Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.”(A) Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.(B) For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?(C) And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!(D) You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

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Dear brothers and sisters,[a] I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures,[b] you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:6a Greek Brothers.
  2. 4:6b Or If you learn not to go beyond “what is written.”