Jul 11: 1 Corinthians 3

Foundations for Living

3 And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, ³ for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? ⁴ For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people?

⁵ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. ⁷ So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. ⁸ Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ each one’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each one’s work. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet only so as through fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

¹⁸ Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written: “He is the one who catches the wise by their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless.” ²¹ So then, no one is to be boasting in people. For all things belong to you, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.