Spiritual Immaturity

1Brothers, I couldn’t talk to you as spiritual people but as worldly people, as mere infants in the Messiah.a 2I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you weren’t ready for it. And you’re still not ready! 3That’s because you are still worldly. As long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, you are worldly and living by human standards, aren’t you? 4For when one person says, “I follow Paul,” and another person says, “I follow to Apollos,” you’re followingb your own human nature, aren’t you?

5Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They’re merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, but God, who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own action. 9For we are God’s co-workers. You are God’s farmland and God’s building.

The Messiah is Our Foundation

10As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. 11After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah.c 12Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgmentd will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s action. 14If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.e 15If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.

16You know that you are God’s sanctuary and that God’s Spirit lives in you, don’t you? 17If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God’s sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!

True Wisdom

18Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in the ways off this world, he must become a fool to become really wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is nonsense in God’s sight. For it is written,

“He catches the wise with their own trickery,”g

20and again,

“The Lordh knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless.”i

21So let no one boast about human beings, since everything belongs to you, 22whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas,j the world, life, death, the present, or the future—everything belongs to you, 23but you belong to the Messiah,k and the Messiahl belongs to God.