3
“Each Person...Must Be Very Careful About How He Builds”
1 And so as for me, brothers and sisters, I wasn’t able to speak to you as I would speak to people governed by the Spirit. No, I had to talk to you as I would to people who belong to the world, as I would to infants in union with the Messiah.
2 It was with milk that I had to feed you, not solid food, because you weren’t yet ready for it. In fact, you aren’t ready for it even now,
3 seeing as you are still acting just like the rest of the world. Wherever there exists among you jealousy and bitter arguing, you see, you are worldly, are you not? It is by mere human standards that you are conducting yourselves, is it not?
4 When, after all, one of you says, “I am Paul’s disciple,” and someone else, “I follow Apollos,” is it not like people devoid of the Spirit that you are conducting yourselves?
5 What, then, is Apollos? Or what is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe, each of us, indeed, doing what the Lord assigned.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the plant to grow.
7 As a result, it is neither the person who plants nor the person who waters who is of any special account, but God, who causes the plant to grow.
8 The person who plants and the person who waters, moreover, do their work with the same goal in mind, and each one will receive, in keeping with his own hard work, his own reward.
9 Yes, it is in God’s service that Apollos and I work together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to the ability that God freely gave to me, as a wise master-builder it was the foundation that I set in place. Someone else, moreover, is building on it. Each person, though, must be very careful about how he builds.
11 No one can lay any foundation, you see, other than the one already set in place, namely, Jesus the Messiah.
12 Now whether someone builds on the foundation using enduring materials like gold, silver, and precious stones, or with perishable materials like wood, hay, or straw,
13 the nature of each person’s work will become very evident. The Day, you see, will show it for what it truly is, because that Day will be revealed with fire, and each person’s work—its true quality—the fire will put to the test.
14 If someone’s work endures—what he built on the foundation—he will receive a reward.
15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will have to bear the loss. Though he himself will be saved, it will be like one who barely escapes through the flames.
16 Surely you realize, don’t you, that you constitute the very sanctuary of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in your midst?
17 If anyone destroys the sanctuary of God, God will destroy this person. The sanctuary of God, you see, is holy, and you yourselves are that sanctuary.
18 Let no one deceive himself! If someone among you considers himself to be wise by the standards of this age, he must become a fool, so that he may become truly wise.
19 The so-called wisdom of this world, you see, is utter foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written:
“He traps the wise in their cleverness.”+
20 And again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are worthless and deluded.”+
21 So then, enough of the prideful talk over which puny little human you follow! All things, after all, are yours,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Kefa or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All things are yours!
23 You, moreover, serve and belong to the Messiah, and the Messiah serves and belongs to God.