1 Corinthians 3:1-2

Immaturity and Self-deception

3:1 So, brothers and sisters, ¹  I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, ²  as infants in Christ. 3:2 I fed you milk, ³  not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready,

1 Corinthians 13:11

13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, ⁴  I set aside childish ways.

Psalms 119:99

119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your rules.

Isaiah 11:3

11:3 He will take delight in obeying the Lord. ⁵ 

He will not judge by mere appearances, ⁶ 

or make decisions on the basis of hearsay. ⁷ 

Romans 16:19

16:19 Your obedience is known to all and thus I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

Ephesians 4:14-15

4:14 So ⁸  we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes. ⁹  4:15 But practicing the truth in love, ¹⁰  we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.

Philippians 1:9

1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight

Hebrews 5:12-13

5:12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, ¹¹  you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances. ¹²  You have gone back to needing ¹³  milk, not ¹⁴  solid food. 5:13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant.

Hebrews 6:1-3

6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond ¹⁵  the elementary ¹⁶  instructions about Christ ¹⁷  and move on ¹⁸  to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God, 6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 6:3 And this is what we intend to do, ¹⁹  if God permits.

Hebrews 6:2

6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 3:18

3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

[3:1]  ¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[3:1]  ² tn Grk “fleshly [people]”; the Greek term here is σαρκινός (BDAG 914 s.v. 1).

[3:2]  ³ sn Milk refers figuratively to basic or elementary Christian teaching. Paul’s point was that the Corinthian believers he was writing to here were not mature enough to receive more advanced teaching. This was not a problem at the time, when they were recent converts, but the problem now is that they are still not ready.

[13:11]  ⁴ tn The Greek term translated “adult” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), a term which ordinarily refers to males, husbands, etc. In this context Paul contrasts the states of childhood and adulthood, so the term has been translated “adult”; cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 1.b.

[11:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and his smelling is in the fear of the Lord.” In Amos 5:21 the Hiphil of רוּחַ (ruakh, “smell”) carries the nuance of “smell with delight, get pleasure from.” There the Lord declares that he does not “smell with delight” (i.e., get pleasure from) Israel’s religious assemblies, which probably stand by metonymy for the incense offered during these festivals. In Isa 11:3 there is no sacrificial context to suggest such a use, but it is possible that “the fear of the Lord” is likened to incense. This coming king will get the same kind of delight from obeying (fearing) the Lord, as a deity does in the incense offered by worshipers. Some regard such an explanation as strained in this context, and prefer to omit this line from the text as a virtual dittograph of the preceding statement.

[11:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “by what appears to his eyes”; KJV “after the sight of his eyes”; NIV “by what he sees with his eyes.”

[11:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “by what is heard by his ears”; NRSV “by what his ears hear.”

[4:14]  ⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ⁹ tn While the sense of the passage is clear enough, translation in English is somewhat difficult. The Greek says: “by the trickery of men, by craftiness with the scheme of deceit.” The point is that the author is concerned about Christians growing into maturity. He is fearful that certain kinds of very cunning people, who are skilled at deceitful scheming, should come in and teach false doctrines which would in turn stunt the growth of the believers.

[4:15]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the participle ἀληθεύοντες (alhqeuonte"; from the verb ἀληθεύω [alhqeuw]) is debated. In classical times the verb could mean “to speak the truth,” or “to be true, to prove true.” In the LXX it appears five times (Gen 20:16; 42:16; Prov 21:3; Isa 44:26; Sir 34:4) and translates four different Hebrew words; there it is an ethical term used of proving or being true, not with the idea of speaking the truth. In the NT the only other place the verb appears is in Gal 4:16 where it means “to speak the truth.” However, in Ephesians the concept of “being truthful” is the best sense of the word. In contrast to the preceding verse, where there are three prepositional phrases to denote falsehood and deceit, the present word speaks of being real or truthful in both conduct and speech. Their deceit was not only in their words but also in their conduct. In other words, the believers’ conduct should be transparent, revealing the real state of affairs, as opposed to hiding or suppressing the truth through cunning and deceit. See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 564-65, and R. Bultmann, TDNT 1:251.

[5:12]  ¹¹ tn Grk “because of the time.”

[5:12]  ¹² tn Grk “the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.”

[5:12]  ¹³ tn Grk “you have come to have a need for.”

[5:12]  ¹⁴ tc ‡ Most texts, including some early and important ones (א² A B* D Ψ 0122 0278 1881 Ï sy Cl), have καί (kai, “and”) immediately preceding οὐ (ou, “not”), but other equally significant witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א* B² C 33 81 1739 lat Or Did) lack the conjunction. As it was a natural tendency for scribes to add a coordinating conjunction, the καί appears to be a motivated reading. On balance, it is probably best to regard the shorter reading as authentic. NA²⁷ has καί in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[6:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Therefore leaving behind.” The implication is not of abandoning this elementary information, but of building on it.

[6:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “basic.”

[6:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the message of the beginning of Christ.”

[6:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “leaving behind…let us move on.”

[6:3]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and we will do this.”