Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 3:2

"I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able [to bear it]: nay, not even now are ye able;" — 1 Corinthians 3:2 (ASV)

Milk . . . meat.—The use of the word “infant” naturally suggests these two images for the higher wisdom and for the simpler truths of the gospel, respectively.

Hitherto you were not able.—A better rendering is, for you were not yet able. Up to this point, the Apostle has been speaking of the condition in which he found the Corinthians when he first came to Corinth. He proceeds from this to rebuke them for continuing in this condition. He does not blame them for having been “babes” at the outset, but he does, in the following passage, blame them for not having yet grown out of infancy.

On verses 2, 3:

Neither yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal.—A better rendering is, but not even now are you able, for you are still carnal. It is for this absence of growth—for their continuing in this same condition even now—that the Apostle reproaches them. He shows that the fault they find with him, for not having given them more advanced teaching, really lies at their own door.