Why are you fighting with each other?
1Friends, I could not talk to you like I talk to spiritual people. I had to talk to you like I talk to worldly people, like little children who have heard of Christ for the first time. 2I gave you milk like they give to babies. I did not give you food for adults, because you could not eat it and you still can not eat it. 3You are still worldly people because you are jealous of each other and you argue with each other. It shows that you are worldly people. You do as the people of this world do. 4Some of you say: ‘I belong to Paul’ and another says: ‘I belong to Apollos.’
Worldly people talk like that. 5Apollos and I, Paul, are not important. We are just people who have helped you start believing. We only did the work that the Lord gave us to do. 6I have planted the seeds of the message of God and Apollos has watered the plants, but it was God who made the plants grow. 7The person who plants and the person watering the plants are not important. The Person who makes everything grow is important and that is God. 8The person who plants is doing important work for God, the same as the person watering the plants is doing. God will reward each person for the work that he has done. 9We all work together for God, and you are like a field where God is at work.
The believers are the building, the temple of God
You are a building of God. 10God was gracious to me. He said I could build the foundation and I did that like a good builder, and another builder has built on that foundation. But each builder must be careful how he builds. 11No one can build another foundation, because we have already built one, and this foundation is Jesus Christ. 12A builder can build on this foundation with gold, silver, beautiful stones, wood, grass or straw. 13When the Lord comes, everyone will see how good each builder's work is, because on that day there will be a fire and God will test each builder's work in the fire to see if he has built well. 14If someone has built on the foundation and the fire does not destroy his work, then God will reward that person. 15But if the fire destroys his work, then that person will lose everything. But God will save that person like when you save someone who has burnt in a fire. 16You must remember that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you. 17If anyone does something wrong that makes the temple of God impure, then God will punish that person, because the temple of God belongs to God. And you are that temple. 18Do not deceive yourselves. Some people think they are wise in this world, but they will really be wise only when the world sees them as foolish people. 19Because God says that the clever things of this world are foolish. In the Old_Testament it is written:
‘God catches the wise people
with their own plans.’
20It is also written:
‘The Lord knows the plans
of the clever people of this world.
He knows they are worthless.’
21That is why you must not boast that you belong to an important_leader of the congregation, because all these leaders, yes, all things, belong to you. 22Paul, Apollos, Cephas and the world, life and death and the important things of this life and the eternal_life that will come, everything belongs to you. 23And you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
