1 Corinthians 3
God’s Fellow Workers
(Hebrews 5:11–14)
¹ Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,
³ for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?
⁴ For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
⁵ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
⁶ I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
⁸ He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose,1 and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
⁹ For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Christ Our Foundation
(Isaiah 28:14–22; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:1–8)
¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds.
¹¹ For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
¹³ his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.
¹⁴ If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
¹⁵ If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.
God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom
(Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20)
¹⁶ Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in 2 you?
¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”3
²⁰ And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”4
²¹ Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas 5 or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.