New Testament Plan

¹However, brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as to spiritual people, but [only] as to worldly people [dominated by human nature], mere infants [in the new life] in Christ!

²I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Even now you are still not ready.

³You are still worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]?

⁴For when one of you says, "I am [a disciple] of Paul," and another, "I am [a disciple] of Apollos," are you not [proving yourselves unchanged, just] ordinary people?

⁵What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Just servants through whom you believed [in Christ], even as the Lord appointed to each his task.

⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was causing the growth.

⁷So neither is the one who plants nor the one who waters anything, but [only] God who causes the growth.

⁸He who plants and he who waters are one [in importance and esteem, working toward the same purpose]; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

⁹For we are God's fellow workers [His servants working together]; you are God's cultivated field [His garden, His vineyard], God's building.

¹⁰According to the [remarkable] grace of God which was given to me [to prepare me for my task], like a skillful master builder I laid a foundation, and now another is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it,

¹¹for no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ.

¹²But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

¹³each one's work will be clearly shown [for what it is]; for the day [of judgment] will disclose it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality and character and worth of each person's work.

¹⁴If any person's work which he has built [on this foundation, that is, any outcome of his effort] remains [and survives this test], he will receive a reward.

¹⁵But if any person's work is burned up [by the test], he will suffer the loss [of his reward]; yet he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has barely escaped] through fire.

¹⁶Do you not know and understand that you [the church] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells [permanently] in you [collectively and individually]?

¹⁷If anyone destroys the temple of God [corrupting it with false doctrine], God will destroy the destroyer; for the temple of God is holy (sacred), and that is what you are.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool [discarding his worldly pretensions and acknowledging his lack of wisdom], so that he may become [truly] wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness (absurdity, stupidity) before God; for it is written [in Scripture], "[He is] The one who catches the wise and clever in their craftiness;"

²⁰and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the [humanly] wise, that they are useless."

²¹So let no one boast in men [about their wisdom, or of having this or that one as a leader]. For all things are yours,

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (Peter) or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things are yours,

²³and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

¹So then, let us [who minister] be regarded as servants of Christ and stewards (trustees, administrators) of the mysteries of God [that He chooses to reveal].

²In this case, moreover, it is required [as essential and demanded] of stewards that one be found faithful and trustworthy.

³But [as for me personally] it matters very little to me that I may be judged by you or any human court [on this point]; in fact, I do not even judge myself.

⁴I am aware of nothing against myself and I feel blameless, but I am not by this acquitted [before God]. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵So do not go on passing judgment before the appointed time, but wait until the Lord comes, for He will both bring to light the [secret] things that are hidden in darkness and disclose the motives of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God.

⁶Now I have applied these things [that is, the analogies about factions] to myself and Apollos for your benefit, believers, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written [in Scripture], so that none of you will become arrogant and boast in favor of one [minister or teacher] against the other.

⁷For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]?

⁸[You behave as if] you are already filled [with spiritual wisdom and in need of nothing more]. Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts]! You [in your conceit] have ascended your thrones and become kings without us; and how I wish [that it were true and] that you did reign as kings, so that we might reign with you.

⁹For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles at the end of the line, like men sentenced to death [and paraded as prisoners in a procession], because we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world's amphitheater], both to angels and to men.

¹⁰We are [regarded as] fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are highly esteemed, but we are dishonored.

¹¹To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are continually poorly dressed, and we are roughly treated, and wander homeless.

¹²We work [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When we are reviled and verbally abused, we bless. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure.

¹³When we are slandered, we try to be conciliatory and answer softly. We have become like the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

¹⁴I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn and advise you as my beloved children.

¹⁵For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation].

¹⁶So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father].

¹⁷For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ [my conduct and my precepts for godly living], just as I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Now some of you have become arrogant and pretentious, as though I were not coming to see you.

¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out not just the talk of these arrogant people, but [evaluate] their [spiritual] power [whether they live up to their own claims].

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not based on talk but on power.

²¹Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod [of discipline and correction], or with love and a gentle spirit?

¹It is actually reported [everywhere] that there is sexual immorality among you, a kind of immorality that is condemned even among the [unbelieving] Gentiles: that someone has [an intimate relationship with] his father's wife.

²And you are proud and arrogant! You should have mourned in shame so that the man who has done this [disgraceful] thing would be removed from your fellowship!

³For I, though absent [from you] in body but present in spirit, have already passed judgment on him who has committed this [act], as if I were present.

⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

⁵you are to hand over this man to Satan for the destruction of his body, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁶Your boasting [over the supposed spirituality of your church] is not good [indeed, it is vulgar and inappropriate]. Do you not know that [just] a little leaven ferments the whole batch [of dough, just as a little sin corrupts a person or an entire church]?

⁷Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new batch, just as you are, still unleavened. For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.

⁸Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of vice and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and [untainted] truth.

⁹I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate with [sexually] immoral people—

¹⁰not meaning the immoral people of this world, or the greedy ones and swindlers, or idolaters, for then you would have to get out of the world and human society altogether!

¹¹But actually, I have written to you not to associate with any so-called [Christian] brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater [devoted to anything that takes the place of God], or is a reviler [who insults or slanders or otherwise verbally abuses others], or is a drunkard or a swindler—you must not so much as eat with such a person.

¹²For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]?

¹³God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. Remove the wicked one from among you [expel him from your church].