3:1
“Brothers and sisters” is “brethren, a term of affection. Paul has been talking about the difference between worldly and spiritual wisdom, and having the mind of Christ. However, he has to address the people as worldly because they are mere infants in Christ. Is this a rebuke (ie this is where they are, but they really should be more advanced by now), or is it a mere recognition of their spiritual state? Either way, it is a reminder to the Corinthians that they have far from got it all together yet, whatever they might think of themselves. On a wider perspective, there is a lesson for us that when people come to Christ there is a significant process of growth to go through. Of course, we all need to grow and learn throughout our Christian lives, but there is a significant amount of growth that needs to take place in the early years. Now that we live in an increasingly post-Christian society, if the church is effective then many members will be converts from the world. They will not be people who have grown up in the church. So there will be a significant amount of “unlearning” to do. This is also why we should be very wary of “promoting” new Christians too soon.
3:2
This also means that we do not give “solid food” too early to new Christians. We learn the basics first. Now these are not trivial things, if we look at Hebrews 6:1,2 we see that many churches are very backward institutions! Nor is all the teaching “doctrinal”. We need to know how to live and how to think. In the world people increasingly do not know how to think logically. So much of what passes for modern debate is all about emotions and little else. And the lifestyles that are accepted as normal, and even promoted, in the world are completely against God’s ways. However, having been given spiritual milk we should go on to maturity, we should learn. If we are Christians we have a responsibility to learn. We should not always be depending upon others. God created us to be people who do, people who are capable.
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