Since verse 10 of chapter 1, where Paul began to address the very real problem of Christians and Christian leaders being divisive, quarrelsome, contentious and divided, he has been talking basic theology and presenting basic doctrine. This may seem very annoying and irritating to those Christians who don’t ‘do’ theoretical doctrine but prefer immediate practical strategies and solutions to real problems in Christian assemblies. But this kind of rush to practical interventions can sometimes be a worldly approach. The groundwork and basis for Christian behaviour is to be found in enlightened understanding and comprehension pertaining to the realm of the Breath of God by means of the Breath of God. It is found in enlightened examination and scrutiny of everything. Paul has been laying the foundation of such illuminated understanding in the basic theology that he has presented, and in the next couple of verses Paul begins to apply this basic theology to the behaviour at Corinth.
At the end of verse 1 of chapter 3 he has begun to say that the Corinthian Christians ‘are not full of Breath but fleshly, simple-minded infants within the Messiah’. In other words, they are using worldly thinking, values and methods. They are so ingrained in this worldly, fleshly way of being that Paul has to simplify his teaching so that they can understand. Thus he goes on to say, ‘I caused you to drink milk, not food, because you did not have power or ability. 3 In fact, even now at this present time you are not able, because even now you are fleshly, because where there is passionate heat and quarrels within you are you not fleshly, walking around down from human nature?’ (I Corinthians 3 v 2 – 3). Paul says that they are like babies who are still only able to digest a liquid diet of milk. They are unable to digest solid food – a metaphor for more advanced ‘meaty’ teaching and concepts.
This of course is a natural and a spiritual principle of growth and development. It is true not only of human babies, but it is also true of all Christians when they are initially brought forth by God – they are only able to take in basic teaching about faith, resurrection and divine judgement. Enlightenment and illumination, coupled with investigating and inquiring about everything, is a gradual process in which perception, persuasion and development within what pertains to the Breath is gradually built upon. Initial perceptions form the foundation for persuasion and these are built upon when it comes to more advanced insights and concepts down from the Breath of God. But Paul says that even now, some time after being brought forth, these Corinthian Christians had not developed enough to have the ability to digest solid food.
Why was this the case? It was because they were fleshly – still listening to and following the raw energies and passions arising from their fleshly constitutions. They were still thinking and behaving like people within the worldly arrangement, using the principles and values that unbelievers follow. Their divisions over who were the best leaders were quarrelsome and heated. They were engaged in passionate, emotional arguments. Paul does not ascribe these passionate divisions to the Breath of God, but rather to energies and impulses arising from their fleshly constitution and leading to the opposite of godly behaviour. ‘Because when someone is saying ‘I indeed am of Paul’, but another ‘I of Apollos’, are you not fleshly?’ (Verse 4).
Christian 2 Christians 