1 Corinthians 3
3
Working Together for God
1My friends, you are acting like the people of this world. That's why I could not speak to you as spiritual people. You are like babies as far as your faith in Christ is concerned. 2#He 5.12,13. So I had to treat you like babies and feed you milk. You could not take solid food, and you still cannot, 3because you are not yet spiritual. You are jealous and argue with each other. This proves you are not spiritual and you are acting like the people of this world.
4 #
1 Co 1.12. Some of you say you follow me, and others claim to follow Apollos. Isn't this how ordinary people behave? 5Apollos and I are merely servants who helped you to have faith. It was the Lord who made it all happen. 6#Ac 18.4-11; Ac 18.24-28. I planted the seeds, Apollos watered them, but God made them sprout and grow. 7What matters isn't those who planted or watered, but God who made the plants grow. 8The one who plants is just as important as the one who waters. And each one will be paid for what they do. 9Apollos and I work together for God, and you are God's garden and God's building.
Only One Foundation
10God treated me with undeserved grace and let me become an expert builder. I laid a foundation on which others have built. But we must each be careful how we build, 11because Christ is the only foundation. 12-13Whatever we build on this foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw. 14We will be rewarded if our building is left standing. 15But if it is destroyed by the fire, we will lose everything. Yet we ourselves will be saved, like someone escaping from flames.
16 #
1 Co 6.19; 2 Co 6.16. All of you surely know you are God's temple and his Spirit lives in you. 17Together you are God's holy temple, and God will destroy anyone who destroys his temple.
18Don't fool yourselves! If any of you think you are wise in the things of this world, you will have to become foolish before you can be truly wise. 19#Job 5.13. This is because God considers the wisdom of this world to be foolish. It is just as the Scriptures say, “God catches the wise when they try to outsmart him.” 20#Ps 94.11. The Scriptures also say, “The Lord knows that the plans made by wise people are useless.” 21-22So stop bragging about what anyone has done. Paul and Apollos and Peter#3.21,22 Peter: See the note at 1.12. all belong to you. In fact, everything is yours, including the world, life, death, the present, and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
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1 Corinthians 3: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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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