1 Corinthians 4:8-21

English Standard Version

⁸ Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! ⁹ For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, ^(A)like men sentenced to death, because we ^(B)have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. ^10 (C)We are fools for Christ's sake, but ^(D)you are wise in Christ. ^(E)We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. ¹¹ To the present hour ^(F)we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and ^(G)buffeted and ^(H)homeless, ¹² and we ^(I)labor, working with our own hands. ^(J)When reviled, we bless; ^(K)when persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when slandered, we entreat. ^(L)We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, ^(M)the refuse of all things.

¹⁴ I do not write these things ^(N)to make you ashamed, but to admonish you ^(O)as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For ^(P)though you have countless^[a] guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For ^(Q)I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. ¹⁶ I urge you, then, ^(R)be imitators of me. ¹⁷ That is why ^(S)I sent^[b] you Timothy, ^(T)my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,^{[c] (U)}as I teach them everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Some are ^(V)arrogant, ^(W)as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But ^(X)I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. ²⁰ For ^(Y)the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. ²¹ What do you wish? ^(Z)Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?