1 Corinthians 3

On Divisions in the Corinthian Church

1But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? 4For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apol'los," are you not merely men?

5What then is Apol'los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apol'los watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers;a you are God's field, God's building.

10According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. 11For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble-13each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.

18Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." 21So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, 22whether Paul or Apol'los or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; 23and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.