Fed With Milk, Not Solid Food; the Apostles as Fellow Workers (1 Corinthians 3:1–9)

The second source of the divisions that separated the Corinthians was a misunderstanding about what the Apostles truly are in the work of preaching, and likewise all other teachers after them—and how one should judge them, from what perspective one must evaluate them. Holy Paul now clarifies both matters, directing his speech to instruct those who led the factions and controlled the parties. For this purpose, Holy Paul shows aa) that the Apostles are only workers in God’s field (chapter 3), and bb) that one must judge them not by any external standard, but by whether they are faithful to their calling and purpose (1 Cor. 4:1–16).

α) The Apostle makes the transition to this discourse from his previous thoughts. The natural person, he said, does not comprehend spiritual things. Therefore it is not fitting to offer him extensive teaching about this. For this reason, he says, I did not offer you the exalted, because you are still not spiritual. And that you are not spiritual is evident from your divisions (1 Cor. 3:1–4). You have clearly shown by this that you do not understand the spiritual order of things. Why did you divide yourselves according to men? Are we the sources of Gospel preaching and the producers of salvation? β) God ordains all things, and we are only His instruments (1 Cor. 3:5–9). Proceeding from this thought, the Apostle then makes γ) exhortations that instruct the leaders of the division.

1 Cor. 3:1. And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.

Having explained so fully the relation of outward wisdom to God’s wisdom, and of the natural soul’s life to the spiritual, Holy Paul has prepared for himself a firm point of support, and standing upon it, he now begins gradually to instruct those who have gone astray and turned from the path of truth following their own reasonings. To understand why Holy Paul now speaks of the fact that he could not offer the Corinthians exalted teaching, we must suppose that those who led the Corinthian divisions based their preference for, say, Apollos over Holy Paul on the fact that Holy Paul speaks simply and not high truths, unlike Apollos, who is both eloquent and learned. He surely argued powerfully from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 18:28). Setting aside the perfection of Apollos or anyone else, Holy Paul takes up one thing alone—why he himself did not offer them high truths—and explains that he truly did not offer them, but the reason for this lies not in him but in them. I could not, he says, proclaim to you high truths as I would to spiritual people, when you are carnal, or as I would to perfect men, when you are babes.

We proclaim the highest wisdom, but to the perfect (1 Cor. 2:6)—whether someone becomes such immediately upon baptism, or rises to such perfection gradually; only while someone remains imperfect do we not proclaim to him the highest truths. Such is our law—to proportion spiritual discourse to the spirituality of those who hear (1 Cor. 2:13), so as not to waste the labor of sowing when the field is not prepared to receive the seed and make it grow. To act as I acted among you was required by my Apostolic duty. “I did not remain silent because I could say nothing more to you, but because you ‘were carnal.’ (Holy Chrysostom).”

In what sense carnal?—In the sense that they had not yet entirely freed themselves from carnal and natural ways of thinking and aims. They had already believed, had already received baptism, had come alive in the Spirit; but the carnal and natural reasoning was still alive in them and intruded into the spiritual realm, as is evident even in their use of extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. “The Apostle called the Corinthians carnal because they were attached to this present life, desired what is glorious according to human opinion, and paid attention to wealth and eloquence (external advantages).” (Blessed Theodoret).

The Apostle called them carnal; but to show that this carnality is not such as among the unbaptized, he adds that they are “babes in Christ.” Among the unbaptized there is not even the beginning of spiritual life, but in them it exists; they have already been reborn in the Spirit, but the new man born in them is still in infancy, and around him the manifestations of carnal and natural life still break through; only these must grow smaller and cease entirely, while that must grow and mature. “Because what was said (that is, that they are carnal) could wound them, softening the blow by a certain likeness, he says: ‘as babes in Christ,’ that is, you are still carnal, like newborns and imperfect.” (Theodoret).

If Holy Paul, living with them for a year and a half, could not succeed in moving them toward perfection in spiritual life, then it must be recognized as certain that outward cultivation, polish of life, refinement of worldly customs and tastes—in which the Corinthians distinguished themselves—serves as the greatest obstacle to Christian perfection, hindering those who strive for it with carnal ideas and views, and in others extinguishing even the very zeal for it.

