1 Corinthians 4:8-17

New American Standard Bible 1995

⁸ You are ^(A)already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. ⁹ For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men ^(B)condemned to death; because we ^(C)have become a spectacle to the world, ^[a]both to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are ^(D)fools for Christ’s sake, but ^(E)you are prudent in Christ; ^(F)we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. ¹¹ To this present hour we are both ^(G)hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; ¹² and we toil, ^(H)working with our own hands; when we are ^(I)reviled, we bless; when we are ^(J)persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when we are slandered, we try to ^[b]conciliate; we have ^(K)become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

¹⁴ I do not write these things to ^(L)shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved ^(M)children. ¹⁵ For if you were to have countless ^(N)tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in ^(O)Christ Jesus I ^(P)became your father through the ^(Q)gospel. ¹⁶ Therefore I exhort you, be ^(R)imitators of me. ¹⁷ For this reason I ^(S)have sent to you ^(T)Timothy, who is my ^(U)beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, ^(V)just as I teach everywhere in every church.