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.

⁴ In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.

¹⁰ God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

6 As God’s partners,^[a] we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it.

⁶ He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again.

⁷ We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.^[a] This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

³ Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

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.

⁵ You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.