For while one saith: I indeed am of Paul: and another: I am of Apollo: are you not men? What then is Apollo and what is Paul?
οταν γαρ λεγη τις εγω μεν ειμι παυλου ετερος δε εγω απολλω ουχι σαρκικοι εστε
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse
The Apostle shows that this brought them no benefit or gain at all, but even hindered them from receiving what was higher. Envy produced this. Envy made them fleshly. Once they became fleshly, it did not allow them to hear of loftier things.
What, then, did the Apostle say to the carnal and psychic, who were unable to understand the things that belong to God?
"For when you say, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I am of Apollos,' are you not men?" (cf. 1 Cor 3:4).
What did he wish to call those whom he reproached for being men? Do you want to know what he wished them to be?
Listen in the Psalms: "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High" (Ps 81:6).
This is precisely what the Lord calls us to, that we should not be men.
Yet only then shall we not be men, but become something better, if we first acknowledge ourselves to be men.
That is, we must ascend to that height from humility.
But when we think ourselves to be something while being nothing, we shall not only fail to acquire the state we do not have.
We shall also lose the state we possess.
The Apostle again sets forth his own name and joins it to the name of Apollos, thereby showing the impropriety of the matter. If, he says, it is most improper to be called Paul's, although I was counted worthy of apostolic grace and became your planter, then all the more is it impious and unlawful to be called by the name of others.
"Are you not fleshly?" Continuing his proof, the Apostle shows the Corinthians that by boasting in the names of men, and as though renouncing the name of God and the name of Christ, they unintentionally show that they are led not by the Spirit of God, but by human authority, and that they themselves are mere men.
After reasoning about the spiritual and psychic man, the holy Apostle Paul directly calls the Corinthians not spiritual, but carnal and foolish babes.
He does this because they are agitated and divided over teachers, who are merely God's fellow-workers in God's field (1 Cor 3:1-9).
"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
For when one says, 'I am of Paul,' and another, 'I am of Apollos,' are you not carnal? Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?
They are only ministers through whom you believed. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
He who plants and he who waters are one. For we are God's fellow-workers. You are God's field, God's building."
Besides their incorrect view of the power of Christian preaching, the Corinthians also had an incorrect view of the dignity of preachers.
Having distinguished spirit and soul in man in chapter 1, verses 14-15, the Apostle here speaks of the action in people of the third part of their complete composition, namely the flesh.
The flesh very often leads man into sin. The Apostle finds that the Corinthians are not only psychic, but also carnal, and therefore still very unspiritual.
Apparently some of the Corinthians, guided by their usual views, did not value apostolic preaching highly when it was delivered simply, without rhetorical and philosophical adornments.
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.
Here is what the strife consisted in, and what the rivalries concerned.
It seemed as though their zeal moved in a spiritual sphere, but what inflamed this zeal was entirely carnal in character.
Each one strained only to stand his ground, whatever the cost. Truth was set aside.
They strove not to lose face. Selfhood set everything in motion, and it is the source of carnality.
St. Chrysostom says: "Here he turns to those subject to the leaders.
In the preceding words, chapter 2, he rebuked the leaders and said that the wisdom of eloquence has no worth.
Now he rebukes those subject to them and shows that this claim, 'I am of Paul' or 'of Apollos,' brought them no benefit or gain.
It even blocked their path to receiving higher things, for it produced envy.
Envy made them carnal. Once they became carnal, they became incapable of understanding higher matters."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS