When Believers Behave in Only a Human Way (1 Corinthians 3:1-4)

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. [2] I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, [3] for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? [4] For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?

I. The Flesh and the Spirit

I'd like to begin this morning by reading for you a passage from Paul's letter to the Romans. As you listen, consider carefully the two, opposing categories or spheres described in this passage:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. [6] For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [7] For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. [8] Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. [9] You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Romans 8:5-9)

II. The Passage: “As People of the Flesh” (3:1-4)

As we look together at our main text for this morning, 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, I thought this passage from Romans 8 might be a helpful complement to Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 3. Before we think about the connection between these passages, let's first think about the context of our main passage by going back to a few verses from 1 Corinthians 2. Look with me at 2:6, 7, and 13...

[verse 6] Yet among the mature we do impart [lit. 'speak'] wisdom... [verse 7] But we impart [lit. 'speak'] a secret and hidden wisdom of God... [and verse 13] And we impart [lit. 'speak'] this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

Now, with those verses in mind, listen again to chapter 3, verse 1. The Apostle writes...

But I, brothers, could not address [lit. 'speak to'] you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

Right away, what's troubling about this passage is that in the previous chapter, Paul presented us with just two categories of people: the “spiritual person” and the “natural person” (2:13-15). But here, in 3:1, Paul tells them that he cannot address them as spiritual people, only as “people of the flesh”. He then goes on verse 3 to repeat this description: “for you are still of the flesh”. This is troubling, isn't it? It's troubling because he seems to be saying that these Corinthian disciples of Jesus are not spiritual (that is, not of the Spirit). Are they, therefore, “natural” people? And in light of Paul's teaching in Romans 8, are they then “of the flesh” or “in the flesh” in the sense that they do not truly belong to Christ, and cannot truly please God (Romans 8:8)?

I don't think this is the case. Why? Because in the same verse, verse 1, Paul clearly calls them “brothers” (i.e., siblings, brothers and sisters), AND, notice that he qualifies the phrase “people of the flesh” with the next descriptor, “as infants in Christ”. And of course, in the last chapter Paul talked about how “we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” (2:12) Paul can say we/us because the Corinthians are (1:2) “those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints”, because they have been (1:9) “called into the fellowship of [God's] Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

So, no, Paul's audience has not lost their salvation. No. They have not proven themselves to be false believers. Chapter 2 confirms that Paul believes his readers really are spiritual people (that is, people of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit). He simply could not address them as spiritual people.

Why is that? Well that's exactly what Paul is explaining in this passage. Okay. But wait. If Paul can talk about these Christians as being “of the flesh”, doesn't this contradict the teaching we find in Romans 8 about just two spheres in regard to people and eternal things: the Spirit and the flesh? It does not. Not at all. Those two categories stand behind everything Paul is saying here. Let me unpack that answer by pointing you to the other descriptors Paul uses in these verses. In addition to “of the flesh” (twice in verse 3) or “people of the flesh” (in verse 1), he also talks about, in verses 3-4, “behaving only in a human way”, or “being merely human”. Do you see those phrases? They both use the Greek word anthrōpos, which means man or human being.

So as Paul describes the Corinthians using this language, language concerning the things of the flesh and, sadly, not of the Spirit, concerning the things of man and, sadly, not of God, he's not confirming that, somehow, these believers have slipped back into death and out of eternal life, he's not confirming that, somehow, these believers have once again become enemies of God instead of his beloved children, he's not confirming that, somehow, these disciples have been transferred back from the kingdom of God's Son into the dominion of darkness. No. Please hear this: the Apostle is not telling them here that they are once again dead in their sins, once again under sin's dominion. But, shockingly, he is telling them that's exactly how they're behaving. By God's grace, they may not be those things any longer, but presently, their lives are indistinguishable from those who are.

