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
1 Corinthians 3
1¶ And I, brothers, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
2I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food, for until now ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?
4For while one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?
5¶ Who then is Paul? and who is Apollos? but servants by whom ye believed, each one according to that which the Lord gave.
6I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase.
8Now he that plants and he that waters are one although each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9For we are labourers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
10According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each one see how the building is built.
11¶ For no one can lay another foundation than that laid, which is Jesus the Christ.
12Now if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
13the work of each one shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire; the work of each one, whatever sort it is, the fire shall put it to test.
14If the work of anyone abides which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15If anyone’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
16¶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17If anyone defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy that one; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
18¶ Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you seems to be wise in this age, let them become a fool that they may be wise.
19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness.
20And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
21¶ Therefore 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 to come, all are yours;
23and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International