1 Corinthians 3:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, if you boast in external wisdom, it not only means nothing, as has already been proved, but also hinders us in the knowledge of spiritual things.

If you boast in spiritual knowledge, you are still very imperfect even in this and stand among the last. Therefore he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men."

He did not say, "I did not speak," lest they think this came from envy. Instead, he casts down their arrogance in two ways.

First, they do not know spiritual things perfectly. Second, they themselves are the cause of this ignorance. To these he adds, third, that even now they still cannot know them.

If they could not at the beginning, perhaps this depended on the nature of the matters themselves. Yet even this excuse, as he has shown, they cannot offer.

They did not fail to receive lofty truths because they could not receive them, he says, but because they were fleshly.

At the beginning, however, this was not yet so blameworthy. But not to have attained knowledge of perfect things over such a long time is a sign of extreme negligence.

The Apostle reproves the Hebrews for the same thing, but not with the same force. They, he says, were such because of sorrowful circumstances, but these because of their corrupt inclinations.

The two cases are not the same. To the former he speaks the same truths for edification. To the latter he speaks them to awaken them.

To these he says, "Even now you are not able." To the former he says, "Therefore, leaving the elementary doctrine of Christ, let us press on to perfection."

And again, "We are confident of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this way" (Heb 6:1, 9).

But how does he call fleshly those who received so many gifts of the Spirit and whom he praised so highly at the beginning of the epistle?

In the same way those were fleshly to whom the Lord said, "Depart from Me; I do not know you, you workers of lawlessness" (Mt 7:23), although they cast out demons, raised the dead, and uttered prophecies.

Consequently, even one who performs signs can be fleshly. Thus God also acted through Balaam and revealed the future to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar.

Caiaphas prophesied, not knowing what he said. Others cast out demons in His name, although they themselves were not with Him.

All this happens not for those who perform it, but for others. Often it was accomplished even through the unworthy.

And why is it surprising that this happens through unworthy men for others, if God also acts through saints for others?

Thus Paul says, "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or life, or death, all are yours" (1 Cor 3:22). And again: "He gave some as Apostles, some as prophets, and some as pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry" (Eph 4:11-12).

If this were not so, all would fall into perdition unhindered. It happens that rulers are evil and incontinent, while those under them are good and continent.

Laymen live piously, while priests live wickedly. If grace always sought the worthy, there would be neither baptism, nor the celebration of the Body of Christ, nor offerings.

But now God acts even through the unworthy, and the grace of baptism suffers no harm from the life of the priest. Otherwise the one receiving it would also suffer harm.

Although this happens rarely, nevertheless it happens. I say this so that no one among those present, observing the life of the priest, may be scandalized concerning the mysteries performed by him.

Man contributes nothing in them from himself. Everything is the work of the power of God. God acts upon you in the mysteries.

"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for you were not yet able."

He had said above, "the spiritual man judges all things," and again, "he himself is judged by no one," and again, "we have the mind of Christ."

So that they might not think he said these things from vainglory, and so that he might cast down their pride, see what Paul says.

I kept silence, he says, not because I was unable to tell you anything more, but because you are fleshly.

"Nor are you able even now." Why did the Apostle not say, "You do not wish," but, "You are not able"?

He set the latter in place of the former, since they were unable because they did not wish. This serves as an accusation against them and as a defense for the teacher.

Thus he also answers those who impatiently asserted that they had long heard nothing spiritual.

His meaning is that even now they are not yet worthy to hear spiritual things.

The false apostles, because of their hypocrisy, handed on their teaching indiscriminately to all, without distinguishing among persons and without caring whether what was said could be received.

Yet it is known that our Lord and Creator, Christ, spoke differently to all and differently to His disciples.

Even among the apostles He used differing measures of intimacy. To three of His disciples He revealed His glory on the mountain, commanding them to be silent about it until the day of His resurrection from the dead (Mt 17:9).

So God could have granted man perfection in the beginning, but man could not receive it, for he was still an infant.

Therefore our Lord also, in the last times, recapitulating all things in Himself, came to us not as He was able, but as we were able to see Him.

He could have come to us in His ineffable glory, but we could not have endured the greatness of His glory.

Therefore He, the perfect bread of the Father, presented Himself to us infants as milk. Such was His human coming.

This was so that, as though nourished from the breasts of His flesh, and through such milk-giving accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, we might contain within ourselves the bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father.

For this reason Paul says to the Corinthians: "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive such food."

That is, you have known the coming of the Lord as man, but the Spirit of the Father does not yet rest upon you because of your weakness.