Holy Chrysostom resolves at this point the question of how they could have so many spiritual gifts, as is mentioned below—and having resolved it, makes an application to those who perform the mysteries, which is edifying to recall at all times: “But how does he call carnal those people who received so many gifts of the Spirit and whom he at the beginning of the letter praised with such praises?—In exactly the same way that those were carnal to whom the Lord said: ‘Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness’ (Matt. 7:23), even though they cast out demons, raised the dead, and uttered prophecies. Consequently even one who performed signs could be carnal. Thus God acted even through Balaam, revealing the future (in a dream), and also through Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, and Caiaphas prophesied, not knowing what he said, and some others cast out demons in the name of Christ, though they themselves were not Christ’s; because all this happens not for those who perform it, but for others. Often this was done through the unworthy. It happens that leaders are evil and intemperate, while subordinates are good and temperate; laypeople live piously, while priests live wickedly; and if grace always sought the worthy, there would be neither baptism, nor the performance of the body of Christ, nor offerings. But now God acts even through the unworthy, and the grace of baptism suffers no harm whatever from the life of the priest, for otherwise the one receiving would also suffer harm. Although this happens rarely, it does happen. I say this so that if anyone observing the life of the priest should not be scandalized concerning the mysteries performed by him. Man brings nothing of himself into them, but all this is the work of God’s power; He acts upon you in the mysteries.”

1 Cor. 3:2. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, nor are you able now.

“Milk” the Apostle calls the beginnings of Christian teaching, and “solid food”—the full impartation of God’s wisdom, hidden in mystery. The former is fitting for babes in Christ, and the latter for perfect men. Since you are still babes, I have imparted to you only the beginnings of teaching, and nourished you with it, as one nourishes children with milk. “I proportioned the teaching, he says, to the weakness of hearing and imitated a father who gives to newborn babes food proportioned to their age.” (Theodoret).

What is milk and what is solid food in Christian teaching? One commentator, answering this, says: “milk” is the factual side of the economy of salvation, and “solid food” is the ascent to the foundations of why it is so, and the drawing out of the consequences flowing from it. This can be accepted. For the believer, approaching the Lord, must believe that God, worshipped in Trinity, created the world and provides for it; that He, having created man in His image and likeness, placed him in paradise for a blessed life; that he fell, and from his fall is raised up only by the Son of God incarnate, who, having become incarnate, died on the cross and thereby saved the fallen; that the believer, being baptized, enters into communion of this death and receives new life, in which with the help of grace, amid sorrows and deprivations, in struggle against passions and lusts, abiding faithful to the Lord through keeping His commandments, becomes worthy of this, that at the Lord’s second coming He will glorify him with Himself in the Kingdom of Heaven. Such sketches of the whole economy of salvation Holy Paul often makes in his letters. And it may be supposed that this served for him as a symbol which he taught to all when catechizing them for the first time in the calling to faith and salvation. This is surely what he also taught the Corinthians, and now calls milk. Here indeed all facts are contained, some already accomplished, some yet to be accomplished. When Christian contemplation deepens in them and reaches their foundation, and passes through to the consequences, then the solid food of spiritual wisdom will be obtained—wisdom whose teaching the Apostle refrained from in Corinth.

“You were not yet 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) “you are not able,” this compels us to suppose great obstacles to spiritual progress in the arrangements of ordinary Corinthian life. Perhaps these are the same as in all capital cities and generally in large cities—an excessive development of carnal, self-indulgent life. They were advancing in outward wisdom, while falling behind in the spiritual—is it not because these two do not coexist well? For five years already as Christians, yet still children! Since the Apostle speaks thus, we must suppose it was truly so—that the Corinthians neither could then nor can even now (at the time of writing the epistle) accept the lessons of God’s spiritual wisdom. Holy Chrysostom says: “If they were not able at the beginning, this may have depended on the nature of the subjects themselves, though such an excuse, as he proved, they cannot present; for because, he says, the subjects were incomprehensible for them, was it that they themselves were carnal. However, in the beginning this was not yet so culpable; but to have failed to attain knowledge of perfect subjects over such a long time—this is already a sign of extreme negligence.”

1 Cor. 3:3. For you are still carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife, are you not carnal, and walking as mere men?

