1 Corinthians 3
3
Laying a true foundation
1And yet, I myself, brethren, did not speak to you as spiritually minded beings, possessing the mind of Christ, but I spoke to you as to carnal men, still entangled in the mind of the flesh, and in Christ the merest babes, 2needing milk, not real meat. That was your condition. You were not able to receive what I might have told you. And that is still your state. 3The mind of the flesh works in you still. You are not spiritual, you are the human being, the human rent by division and strife, 4one of you saying that he is Paul’s disciple, another that he is Apollos’. 5-6That is not the divine unity, wherein Paul planted and Apollos watered, and wherein all life and growth is of God. What is Paul or Apollos? Servants of your faith, each one according to the task assigned by God. 7-9In this great oneness each receives the fulfilment and reward of his own function, sower and tiller all belong to one unity which is God’s field and harvest, or God’s building. In ourselves we are nothing. 10What if I, resembling a good and skilful architect, laid a foundation on which another is building? My function was an expression of God’s own grace imparted to me, and all the building similarly is of God, its parts expressing the grace which He confers. 11If a man misapply his own mission, and attempt to lay a foundation other than that already laid which is Christ Jesus, let him be sure he will receive the appropriate reward for such a corruption and reversal of the grace God gave him. 12Or if, instead of building on this foundation gold and silver and costly marble and stone, he build wood, thatch, straw, 13he shall certainly receive the appropriate reward of this faithlessness. The fire will burn up his work. 14-15The great day of truth will dawn, and reveal his faithless evil work, and the havoc he has made of the Church. It will all be destroyed, all pass away, yet shall he himself thereby be saved. 16For this is God’s temple, God’s building, the Spirit of God dwells here, 17and you yourselves are the one building of God, and therefore not one shall perish though the evil doer reap his own destruction.
Self-deception to be guarded against
18Cleverness and the wisdom of the world are not sufficient for these things. Thereby you may become self-deceived. 19And if one must become a fool in order to be wise, this is the wisest course, for the world’s wisest is a species of folly. “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (Job v. 13.). 20“The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity” (Ps. 94:11.). 21There is nothing in merely human wisdom, and why? because you already have the wisdom that includes all, 22that includes Paul, Apollos and Cephas, yes, and the world, life, death, the present and the future; 23it is yours because it and you are Christ’s, who is of God, and who therefore includes it all.
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 3
3
1And I, brethren, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly — as to babes in Christ;
2with milk I fed you, and not with meat, for ye were not yet able, but not even yet are ye now able,
3for yet ye are fleshly, for where [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not fleshly, and in the manner of men do walk?
4for when one may say, ‘I, indeed, am of Paul;’ and another, ‘I — of Apollos;’ are ye not fleshly?
5Who, then, is Paul, and who Apollos, but ministrants through whom ye did believe, and to each as the Lord gave?
6I planted, Apollos watered, but God was giving growth;
7so that neither is he who is planting anything, nor he who is watering, but He who is giving growth — God;
8and he who is planting and he who is watering are one, and each his own reward shall receive, according to his own labour,
9for of God we are fellow-workmen; God's tillage, God's building ye are.
10According to the grace of God that was given to me, as a wise master-builder, a foundation I have laid, and another doth build on [it],
11for other foundation no one is able to lay except that which is laid, which is Jesus the Christ;
12and if any one doth build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw —
13of each the work shall become manifest, for the day shall declare [it], because in fire it is revealed, and the work of each, what kind it is, the fire shall prove;
14if of any one the work doth remain that he built on [it], a wage he shall receive;
15if of any the work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; and himself shall be saved, but so as through fire.
16Have ye not known that ye are a sanctuary of God, and the Spirit of God doth dwell in you?
17if any one the sanctuary of God doth waste, him shall God waste; for the sanctuary of God is holy, the which ye are.
18Let no one deceive himself; if any one doth seem to be wise among you in this age — let him become a fool, that he may become wise,
19for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it hath been written, ‘Who is taking the wise in their craftiness;’
20and again, ‘The Lord doth know the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.’
21So then, let no one glory in men, for all things are yours,
22whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things about to be — all are yours,
23and ye [are] Christ's, and Christ [is] God's.
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society