1 Corinthians 3 – 4

1 Corinthians 3

¹ Brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people who are led by the flesh, as infants in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you were not yet ready. Why, even now you are still not ready, ³ because you are still people who are following the flesh. Indeed, insofar as jealousy, strife, and factions ^[1] have a place among you, are you not people who are following the flesh? Are you not behaving in a merely human way? ⁴ When one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Analogies Illustrating Ministry and the Church

⁵ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, and each served as the Lord gave him his role. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. ⁷ So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters are united, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For God is the one whom we serve as coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. But let each person be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ each person’s work will become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is. ¹⁴ If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in ^[2] you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this world, let him become a fool so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ To be sure, the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ^{[3] 20} and again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise; he knows that it is worthless.” ^{[4] 21} Therefore let no one boast about men. For all things belong to you— ²² whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All things belong to you, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

1 Corinthians 4

¹ This is the way a person should think of us: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. ² In this connection, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. ³ But it is a trivial matter to me if I am evaluated by you or by a day in a human court. Why, I do not even evaluate myself. ⁴ I do not in fact know of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this; rather, the one who evaluates me is the Lord. ⁵ Therefore judge nothing ahead of time, until the Lord comes. He will bring to light whatever is hidden in darkness and also reveal the intentions of hearts. Then there will be praise for each person from God.

Lessons From Apostolic Life and Teaching

⁶ Brothers, I turned these things into a lesson using myself and Apollos as examples. I did this for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not be arrogant, favoring one person over the other. ⁷ For who makes you so special? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? ⁸ Oh, you are already filled! You have already become rich! You have begun to reign without us! If only that were really true, so that we could reign with you!

⁹ For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, in the lowliest position, like men sentenced to death, because we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak—but you are so strong! You are honored! But we are despised. ¹¹ At the present we still hunger and thirst and lack proper clothing. We are treated roughly, and we have no settled place to live in. ¹² We toil, working with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. ¹³ When slandered, we speak kind words. We have been treated like the world’s garbage, like everyone’s trash, right up to the present time.

¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my dear children. ¹⁵ Indeed, even if you would have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you would not have many fathers. I say this, because in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. ¹⁶ I urge you, therefore, be imitators of me. ¹⁷ That is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways in Christ, ^[5] just as I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸ Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out about the power, not the talk, of those who are arrogant. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. ²¹ What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?