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.+