He said that they are not yet able to accept the lessons of the highest Christian wisdom; now he points to why he judges thus. Because, he says, you are still carnal, and that you are carnal is evident from the fact that passions operate in you—envy, rivalry, strife. And in the epistle to the Galatians, enumerating works of the flesh, he sets among them “rivalries, jealousies, outbursts of anger” (Gal. 5:20). Therefore he now says to the Corinthians: if these passions operate in you, are you not carnal? and are you not walking according to man? According to man, that is, according to fallen, corrupted man, according to the stirrings and demands of fallen, corrupted nature. The most palpable trace and sign of corruption is passion; they arose as a consequence of the fall in the pure and passionless nature of man. The grace of the Spirit comes to destroy them and purify our nature from them; but it does not destroy them by itself, rather it aids the will, which alone cannot succeed in this matter. As the will, even having received the Spirit, does not rise against its passions with equal fervor, passions melt and evaporate quickly in some, slowly in others. For this reason even one who has received the Spirit appears passionate, because he does not resist them with his whole soul. While such an inner order persists, a person is carnal and passionate. But when he makes passions completely silent with the help of grace, then the grace of the Spirit shines forth in him, and he appears spiritual. Such a one is the fitting vessel for the mysteries of God’s wisdom.

The envy, rivalry, and strife the Apostle means are those which manifested themselves on account of the divisions. Because of this they quarreled with one another, strove with all their might to prove the superiority of their side, and envied when one succeeded in out-arguing the other. “All this proves, he says, that you do not think about anything spiritual, but are attached to the earthly.” (Theodoret). “He could have rebuked them for adultery and intemperance, but he especially points to that sin which he now strives to eradicate. From this we are taught, as Christ justly said, that ‘everyone who does evil hates the light’ (Jn. 3:20), that an unclean life hinders the understanding of great truths, not allowing reason to display its faculty of thought. He who leads a vicious life cannot rise to the understanding of our dogmas, but everyone who seeks to grasp the truth must purify himself from all passions. Whoever purifies himself from them will be freed from error and will know the truth. Do not think that for this it suffices for you only not to be covetous and not to commit adultery; no, whoever seeks truth must have united in him all virtues.” (Holy Chrysostom).

1 Cor. 3:4. For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal?

This is what the strife is about and what the rivalry concerns! It seems as though their zeal revolves in the spiritual realm, but what was kindling this zeal was entirely of the carnal sort. Everyone was zealous only to maintain their own position, whatever the cost: truth was set aside. They strove so as not to lose face. Self-will moved everything, and it is the source of carnality. Holy Chrysostom says: “Here he turns to the subordinates; in the preceding words (ch. 2) he exposed the leaders and said that eloquent wisdom has no value, and now he exposes the subordinates and shows that this (I am of Paul, of Apollos) not only brought them no benefit or gain, but closed the path to receiving the higher, for it produced envy; envy made them carnal, and when they became carnal, they became incapable of understanding higher matters.”

1 Cor. 3:5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each?

“Having explained and proved his thought, he now openly turns to their condemnation.” (Holy Chrysostom). I came to you with preaching, then Apollos came. We did not act of ourselves; but you, being carnal, fixed your attention on what was before your eyes—on me and Apollos; and as we were not equal in our personal qualities and one pleased some more, the other pleased others more, naturally some clung more to one, others to the other. If you, passing by us, had paid more heed to our teaching, then, finding no difference in it, you would not have disagreed with one another. And you would be even more united if you thought only of Him who entrusted us with the preaching and brought it to you. You would see then that we are only servants, servants of God as executors of His commission, and your servants as having brought you the gift of salvation. We are the instrument in God’s hands through which you believed. “Of course, this too is important and worthy of attention and respect, but in comparison with the original and source of blessings—it is nothing. For not he is the benefactor who serves in the distribution of blessings, but he who imparts and bestows them. He did not say: those who brought you to faith, but: ‘through whom you believed,’ so that, again, also to those who believe to give what is due, and to show who are servants (and that belief came apart from them, not without action from above). ‘And to each one as the Lord gave.’ And this small thing (service of the Gospel) depended not on themselves, but on God who gave it to them (and in the measure He gave). But surely, could they say, we ought not to love those who serve us? Thus he speaks, but one must know to what degree, for their work does not come from themselves, but from God who gave it to them.” (Holy Chrysostom).

