1 Corinthians 3
3
1AND I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ.
2I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not able as yet. But neither indeed are you now able; for you are yet carnal.
3For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man?
4For while one saith, I indeed am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollo; are you not men? What then is Apollo, and what is Paul?
5The ministers of him whom you have believed; and to every one as the Lord hath given.
6I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.
7Therefore, neither he that planteth is any thing, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8Now he that planteth, and he that watereth, are one. And every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour.
9For we are God's coadjutors: you are God's husbandry; you are God's building.
10According to the grace of God that is given to me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus.
12Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble:
13Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is.
14If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
16Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.
18Let no man deceive himself: if any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.
20And again: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
21Let no man therefore glory in men.
22For all things are yours, whether it be Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to some; for all are yours;
23And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
1 Corinthians 3
3
1-4But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally childish?
5-9a Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.
9b-15 Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.
16-17You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.
18-20Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being relevant. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,
He exposes the hype of the hipsters.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
of the know-it-alls.
21-23I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.
* * *
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.