1So let a person regard us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2Now here, beyond this, it is required of stewards that a person be found faithful.
3But to me it is a very small matter that I should be examined by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even examine myself.
4For I am aware of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; the one who examines me is the Lord.
5So then, do not judge anything before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and disclose the intentions of hearts; and then the praise for each will come from God.
6Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, so that through us you may learn the lesson, “Not beyond what is written,” so that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against the other.
7For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if indeed you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
8Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have begun to reign! And I wish indeed that you did reign, so that we too might reign with you.
9For I think that God has exhibited us, the apostles, as last of all, like men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to human beings.
10We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored.
11Up to the present hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless,
12and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
13when slandered, we entreat. We have become like the refuse of the world, the scum of all things, up to now.
14I am not writing these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.
16I urge you, then, become imitators of me.
17For this very reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
18Now some have become puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.
19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these puffed-up people but their power.
20For the kingdom of God is not in talk but in power.
21What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
Open in the interactive reader →