Mere Men

 I Corinthians 3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

There is one sense in which we all are "mere men," in relationship to God.  He is totally holy, altogether different, and any and all men(and women) pale in comparison.  But when Paul uses the name here, he is using it in context of not being spiritual, but remaining carnal, fleshly, thinking only in human terms. In this chapter Paul once again picks up his main theme of their disunity and he points out what we saw yesterday: the arrogance of man to think that he can understand the truth without the Holy Spirit of God. Paul knew that He, and every other preacher/teacher, was fully dependent upon the grace of God to find, receive, and pass on truth.  He reminds the Corinthians, and us, that God is building a temple of His people, and that alone we are mere building blocks. We need one another. Even Paul and Apollos were dependent upon other believers to work with them, encourage them, and build one another up. Without the Holy Spirit and one another, we are mere men.