3:1 | So, brothers and sisters,* I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh,* as infants in Christ. |
3:2 | I fed you milk,* not solid food, for you were not yet ready. In fact, you are still not ready, |
3:3 | for you are still influenced by the flesh.* For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people?* |
3:4 | For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?* |
3:5 | What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us.* |
3:6 | I planted,* Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. |
3:7 | So neither the one who plants counts for anything,* nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. |
3:8 | The one who plants and the one who waters work as one,* but each will receive his reward according to his work. |
3:9 | We are coworkers belonging to God.* You are God’s field, God’s building. |
3:10 | According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds. |
3:11 | For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. |
3:12 | If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,* |
3:13 | each builder’s* work will be plainly seen, for the Day* will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire* will test what kind of work each has done. |
3:14 | If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. |
3:15 | If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss.* He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. |
3:16 | Do you not know that you are God’s temple* and that God’s Spirit lives in you? |
3:17 | If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are. |
3:18 | Guard against self-deception, each of you.* If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. |
3:19 | For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”* |
3:20 | And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”* |
3:21 | So then, no more boasting about mere mortals!* For everything belongs to you, |
3:22 | whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, |
3:23 | and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. |