New Testament Plan

¹For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.

²I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready,

³because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans?

⁴For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not acting like mere humans?

⁵What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.

⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

⁷So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

⁸Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

⁹For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it.

¹¹For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

¹²If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

¹³each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.

¹⁴If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

¹⁵If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved  — but only as through fire.

¹⁶Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool so that he can become wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness;

²⁰and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are futile.

²¹So let no one boast in human leaders, for everything is yours  —

²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come  — everything is yours,

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

¹A person should think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of the mysteries of God.

²In this regard, it is required that managers be found faithful.

³It is of little importance to me that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I don’t even judge myself.

⁴For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

⁶Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be arrogant, favoring one person over another.

⁷For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

⁸You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us — and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you!

⁹For I think God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!

¹¹Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless;

¹²we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

¹³when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone’s garbage.

¹⁴I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.

¹⁵For you may have countless instructors in Christ, but you don’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

¹⁶Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant.

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

²¹What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles  — a man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

²And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this?

³Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing.

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

⁵hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

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

⁸Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

¹⁰I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.

¹¹But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

¹²For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside?

¹³God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.