For he says, "If there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal? Are you not walking according to human custom?" (1 Cor 3:2-3).

This means that the Spirit of the Father was not yet with them because of their imperfection and their weakness in life.

The Apostle could give food, for those on whom the apostles laid their hands received the Holy Spirit, Who is the food of life.

Yet they were unable to receive Him, because their psychic senses were still weak and unaccustomed to converse with God.

So too God could have given perfection to man in the beginning. But man, having only just received being, could not receive Him.

Or, having received Him, he could not contain Him. Or, having contained Him, he could not hold Him.

Therefore the perfect Son of God became a fellow infant with man. He did this not for His own sake, but because of man's infancy.

He became accessible in the measure in which man could receive Him. Thus incapacity and poverty are not in God, but in newly created man, because he was not an uncreated being.

On the contrary, they valued more highly the preaching distinguished by eloquence (Acts 14:18). Perhaps the Apostle partly had this in mind when he called the Corinthians carnal.

In general, however, the Corinthians were carnal because of their sinfulness.

They were also carnal because not all of them at once received Christianity in the full breadth of its teaching and holiness of life.

But so that this might not seem a humiliation to the newly converted, the Apostle calls them babes in Christ.

He says that, in keeping with their new beginning in the Christian faith, he offered them teaching proportionate to their weak capacity.

In this he acted like a tenderly loving mother, or like a very experienced tutor.

The Corinthians' shortcomings were envy, disputes, and divisions. For their sake the Apostle called them carnal.

This is clear from the following reference to disputes about the superiority of teachers of the faith. These disputes arose from the Greeks' customary attitude toward teachers.

St. John Chrysostom here resolves the question: "How does the Apostle call the Corinthians carnal, when they had so many spiritual gifts and he himself praised them so much at the beginning?"

He answered: "In exactly the same way as those were carnal of whom the Lord said, 'Depart from Me, I do not know you, you workers of iniquity' (Mt 7:23).

Therefore even one who performed signs could be carnal. If grace always sought the worthy, there would be neither Baptism, nor the consecration of the Body of Christ, nor offerings.

God acts even through the unworthy, and the grace of Baptism suffers no harm from the life of the priest.

Man contributes nothing of himself in them, that is, in the mysteries. All this is the work of God's power. He acts upon us in the mysteries."

The Apostle unfolds further this view of Christ's ministers as instruments of divine providence.

Solid food is the ascent to the foundations, explaining why it is so, and the tracing of consequences, showing what follows from it. This can be accepted.

For the believer who approaches the Lord must believe that God, worshiped in the Trinity, created the world and providentially cares for it.

He must believe that God created man according to His image and likeness, and placed him in paradise for a blessed life.

He must believe that man fell, and that from his fall he is raised up only by the incarnate Son of God.

He must believe that the Son of God, having become incarnate, died on the Cross and thereby saved fallen man.

He must believe that the one who believes and is baptized enters into communion with this death and receives new life.

In this life, with the help of grace, amid sorrows and deprivations, he struggles against passions and lusts.

By remaining faithful to the Lord through fulfilling His commandments, he becomes worthy of being glorified by the Lord with Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven after the Second Coming.

St. Paul often gives such outlines of the whole divine economy of salvation in his epistles.

One may suppose that this served him as a symbol, which he imparted to all when he first instructed them in the call to faith and salvation.

This, of course, he also imparted to the Corinthians, and he now calls it milk.

Here all the facts are truly contained, both those already accomplished and those yet to be accomplished.

When Christian contemplation deepens into them, reaches their foundation, and passes through to their consequences, then solid food of spiritual wisdom is obtained.

From imparting this the Apostle refrained in Corinth. "You were not able." That they were not able then is not surprising, for they had only just approached the Lord.

But that even now, when the epistle was written, they were not able, makes one suppose great obstacles to spiritual progress in the patterns of ordinary Corinthian life.

Perhaps they were the same as in every capital and, in general, every large city: an excessive development of carnal, self-pleasing life.

They advanced in external wisdom but lagged behind in spiritual wisdom. Was this not because the one does not dwell together with the other?

They had been Christians for five years, and were still children.

Since the Apostle says this, we must suppose that it was so. The Corinthians both could not and still could not, at the time of writing, receive the lessons of God's spiritual wisdom.

St. Chrysostom says: "If they were unable at the beginning, perhaps this depended on the nature of the subjects themselves.

Yet, as he proved, they cannot offer even this excuse. For he says that the subjects were incomprehensible to them because they themselves were carnal.

At the beginning, however, this was not yet so blameworthy. But not to attain knowledge of perfect subjects over so long a time is already a sign of extreme carelessness."