John the Baptist Exalts Christ

²² After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and ^(A)was baptizing. ²³ John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴ (for ^(B)John had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵ Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over ^(C)purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, ^(D)“Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, ^(E)to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and ^(F)all are going to him.” ²⁷ John answered, ^(G)“A person cannot receive even one thing ^(H)unless it is given him ^(I)from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ^(J)‘I am not the Christ, but ^(K)I have been sent before him.’

Who Is the Greatest?

³³ And ^(A)they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house ^(B)he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way ^(C)they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵ And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ^(D)“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and ^(E)taking him in his arms, he said to them, ^37 (F)“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and ^(G)whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

³ for you are still of the flesh. For while there is ^(A)jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? ⁴ For ^(B)when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” ^(C)are you not being merely human?

⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? ^(D)Servants through whom you believed, ^(E)as the Lord assigned to each. ^6 (F)I planted, ^(G)Apollos watered, ^(H)but God gave the growth. ⁷ So ^(I)neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

^15 (A)Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. ¹⁶ The latter do it out of love, ^(B)knowing that I am put here for ^(C)the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former proclaim Christ ^(D)out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

To Live Is Christ

Yes, and I will rejoice,