Still infants, still quarreling
1And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people of flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, living like anyone else? 4When one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I to Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5What is Apollos, then? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, each doing what the Lord assigned him. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. 7So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but only God, who makes it grow. 8The one who plants and the one who waters are one, and each will be paid according to his own labor. 9We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Building on the one foundation
10By the grace God gave me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Let each one watch how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13the work of each will come to light. The day will show it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire itself will test what sort of work each has done. 14If what someone has built survives, he will be paid. 15If it burns down, he will suffer the loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one who comes through fire. 16Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17If anyone ruins God’s temple, God will ruin him; for God’s temple is holy, and that temple is you.
Nothing to boast about
18Let no one fool himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is folly in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their own cunning.” 20And again: “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, and knows how empty they are.” 21So let no one boast about human beings. Everything is yours: 22Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future — everything is yours, 23and you are the Christ’s, and the Christ is God’s.