And why is that? Because they were and are immature in their faith. In both his teaching ministry among them and his previous letter to them (the letter mentioned in 5:9), Paul is brutally honest about the fact that the instruction he shared was like giving them spiritual milk. Now you might like milk, but Paul's point (as we see in v. 2) is that they were not ready for “solid food”. And guess what? As he tells them at the end of verse 2, “even now you are not yet ready”. The wisdom Paul was sharing in the churches was wisdom for (2:6) “the mature”. But they were still enamored with worldly wisdom. They were immature, and sadly here, they remain immature.

Now, as we move in the coming months through this letter, we will see plenty of examples of just how immature these disciples really were. But please don't miss the issue or issues that Paul highlights here in terms of their current immaturity. Look back at the second part of verse 3, and then into verse 4: “For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? [4] For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?”

Do you see how Paul is bringing us back around to the concern he first raised in 1:10-17? Their immaturity in the faith was evident from the “jealousy and strife among you”. The word translated here as “jealousy” is where we get our English word “zeal”. This was a kind of... enthusiasm, but one that in too many cases was intensity misdirected; which then resulted in quarreling and divisions, as different factions rallied behind caricatures of leaders like Paul and Apollos. So as Paul tells them here, “Your supposed devotion to God... is ruled by the things of man.”

III. From Immaturity to Maturity

Brothers and sisters, as we think this morning about our lives in light of this passage, I think it's incredibly important that we also start with milk. Let's drink a little milk, together, shall we...

To be born again by the Spirit of God is an awesome thing. But God does not want us to remain spiritual babies. He wants us to grow. And to true spiritual growth means that we will look less and less like the world. Maturity means looking more and more like Jesus, which is a life defined by the Spirit not by the flesh; by the things of God, not by the things of man.

Okay. So all of that, everything I just told you... is milk. These are precious, but basic ideas when it comes to the gospel and a life lived in step with the gospel. If the gospel begins with the word “repent” (which it does), then it presupposes what John called “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life”, that which “is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16). As Jesus once chastised Peter, “For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." (Matthew 16:23) Therefore, if the gospel is a call to follow Jesus as Lord through the forgiveness of the cross, then such a life really will mean looking less and less like the world, and more and more like Jesus. These are basic, Christian ideas, right?

And yet, brothers and sisters, as we see in our main text, true believers can, like the Corinthians, find themselves struggling to genuinely grasp and sincerely embrace even these basic ideas. Listen to how another New Testament writer uses the same imagery to make a very similar point...

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, [13] for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. [14] But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)

Some of you here this morning are immature in your faith, and you know it. And that's okay. That's where you are. You simply haven't been a believer for very long. But is it possible that others of you are immature in your faith, but you don't know it? And maybe, you don't know it because you've been using the wrong measures of maturity, and, maybe your life is not defined by what you consider to be the really bad sins. You see, the Corinthians did not recognize that their 'spiritual fervor' and their 'desire for to be in the right', that such things were serious marks of spiritual immaturity; in fact, of worldliness. Believer, there are many ways in which our lives can look indistinguishable from those in the world. But do we recognize such things?

What are you measures of Christian maturity? How do you know that you aren't still a baby? And do you have some kind of list of really bad sins, a list you use to gauge Christian maturity?

Friends, please hear me: if you need milk, then drink milk and grow. Talk to me about getting grounded in the fundamentals of sin, the world, the gospel, and of Christlikeness. But then build on that foundation. You see, God has “solid food” for you. He has wisdom (not simply knowledge, but wisdom) for the mature. And the wellspring of that wisdom is (2:16) the “mind of Christ”, which is ours through the Spirit who was given to us. And if you're here this morning and you are mature, then remember... “by this time you ought to be teachers”. As we'll see in the next section, one of the marks of a mature believer is a careful and care-filled commitment to building up the body of Christ. The mature Christian life isn't simply about not doing the wrong thing in terms of fellowship. It's also about doing the right thing. Paul is concerned about de-struction in the church. But he's even more concerned about con-struction. As we remember the sacrificial love of Jesus, as we remember how “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45), may we be corrected and humbled and inspired and empowered to do as he did... with one another. As we look to Jesus in faith, let's ask God to nourish us with both milk and solid food... that we might grow.