<p>3:1 <i>And I, brothers, can not speak to you as spiritual people, but as carnal people- </i>The &quot;we&quot; who have the Spirit in 2:13 refer to Paul and his preaching team and not all at Corinth. The Corinthians possessed the miraculous gifts, but were in a more fundamental sense Spirit-less. &ldquo;John did no miracle&rdquo;, but was filled with the Spirit from his birth. Even the Comforter, which does refer to the miraculous gifts in its primary context, was, in perhaps another sense, to be unseen by the world, and to be <i>within </i>the believers (Jn. 14:17). It could well be that the Lord&rsquo;s discourse with Nicodemus concerning the need to be born both of water and Spirit must be read in the context of John&rsquo;s baptism; his was a birth of water, but Christian baptism is being described with an almost technical term: birth of the Spirit, in that baptism into the Spirit of Jesus brings the believer into the realm of the operation of God&rsquo;s Spirit. But as happened with the Corinthians, it is possible to deny the Spirit any space to operate within us; those who resist any idea of the Spirit working directly within the human mind are putting themselves in the same position. This is the answer to those who complain that they were baptized but 'feel' no Spirit operation; the potential was given, and is still there, as chapters 1 and 2 make so clear about the Corinthians; but they were not Spirit-filled because they didn't allow it.</p><p><i>As infants in Christ</i>- But they were still &quot;in Christ&quot;. And Paul respects them for that.</p>