1 Corinthians 3:1-23
“Brothers
and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by THE SPIRIT but
as people who are still worldly—mere infants in CHRIST.
2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready
for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.
3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and
quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere
humans?
4 For when one says,
‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not
mere human beings?
5 What, after all, is
Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to
believe—as THE LORD
has assigned to each his task.
6 I planted the seed, Apollos
watered it, but GOD
has been making it grow.
7 So neither the one who plants nor
the one who waters is anything, but only GOD, WHO makes things grow.
8 The one who plants and the one who
waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own
labor.
9 For we are co-workers in GOD’s
service; you are GOD’s
field, GOD’s
building.
10 By THE GRACE GOD HAS GIVEN ME, I laid
a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But
each one should build with care.
11 For no one can lay any FOUNDATION other than
the one already laid, which is JESUS CHRIST.
12 If anyone builds on THIS FOUNDATION using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
13 their work will be shown for what
it is, because the Day will bring it to LIGHT. It will be revealed with fire,
and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.
14 If what has been built survives,
the builder will receive a reward.
15 If it is burned up, the builder
will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through
the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves
are GOD’s
temple and that GOD’s
SPIRIT dwells in your midst?
17 If anyone destroys GOD’s temple, GOD will destroy that
person; for GOD’s
temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any
of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should
become ‘fools’ so that you may become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness in GOD’s
sight. As it is written: ‘HE catches the wise in their craftiness’
20 and again, ‘THE LORD knows that
the thoughts of the wise are futile.’
21 So then, no more boasting about
human leaders! All things are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or
Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are
yours,
23 and you are of CHRIST, and CHRIST is of GOD."
