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The Blue Letter Bible

1 Corinthians 3 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Paul and Apollos, Servants of Christ
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:1 - Dear brothers and sisters,[fn] when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people.[fn] I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life.[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:2 - I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:3 - for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:4 - When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:5 - After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:6 - I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:7 - It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:8 - The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:9 - For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:10 - Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:11 - For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:12 - Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:13 - But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:14 - If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:15 - But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:16 - Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in[fn] you?
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:17 - God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:18 - Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:19 - For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise
in the snare of their own cleverness.”[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:20 - And again,
“The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise;
he knows they are worthless.”[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:21 - So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you—
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:22 - whether Paul or Apollos or Peter,[fn] or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you,
Unchecked Copy Box1Co 3:23 - and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
NLT Footnotes
Greek Brothers.
Or to people who have the Spirit.
Greek in Christ.
Or among.
Job 5:13.
Ps 94:11.
Greek Cephas.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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1 Corinthians Chapter 3 — Additional Translations: