to understand spiritual truth and that person cannot be understood by the non-spiritual. As scripture says, “Who can know how the Lord thinks? Who is able to advise him?” We who know God are the ones who can think as Christ does.
Chapter 3
And so, my friends, when I was with you I wasn’t able to talk to you as I would to mature believers. I had to talk as though you still belonged to this present world. You were still infants in the Christian faith so I had to feed you milk rather than solid food. You hadn’t developed the appetite; in fact, you still haven’t. You continue doing whatever your sinful nature suggests. Since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, aren’t you behaving like people of the world? When one of you boasts, “I’m a follower of Paul!” and another, “Not I! Apollos is my man!” aren’t you just like everyone else?
After all: Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are simply servants through whom you came to believe, each of us having done the work assigned to us by the Lord. I planted and Apollos watered, but it was God who brought about growth. It makes little difference who plants or who waters since without God there can be no growth. The planter and the waterer work toward a common goal and each will be paid for the work they do. Apollos and I work together under God’s supervision. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Using the gift given to me by God, I laid the foundation like a skilled master builder, but now others are completing the structure. Each one should be careful how they go about it. Jesus Christ is the only foundation for the building; no one can lay another. On this foundation different craftsmen may use different materials in their work, such as gold, silver, gems, hay, or even straw. How well each has done will be disclosed on the coming day of fiery judgment. The fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what that person has built on the foundation survives, the builder will be paid, but if it goes up in flames, the builder will lose everything. The builder will be saved, but even then it will be like escaping from a burning building
You realize, do you not, that you are the temple of God and that God’s Spirit lives in you? God will destroy anyone who tries to destroy his temple. The temple of God is sacred and you are that temple.
Be careful lest you deceive yourselves. Those among you who think they are wise in terms of this world’s wisdom, should become fools in order to be really wise. Scripture says, “God traps the wise using their own craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows the plans of the wise, he knows how futile they are.” So stop boasting about the leader you happen to follow. Actually, everything belongs to you—Paul, Apollos, Peter, this world, life, death, the present, the future. Everything is yours because you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
Chapter 4
You should think of Apollos and me as servants of Christ, appointed by God to explain what he has kept secret until now. It’s critical that a person in charge be trustworthy. It is of no consequence to me how you or any other human court might judge me. I don’t even judge myself. My conscience is clear but that doesn’t make me innocent. The Lord is my judge and he will weigh the evidence and deliver the verdict. So stop passing judgment before the appointed time, that is, before the Lord returns. He will bring to light all that is hidden in darkness, even the motives of the heart; that’s when each will receive from God the praise they deserve.
Dear friends, I have applied all this to myself and to Apollos so that you can learn from our example how to “play by the rules.” If you do, none of you will be puffed up in favor of one leader against another. You have no basis for that kind of arrogance because everything you have is a gift from God. How can you boast as if it were your own?
You think that you already have it all! You’re rich! You’ve begun your kingly reign and you’ve done it on your own! Well, I wish you really were kings so we could share the prestige! However, it appears that God has placed us in the enemy’s victory parade, like captive warriors headed for the gallows. What a spectacle for the entire universe, angels as well as the human race! We are considered fools because of our allegiance to Christ, but you are the wise men of the Christian community. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored but we are despised. Even now we are hungry and thirsty. We dress in rags. We are cruelly beaten and have no place to call home. We work with our own hands to stay alive. Yet when people revile us we bless them; when they abuse us we put up with it; when they lie about us we correct their misconception with gentleness. In spite of this, we are treated like the scum of the world, as if we were nothing but garbage.
I’m not writing this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children. Even though you may have had numerous guardians in your Christian life, you have but one father in Christ and I became that father by bringing you the Good News. So I urge you to take me as your role model. That’s why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord and will remind you how I live out my Christian faith, and how I teach these principles in every church wherever I go.
Some of you have become quite arrogant, thinking I might not come back again. I have news for you; I am coming back and it won’t be long, the Lord willing. Then I’ll find out in a hurry if those arrogant people are merely good talkers or if they actually have the power they claim. For the kingdom of God consists not in talk but in power. What do you prefer? Shall I come with a rod to punish you or with love and a gentle spirit?
Chapter 5
I’m told, though it’s hard to believe, that there are some among you who take part in a form of sexual immorality that not even the pagans tolerate. A man is living in sin with the wife of his own father! And you boast about it. Shouldn’t this have given you great sorrow? And why hasn’t the guilty man been removed from your fellowship? Even though I’m not there in person, I am in spirit. You need to know that I’ve already passed judgment on this man in the name of our Lord Jesus, just as though I were there in person. So when you’ve assembled and I’m there in the spirit and power of our Lord Jesus, you are to send this man back into Satan’s world and let the destructive forces of sin do their work. That way the man’s spirit will be saved on the day the Lord returns.
To tolerate a sin like this would be the ruin of the church. You know the saying, “Just a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.” So remove the old yeast from your assembly and you will be a fresh batch of unleavened dough; that’s what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Lets celebrate that festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, not with bread leavened by sin and wickedness.
In a previous letter I told you not to associate with people who are sexually immoral. I wasn’t referring to unbelievers who have chosen that lifestyle, or to others who are greedy or dishonest or worship idols. You’d have to leave the world to get away from people like that! What I meant, and I repeat myself, is that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer but is sexually immoral, greedy, worships false gods, lies about others, drinks way too much, or cheats. Don’t even share a meal with a person like that.
It’s not my business to pass judgment on unbelievers, God will take care of that. But it is our responsibility to judge members of our own fellowship. Doesn’t scripture say, “Expel the evil-doer from your midst”?
Chapter 6
When one of you has a legal dispute against another believer, how dare you take it to a secular court for settlement! Things like that should be decided within the fellowship. Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since your going to judge the world, aren’t you qualified to decide trivial differences that arise in your group? Someday we will judge angels so certainly we are able to resolve disputes down here below. When issues like this arise, why do you take them to secular judges who play no role in the church? You people ought to be ashamed! Are you telling me that there is no one in your assembly wise enough to settle a dispute
