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.
Currently Selected:
1 Corinthians 3: GWC
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 3
3
1 #
Rom 7.14; Heb 5.13. But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. 2#Heb 5.12-13; 1 Pet 2.2. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? 4#1 Cor 1.12. For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?
5 #
2 Cor 6.4; Eph 3.7; Col 1.25. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6#Acts 18.4-11,24-27; 1 Cor 1.12. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 9#Is 61.3; Eph 2.20-22; 1 Pet 2.5. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10 #
Rom 12.3; 1 Cor 15.10. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. 11#Eph 2.20. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13#2 Thess 1.7-10. each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15#Job 23.10. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
16 #
1 Cor 6.19; 2 Cor 6.16. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.
18 #
Is 5.21; 1 Cor 8.2; Gal 6.3. Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19#Job 5.13; 1 Cor 1.20. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20#Ps 94.11. and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21#1 Cor 4.6; Rom 8.32. So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, 22#1 Cor 1.12; Rom 8.38. whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; 23and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America