1 Corinthians 3:1
What is written? (ESV)
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
What does it say?
But I [Paul], could not instruct you as spiritually mature, but rather as babes in Christ still holding to the flesh.
What is its immediate context?
Paul is in the midst of correcting the divisions (“I am of…” vs 4) that had arisen in the church in Corinth, which he attributes to the “jealousy and strife” (vs 3) among them. In these first four chapters, he emphasizes the need for them to rely upon the word of God that he had shared with them as the foundation to solve these issues.
