And (1) I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto (a) carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ.
(1) Having declared the worthiness of heavenly wisdom, and of the Gospel, and having generally condemned the blindness of man's mind, now at length he applies it particularly to the Corinthians, calling them carnal, that is, those in whom the flesh still prevails against the Spirit. And he brings a twofold testimony of it: first, because he had proved them to be such, in so much that he dealt with them as he would with ignorant men, and those who are almost babes in the doctrine of godliness, and second, because they showed indeed by these dissensions, which sprang up by reason of the ignorance of the power of the Spirit, and heavenly wisdom, that they had profited very little or nothing.
(a) He calls them carnal, who are as yet ignorant, and therefore to express it better, he calls them "babes".