1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife(a) among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?(b)
4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not unspiritual people?(c)(d)
The Role of Gods Servants
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s coworkers.(e) You are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.
12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day(f) will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.
14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.(g)
16 Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.
The Folly of Human Wisdom
18 No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness;(h)
20 and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless.(i)
21 So no one should boast in human leaders, for everything is yours—
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come—everything is yours,
23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
This passage is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation.
This HCSB was supposed to be based on the Koine Greek manuscripts AKA the Textus Receptus (Received Text) that the King James Bible is based on but after the person who founded the project died, the translators decided to use the Classical Greek texts, the Nestle-Aland and UBS.
With that being said, this particular passage is translated well and has no conflicts with either set of texts. I personally prefer the Koine Greek because it was the common language and I believe it's the original text, even though the Classical Greek texts have older copies preserved by the Vatican.
God has provided me comfort in the book of Jeremiah, may He grant you peace as well.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV
“Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.”
Jeremiah 17:17 NKJV
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV
Thank you - right now the fruit of my doings would not bode well in front of God. But I am working to rectify that. Bless you and may you too find a way to make up for your ways, fren.
God loves you fren and so do I. This is the time, shall we be stubborn figs not even good for consumption, or shall we turn fully to God and allow His grace and mercy to redeem us in ways we can never accomplish through our own merits. I pray you will reconcile to God and be renewed as He is doing with me as we speak. Praise His mercy and patience for without it I would be lost, a rotten fig.
“The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ””
Jeremiah 24:1-10 NKJV
“They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.”
Jeremiah 25:5-7 NKJV
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT
Only God and the sacrifice He lovingly provided can cover our sins.
“This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.”
1 Timothy 1:15 NLT
May you see God and allow Him to shape you in His image. Our God is a fire who can burn off our mortal sinful slag.
1 Corinthians 3
The Problem of Immaturity
1 Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.
2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife(a) among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers?(b)
4 For whenever someone says, “I’m with Paul,” and another, “I’m with Apollos,” are you not unspiritual people?(c)(d)
The Role of Gods Servants
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
8 Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s coworkers.(e) You are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.
12 If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13 each one’s work will become obvious, for the day(f) will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.
14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.(g)
16 Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
17 If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.
The Folly of Human Wisdom
18 No one should deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness;(h)
20 and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless.(i)
21 So no one should boast in human leaders, for everything is yours—
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come—everything is yours,
23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/1-Corinthians/3/type/hcsb
This passage is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation.
This HCSB was supposed to be based on the Koine Greek manuscripts AKA the Textus Receptus (Received Text) that the King James Bible is based on but after the person who founded the project died, the translators decided to use the Classical Greek texts, the Nestle-Aland and UBS.
With that being said, this particular passage is translated well and has no conflicts with either set of texts. I personally prefer the Koine Greek because it was the common language and I believe it's the original text, even though the Classical Greek texts have older copies preserved by the Vatican.
Thank you, this passage is indeed a very meaningful parable about our own personal spiritual work.
God has provided me comfort in the book of Jeremiah, may He grant you peace as well.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV
“Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.” Jeremiah 17:17 NKJV
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV
Thank you - right now the fruit of my doings would not bode well in front of God. But I am working to rectify that. Bless you and may you too find a way to make up for your ways, fren.
God loves you fren and so do I. This is the time, shall we be stubborn figs not even good for consumption, or shall we turn fully to God and allow His grace and mercy to redeem us in ways we can never accomplish through our own merits. I pray you will reconcile to God and be renewed as He is doing with me as we speak. Praise His mercy and patience for without it I would be lost, a rotten fig.
“The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”” Jeremiah 24:1-10 NKJV
“They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.” Jeremiah 25:5-7 NKJV
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT
“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT
Only God and the sacrifice He lovingly provided can cover our sins. “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.” 1 Timothy 1:15 NLT
May you see God and allow Him to shape you in His image. Our God is a fire who can burn off our mortal sinful slag.
For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29