1 Corinthians 3–16

Divisiveness and Immaturity

3And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to fleshly people, as to infants in Christ. ²I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to eat it. But now you are still not able, ³for you are still fleshly. For where there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and do you not live like unregenerate people?^{a 4}For whenever anyone says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human?

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

¹⁰According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must direct his attention to how he is building upon it. ¹¹For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²Now if anyone builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, ¹³the work of each one will become evident. For the day will reveal it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the work of each one, of what sort it is. ¹⁴If anyone’s work that he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.

¹⁶Do you not know that you are God’s temple and the Spirit of God dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy this one. For God’s temple is holy, which you are.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks himself to be wise among you in this age, let him become a fool, in order that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, for it is written, “The one who catches the wise in their craftiness,”^{b 20}and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”^{c 21}So then, let no one boast in people. For all things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things are yours, ²³and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Christ’s Servant, God’s Steward

4Thus let a person consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. ²In this case, moreover, it is sought in stewards that one be found faithful. ³But to me it is a very little matter that I be judged by you or by a human court,^a but I do not even judge myself. ⁴For I am conscious of nothing against myself, but not by this am I vindicated. But the one who judges me is the Lord. ⁵Therefore do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord should come, who will both enlighten the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the counsels of hearts, and then praise will come to each one from God.

The Apostles’ Humility

⁶Now I have applied these things, brothers, to myself and Apollos for your sake, in order that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, lest someone be inflated with pride on behalf of one person against the other. ⁷For who concedes you superiority? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if indeed you received it, why do you boast as if you^* did not receive it? ⁸Already you are satiated! Already you are rich! Apart from us you reign as kings! And would that indeed you reigned as kings, in order that we also might reign as kings with you! ⁹For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to people. ¹⁰We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! ¹¹Until the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless, ¹²and we toil, working with our own hands. When we are^* reviled, we bless; when we are^* persecuted, we endure; ¹³when we are^* slandered, we encourage. We have become like the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things, until now.

Paul’s Concern for the Corinthian Believers

¹⁴I am not writing these things to shame you, but admonishing you as my dear children. ¹⁵For if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel. ¹⁶Therefore I exhort you, become imitators of me. ¹⁷Because of this, I have sent to you Timothy, who is my dear and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸But some have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. ¹⁹But I am coming to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk of the ones who have become arrogant, but the power. ²⁰For the kingdom of God is not with talk, but with power. ²¹What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

Immoral Behavior and Church Discipline

5It is reported everywhere that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which does not even exist among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of his father. ²And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? ³For although I^* am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as if I^* were present. ⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus, when^* you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵I have decided^* to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. ⁸So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰By no means did I mean the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world. ¹¹But now I have written to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is a sexually immoral person or a greedy person or an idolater or an abusive person or a drunkard or a swindler—with such a person not even to eat. ¹²For what is it to me to judge those outside? Should you not judge those inside? ¹³But those outside God will judge. Remove the evil person from among yourselves^a.

Lawsuits between Believers

6Does anyone among you, if he^* has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ²Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? ³Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters? ⁴Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat^a these despised people in the church? ⁵I say this to your shame. So is there not anyone wise among you who will be able to render a decision between his brothers? ⁶But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers! ⁷Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸But you wrong and defraud, and do this to brothers!

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus^b and by the Spirit of our God.

Avoid Sexual Immorality

¹²All things are permitted for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish both of them^c. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”^{d 17}But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.

Concerning Christian Marriage

7Now concerning the things about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch^a a woman.” ²But because of sexual immorality, let each man have^b his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. ³The husband must…