Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 3:1

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ." — 1 Corinthians 3:1 (ASV)

And I.—Again, as in 1 Corinthians 2:6, the Apostle shows how general principles which he has just explained were exemplified in his own conduct. In the closing verses of 1 Corinthians 2, St. Paul articulated the general method of teaching spiritual truth as depending on the receptiveness of those being taught. He now proceeds to point out to them that their own character, lacking spirituality, was the real hindrance to his teaching them the higher spiritual truth which may be called “the wisdom” of the gospel.

As unto carnal.—Better, as being carnal. Our translation may seem to imply that the Apostle spoke to them as if they were carnal, though they really were not so; but the point of the passage is that they were indeed carnal, and that the Apostle taught them not as if they were, but because they were. “Carnal” is here the opposite of “spiritual,” and does not involve any reference to what we would commonly speak of as “carnal sin.”

Babes in Christ.—This is the opposite of the full grown in 1 Corinthians 2:6, to whom the “wisdom” could be taught. (See also Colossians 1:28, full grown in Christ.) It may be an interesting indication of the “manliness” of St. Paul’s character and his high estimate of it in others, that he constantly uses the words “babe” and “childhood” in a depreciatory sense. (Galatians 4:3; Ephesians 4:14.)