the law. And Alford quotes Philo as saying, “Since to babes the food is milk, and to adults (same Greek word as perfect, 1 Corinthians 2:6) cookeries of grain, so also there are of the soul milk diets suited to child-stature; adult foods for men.” A perfect man in Christ Jesus is simply an adult man in Christ Jesus. But this adult man is also the spiritual, and includes the full attainments and privileges of 1 Corinthians 2:12-16. Any thing short of this is short of adulthood in Christian life, and approximates toward childhood.

But many commentators err in making this adulthood, or Christian perfect growth or perfection, depend, as in physical development, upon time. Scripture and experience show that in spiritual life there is many a babe of two and threescore; many a soul that springs almost from spiritual birth, by a strong, living, persevering faith, to vigorous adulthood.

These two classes may not be divided by a sharp line; they may, indeed, shade into each other, just as the old and the young are classes that shade into each other; but they are, on the whole, so clearly diverse that they can be classified and specified by two different terms. Such a spiritual class is recognised in 1 Corinthians 14:37. It does not appear, here or elsewhere, whether the individual made a distinct profession of being spiritual; though others may have recognised him as such from his life and spirit. Yet it cannot be required of the man who lives in nearness to God that he should withhold full statement of the fact, whether profession or not. It is the best kind of profession of holiness when a man does not so much profess it himself as oblige his friends, by his holy life, to profess it for him.

Carnal According to the best readings, the Greek word here rendered carnal differs in termination from that in 1 Corinthians 3:3-4. The former is σαρκινοις , the latter σαρκικοι . The terminations differ needy as our English terminations ine and ic differ; the former indicating the material of which a thing consists, the latter the quality of the thing. The former word, signifying consisting of flesh, is used in 2 Corinthians 3:3 in a good sense. As σαρκικοι is a New Testament word, not used in the classics, Stanley thinks that the other word has here been substituted by copyists, to make a confirmation with classical usage; but Alford believes it to be the true reading. The meaning would then be, as unto beings made of flesh human like the men of 1 Corinthians 3:3.