And I myself when I came to you, brothers, did not come to you with any superiority of speech or wisdom when I proclaimed to you the mystery of God; for I did not judge that, among you, I knew anything except only Jesus Christ, that is, Jesus Christ crucified. And I came to you in weakness and much fear and trembling, and my message and my preaching did not consist in persuasive words of wisdom but in the revelation of spirit and power, so that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. Still, what we say is wisdom, to the initiates, but not the wisdom of this age or of the leaders of this age, who are doomed; but what we say is the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory; which not one of the leaders of this age understood, since if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written: All that God made ready for those who love him; which the eye did not see and the ear did not hear, nor did it enter into the heart of man.
For God made his revelation to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God. Who among men knows what is in a man except the spirit of man which is in him? So also no one knows what is in God except the Spirit of God. And we did not receive the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is from God, so that we may know what grace we were given by God; which we also now speak of, not in words which are the teaching of human wisdom, but in words which are the teaching of the Spirit, combining the spiritual with the spiritual. The sensual man does not accept what belongs to the Spirit of God, since it is folly to him, and he cannot understand, because these things are judged spiritually; but the spiritual man judges all things, while he himself is judged by no man. For who knows the mind of the Lord, which will instruct him? But we do have the mind of Christ.
11 And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons, but as fleshly ones, little children in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough. Nor are you even now, since you are still of the flesh. For when there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and going the way of mankind? When one of you says: I am for Paul, and another: I am for Apollos, are you not being human? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants, through whom you got belief, and each as the Lord gave it. I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. So he who plants is nothing, nor he who waters; only God who makes it grow. He who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own wages for his own labor. We are the fellow workers of God; you are God's field, God's architecture.
By the grace of God given to me I laid the foundation like a skilled architect, but another builds upon it. Let every man look to it how he builds; for no one can lay down any foundation beside the one that has been laid down, which is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds upon the foundation in gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, the work of each will become manifest, for the Day will make it plain; because revelation comes by fire, and the fire itself will prove the nature of each man's work. If the work a man has built endures, he will have his reward; if anyone's work bums up, he will be penalized, but he himself will be saved; but as if through fire.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. This you are.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks he is wise among you in this age, let him become a fool, so that he may become wise, for the wisdom of this world is folly with God. Since it is written: He who catches the wise in their shiftiness; and again: The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise; that they are vain. So let no one take pride among men; for all things are yours, whether it be Paul or Apollos or Peter or the world or life or death or present or future; all are yours, but you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
So let a man think of us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. But it is required of any steward that he be found reliable. It means very little to me to be judged by you or by any human day of judgment; nor again do I judge myself, for I am not conscious of any guilt; but I am not justified by that, but he who judges me is the Lord. Do not, therefore, make any judgment before it is time, not until the Lord comes; and he will illuminate what is hidden in darkness and bring to light the counsels of men's hearts; and that will be the time for each man's praise from God.
I have put this in terms of Apollos and myself for your sake, brothers, so that in us you may understand the saying: Nothing beyond what is written; so that you may not become too emotional each in favor of one against another. For who marks you out for distinction? What do you have which you were not given? And if you did receive something, why do you take pride as if you had been given nothing? Have you had your fill yet? Have you grown rich yet? Have you been made kings, without us? I wish you had been made kings, so that we could be kings along with you.
For I believe God displayed us, the apostles, at the end of the show like men condemned to death; because we have turned into a spectacle for the world, for angels and men alike. We are fools for Christ but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, you are strong. You are respected, we are despised. For until this very day we have been hungry and thirsty and naked, and beaten and driven from place to place, and worn ourselves out working with our own hands. We are reviled and give blessings; we are persecuted and put up with it; we are abused and are conciliatory. We have become the outcasts of the world, the offscouring of everything; to this very day.
I write you this, not to make you ashamed, but as if I were admonishing my own beloved children; for even if you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers; but I am your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So I implore you: copy me. For this reason I have sent you Timothy, who is my child, beloved and faithful in the Lord, and he will recall to you my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.
Some of you became inflated with pride as if I were not coming to you; but if the Lord is willing, I shall come to you soon, and le^n of the proud ones not what they say but what they can do, since the Kingdom of God is not in speech but in power to act. Which do you want? Shall I come to you with a stick, or in love and the spirit of gentleness?
In very truth, a case of immorality is reported in your community, and such immorality as is not found even among the heathens: a man has taken his father's wife. And are you pleased with yourselves, rather than so grieved that the man who did this thing must be removed from your presence? For I, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged the man who did this as if I were really there; in the name of our Lord Jesus; with yourselves and my spirit gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus; to hand over a man like this to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his soul may be saved on the Day of the Lord. Your pride is not good. Do you not know that a little leavening raises the whole mass of dough? Clean out the old leavening so that you may be a new baking, unleavened as you are. For even Christ, our paschal lamb, was sacrificed; so let us keep the festival, not in the old leavening, nor in the leavening of baseness and corruption, but in the unleavened bread of purity and truth.
I wrote in my letter to you that you should have nothing to do with lechers; not, that is, meaning the lechers of this world in general, nor the covetous or the rapacious or the idolatrous, since then you would have had to take leave of the world; but in fact I wrote to you that you should have nothing to do with one who is named a brother if he is a lecher, or covetous or idolatrous or abusive or drunken or rapacious; not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those who are outside our number? Do you not judge those who are inside our number, while God judges those who are outside? Drive the evil one out from among you.