1 Corinthians

The Immaturity of the Corinthians

I could not, friends, speak to you as spiritual people but as worldly ones, for you are still infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food,

because you weren’t ready for it, and even now, you can’t receive it because you’re still fleshly. As long as jealousy and conflict exist among you, I can only say that you’re acting on a fleshly level and behaving like ordinary people.

While one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ what are you but people still on a human level?

What are Apollos and Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each of them.

I planted, and Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow.

Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything; it is God who makes the plant grow.

The person who plants and the one who waters work together toward the same goal, and the Lord will reward each according to their efforts.

We are coworkers with God, but you are God’s field and building.

As a good builder, given the foundation I was trusted with, I laid it, and others must build on it. Everyone should be careful about how they build on it.

No one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Then, if someone builds with gold on this foundation, another with silver and precious stones, or with wood, bamboo, or straw,

the work of each will be revealed for what it is. The day of judgment will show this because fire will expose everything. The fire will test each person’s work.

If your work survives the fire, you will be rewarded;

but if your work burns up, you will suffer loss. You will be saved, but it will be as if passing through fire.

Do you realize that you are God’s temple and that his Spirit dwells in you?

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

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you thinks he’s wise in the ways of the world, let him become a fool so he can be truly wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As Scripture says: God traps the wise in their own wisdom.

It also states: The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is futile.

Because of this, let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you;

Paul, Apollos, Cephas—life, death, the present, and the future. Everything is yours,

and you belong to Christ, and Christ is of God.