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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Verse 5
“Who then is Paul? and who is Apollos? etc.]” The apostle’s name being used, and he a party concerned, could speak the more freely upon this head, and ask what they thought of himself, and other preachers, whether they were more than men? what authority and power they had, whether they looked upon them as the authors of a new religion, or the founders of a new sect, that were to go by their names? and directs them what light to consider them in, how that they were “but ministers by whom ye believed:” They were servants to Christ and to his churches, and not lords; they did not assume any dominion over men, or pretend to lord it over God’s heritage; there is but…
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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Verse 4
“For while one saith, I am of Paul, etc.]” This shows what their envying and strife, and divisions were about, and from whence they sprung; and which serve, to strengthen the proof, and support the charge of carnality brought against them; for when one sort made a party for Paul, and set up him as their minister above all others; and said “another, I am of Apollos,” Preferring him for his eloquence above Paul, or any other preacher, as appears from (1 Corinthians 1:12) there was a third sort for Cephas, whom they cried up as superior to the other two, or any other man; and a fourth were for Christ, and despised all ministers whatever: “are ye not carnal?” All this was a demonstration…
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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Verse 3
“For ye are yet carnal, etc.]” The Syriac reads it, ˆwtna rsbb, “ye are in the flesh”: a phrase the apostle elsewhere uses of men in an unregenerate state; but this is not his meaning here, as before explained, but that carnality still prevailed among them, of which he gives proof and evidence: “for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” They envied each other’s gifts and knowledge, strove about words to no profit, entered into warm debates and contentions about their ministers, and went into factions and parties, which were distinguished by the names they were most affected to; in all which they gave too clear evidence of their prevailing carnality, that they…
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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Verse 2
“I have fed you with milk, etc.]” It is usual with the Jews to compare the law to milk, and they say, that “as milk strengthens and nourishes an infant, so the law strengthens and nourishes the soul;” but the apostle does not here mean hrwt lç blj, “the milk of the law”, as they call it, but the Gospel; comparable to milk, for its purity and wholesomeness, for the nourishing virtue there is in it, and because easy of digestion; for he designs by it, the more plain and easy doctrines of the Gospel, such as babes in Christ were capable of understanding and receiving: and not with meat; the more solid doctrines of the Gospel, and sublime mysteries of grace; the wisdom of…
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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Verse 1
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you, etc.]” Though the apostle was a spiritual man himself, had spiritual gifts, even the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, could judge all things, had the mind of Christ, and was able to speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, yet could not speak it to them, “as unto spiritual;” Not but that they had the Spirit of God in them, and a work of grace upon them; for they were, as the apostle afterwards says, the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelt in them; they were washed, sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God; but had not that spiritual discerning, or judgment in…
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1 Corinthians: Chapter 3, Introduction
In this chapter the apostle returns to the charge of schisms and contentions upon the Corinthians, which were the occasion of the epistle; and reproves them for their divisions, which were about their ministers; and gives them their just and due character, and who, though they were useful and commendable in their places, were not to be gloried in; and especially it was a great piece of weakness and folly, to set up one against another, when they had an equal interest in them all. Having, in the latter part of the preceding chapter, made mention of the spiritual man, the apostle tells the Corinthians, to whom he writes, that he could not address them as spiritual, but as carnal; and not as perfect men,…
