1 Corinthians 3:3

3 you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

1 Corinthians 3:3 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 3:3

For ye are yet carnal
The Syriac reads it, (Nwtna robb) , "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 too much walked as other men, who make no profession of religion; that they were led by the judgment of men, and were carried away with human passions and inflections; and in their conduct could scarcely be distinguished from the rest of the world. The things that are here mentioned, and with which they are charged, are reckoned by the apostle among the works of the flesh, ( Galatians 5:19 Galatians 5:20 ) the phrase, "and divisions", is omitted in the Alexandrian copy, and in some others, and in the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions.

1 Corinthians 3:3 In-Context

1 And as for myself, brethren, I found it impossible to speak to you as spiritual men. It had to be as to worldlings--mere babes in Christ.

2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough. And even now you are not strong enough:

3 you are still unspiritual. For so long as jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are living and acting like mere men of the world?

4 For when some one says, "I belong to Paul," and another says, "I belong to Apollos," is not this the way men of the world speak?

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are just God's servants, through whose efforts, and as the Lord granted power to each, you accepted the faith.