1 Corinthians 3

International Standard Version

Spiritual Immaturity

3 Brothers, I couldn’t talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah.^{[a] 2} I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you weren’t ready for it. And you’re still not ready! ³ That’s because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren’t you? ⁴ For when one person says, “I follow Paul,” and another person says, “I follow Apollos,” you’re following^[b] your own human nature, aren’t you?

⁵ Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They’re merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, but God, who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own action. ⁹ For we are God’s co-workers. You are God’s farmland and God’s building.

The Messiah is Our Foundation

¹⁰ As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah.^{[c] 12} Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment^[d] will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s action. ¹⁴ If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.^{[e] 15} If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.

¹⁶ You know that you are God’s sanctuary and that God’s Spirit lives in you, don’t you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God’s sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!

True Wisdom

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in the ways of^[f] this world, he must become a fool to become really wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is nonsense in God’s sight. For it is written,

²⁰ and again,

²¹ So let no one boast about human beings, since everything belongs to you, ²² whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas,^[j] the world, life, death, the present, or the future—everything belongs to you, ²³ but you belong to the Messiah,^[k] and the Messiah^[l] belongs to God.