The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 3 -

(Hebrews 5:11–14)

My brothers and sisters, when I was with you, you were not ready to hear the difficult truths about God. I could speak to you only as if you were little children who are joined to Messiah.

I taught you things that were easy to understand, as a mother feeds milk to her babies. You were not ready for solid food. And even now, you are not ready.

I say this because you are still acting as unbelievers even though you are Messianics. I know you are not ready because many of you are jealous and quarreling with each other, and you are judging things just as if you were still unbelievers.

Some of you say you are following what I, Paul, have taught; others say they are following what Apollos has taught. You are acting the way unbelievers act.

Compared to the great work that God has done in your lives, Apollos is not important. Neither is Paul important. We are both servants, and we serve the same God in the ways that he has assigned to us.

Even though I was the first to plant the seed of God’s word in you, it was Apollos who made sure you grew in faith. But it was God alone who can give spiritual growth to you.

Let me say it again: The ones who plant the seeds and water them, we do not matter in the least. God is the one who gives the growth. You are like a garden that he has planted.

The one who plants and the one who waters are working in the same job, and each one individually will receive a wage as a reward. The reward is the amount he is paid measured by how hard each one worked.

We are working together with God and we both belong to God. But as for you, God is growing you in his field. It is as if he were constructing a building out of you.

Christ Our Foundation

(Isaiah 28:14–22; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:1–8)

God generously gave me the skills so I can do this task for him. I worked among you like an expert builder with great care. But after me, someone else will build on what I began. Everyone builds on what others did before. But each one must be careful how they build.

For no other foundation can be laid other than the one that has already been set in place. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

We are like builders who choose what to put on top of that foundation. Builders can choose to use valuable materials like gold, silver, and precious stones, or they can choose to use worthless materials like wood, hay, and straw.

God will judge our work and put on display what each of us has done for him. He will send fire to test the work we have done. That fire will prove the quality of the work that we did for him.

If what a person builds survives the fire that tests what he built, he will receive a reward for his work,

But if the fire burns up all his work, he will lose all his reward, but God can still save him, even though the flames completely devour everything he did.

God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom

(Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

Surely you know that you are the dwelling place where God lives, that you are his temple. Surely you know that the Spirit of God lives inside of you.

God promises that he will destroy anyone who attempts to destroy his temple. This is because his temple belongs to him alone. And he protects you by the same promise because you are now his temple and you belong to him alone!

Be on guard that you do not deceive yourselves. If any of you thinks he has great wisdom that unbelievers will admire, he should be careful. He would be far better off if he leaves alone all the things that unbelievers want, even if they consider him a fool for doing so. When he leaves those things alone, he will begin to learn what is true wisdom.

What the world considers to be great wisdom is really foolishness to God. For scripture says, “God catches the wise in their own foolish plans.”

And again scripture teaches, “The Lord overhears all the planning of the wise, and he knows that in the end, they will lose everything.”

So stop boasting about how good one Christian leader is or how good another Christian leader is. For God has given you all things.

God gave you Paul, and he gave you Apollos, and Peter. And God gave you this world, and your life, and his victory over death. And God gives you everything that exists and everything that will exist in the future, they are all yours;

and you are Messiah’s, and Messiah is God’s.

(Hebrews 5:11–14)

Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,

for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

Christ Our Foundation

(Isaiah 28:14–22; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:1–8)

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.

If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.

If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.

God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom

(Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”(a)

And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”(b)

Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,

and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Footnotes

(a)3:19 ℘ Job 5:13

(b)3:20 ℘ Psalms 94:11