By these words the Apostle wishes to turn their attention away from himself and Apollos and transfer it to the Lord, from whom both the Gospel comes, and their commission with preaching, and the very faith of the Corinthians. And this simple truth was not well understood and assimilated by them because of their carnal view of Gospel preachers and their vain valuing of persons by the measure of outward wisdom and external appearance and prominence.

1 Cor. 3:6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

He explains what the Lord gave each of them to do in planting faith in the Corinthians. “I,” he says, “sowed the word; and so that the seeds would not dry up from afflictions, Apollos added something from his side; but all was the work of God.” (Holy Chrysostom). “Success depends on God’s grace.” (Theodoret). Those listening hear the preaching and in desire incline to receive it. God seals this desire with grace, and it becomes deed. To those who have received faith lies the life according to faith, and it is impossible without God’s grace. Desire brings one to earnest action, and throughout all the time of action upholds patience in labors according to it—both generally in life and in every particular deed and undertaking—it is God. If growth in spiritual life is determined by action, then it is evident why the Apostle says: “God gave the increase.” But what increase, when they are still carnal?—First, faith: for in faith they were strong; second, to a certain degree also life according to faith. For the moral deficiencies mentioned by the Apostle concerned particular persons: in the community, on the other hand, in them there manifested themselves impulses toward a more perfect life, as is evident from their question about celibacy. We can also say thus, that the Apostle does not determine in them a high degree of spiritual growth, but only wishes to impress that all that is good and spiritual in them—all of that God grew in them, while he and Apollos were only instruments of sowing good seeds, which they themselves received from God.

1 Cor. 3:7. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes it grow.

“For without God’s working together, labor is in vain” (Theodoret). This is why “the Apostle refers everything to God, who gave all” (holy Chrysostom), – “teaching that to Him alone should we attend, and to Him refer all that is established as good in us” (Theophylact). The one who plants and the one who waters – are not anything decisive and exclusively important in the matter of bringing about your salvation. Their labor is not nothing, as he will say later, but your conversion to faith and your establishment in it was worked out among you not by their power. We spoke the word, but grace came with the word and brought forth faith in you. We accomplished the mysteries for you, but grace took up dwelling in you and became your indweller not from our action, but from God’s arrangement (Augustine, *On the Grace of Christ*, Bk. 1, ch. 25).

1 Cor. 3:8. The one who plants and the one who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

“Are one” – as instruments through which God works. And He can make even a donkey speak and stones cry out, if that should be necessary. “He calls them one in the respect that they can do nothing without God who makes things grow” (holy Chrysostom). “Because both alike serve God’s will” (Theodoret), which works through them, not insofar as one is such and another is different, but insofar as it pleases Him.

“But although they are one in relation to God’s work, they are not one in their labors” (holy Chrysostom). “Not simply,” he says, “according to the accomplishment of the work, but according to the labor in the work. One often with ease brings two hundred to the Saviour, while another, having undertaken great labor, frees one or two from deception. The same can be seen with respect to fasting and chastity. One, helped by nature, advances in chastity without difficulty; another, struggling with natural inclinations, achieves the desired end with great effort. One, having a passionate temperament, waits for evening with great suffering without tasting food; another goes two or three days without food and yet does not suffer much labor. Therefore the just Judge looks not at the deed but at the labor” (Theodoret).

What consolation is expressed here for those laboring over something good, in themselves or others, and not seeing success! – Holy Chrysostom sees the very purpose of the Apostle’s adding these words in this: to remove from those who achieved much without great labor any occasion for boasting, and to provide consolation for those who labored much and achieved little, and to encourage all to labor for their own good and that of others. Labor: the measure of labor is the measure of reward.

1 Cor. 3:9. For we are coworkers with God; you are God’s field, God’s building.

He shows the reason why labor is valued. Because we are coworkers with God. It pleased Him to choose us as instruments for bringing about your salvation and that of others; He values our labor because through it His fatherly will to save all is fulfilled. “We who teach,” he says, “are coworkers with God, working together with His intention, who wills to save all; but we are not the makers or givers of salvation itself. Neither should you despise us as coworkers with God, nor should we be puffed up; for all is God’s” (Theophylact).

We are coworkers with God, and you are God’s field – γεώργιον – God’s field, but not lying idle; it is being tilled; you are God’s cultivation. God’s field belongs to God and is tilled by God. – To this comparison, begun earlier, he adds a new one – with a building. You are God’s building – οἰκοδομή – not finished and standing idle, but a building in the process of construction; you are God’s structure being built. – From this it follows: therefore you should refer all things to God, and consider yourselves God’s, not Paul’s or Apollos’s. “If you are God’s field, then you ought to bear the name not of the tillers but of God, for a field is called by the name not of the farmer but of its owner. ‘You are God’s building.’ And likewise a building belongs not to the builder but to the owner… If you are a building, then you should not break apart into factions; otherwise there will be no building. If you are a field, then you should not be divided, but enclosed by a single fence of like-mindedness” (holy Chrysostom).

This explanation of the meaning of the holy Apostles was meant to sober both those who promoted the factions and those who were carried away by them. They probably imagined the Apostles to be philosophers who invented their own philosophy and gave their name both to the philosophy and to the followers; the Apostle showed that such an understanding does not apply to them, and by this cut away the foundation on which the factions stood. This is similar to what came before: “Was Paul crucified for you?”

At the transition to these instructions, holy Paul to his previous comparison, by which he explained his and other Apostles’ significance – that of a farmer and a sower of the field – added another – a builder, constructing a building according to the instructions of the master. From the first comparison one could extract the needed instruction, but from this it is more convenient, and the ideas it presents are more accessible to all; therefore it was taken by holy Paul as the starting point for the instruction. You, he says to the Corinthians, are God’s building. I and others like me are God’s workers in building you into this structure, or each one of you into the building.

To more clearly understand the further flow of the Apostle’s thoughts in instructing those who promoted the factions, one must bear in mind that when holy Paul was in Corinth, he not only laid the foundation but also erected the building; for each of the Corinthians was already a complete Christian, and all together constituted a true Church of God; therefore he said earlier: you are a building, and later will say: you are a temple of God. But in spiritual construction things proceed in such a way that each preceding state serves as a foundation for the following one, although in its essence it represents a complete building. Therefore at each moment of the building one can say: I laid the foundation, and can say: you are a temple, that is, a complete building. Thus holy Paul does: he first looks at his work of establishing the Church in Corinth as the laying of the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10–15), and then as a complete building (1 Cor. 3:16–17). By both he makes powerful exhortations to the leaders of the factions and to those led by them. Let us say, he says, that I only laid the foundation. You should look to see what kind of foundation it is, so that you can select materials according to it. One can build with solid materials and build with non-solid materials, such as: wood, straw, reeds. If you build with these latter, the fire of judgment will come and burn it all up; nothing will remain for you, and you yourselves will not escape unscathed (1 Cor. 3:10–15). The factions that arose there were indeed straw, yet they gloried in them, thinking they had built something magnificent. But the Apostle does not make application word for word, but gives it to those who should understand to grasp themselves. Understanding what such speech was about, they should have been struck with fear. But this fear should have grown even more from the following words. Why, the complete building was established there by me (1 Cor. 3:16–17). You took it upon yourselves to add to it and build it up further. When this is done with skill, it is good; but one can, taking on the work without skill, destroy the building. But this building is not an ordinary one – it is God’s, and whoever destroys God’s temple, God will destroy (1 Cor. 3:17). Holy Paul does not make application word for word here either. Those to whom the speech pertained could not but understand what it was about.

If they understood – and they could not fail to understand – then at the same time they should have abandoned the factions and returned to the simplicity of evangelical confession. Having placed them in such a position, holy Paul γγ) finally strikes down their wisdom, saying as if: that is how you must throw away the wisdom of this age. Everything you have built is from it; it is by its nature hostile both to God and to divine orders of things (1 Cor. 3:18–20). This is directed at the leaders; then to all he applies a concluding exhortation: and you also should not fix your attention on any of men or on anything human. All things around you exist for you, to lead you to Christ. Once led – stay in Him, not blocking communion with Him by placing human persons between. The whole matter is to be with Christ, and through Christ – with God. You are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:21–23).