Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Christ’s Servant, God’s Steward

4 Thus let a person consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. ² In this case, moreover, it is sought in stewards that one be found faithful. ³ But to me it is a very little matter that I be judged by you or by a human court,^[a] but I do not even judge myself. ⁴ For I am conscious of nothing against myself, but not by this am I vindicated. But the one who judges me is the Lord. ⁵ Therefore do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord should come, who will both enlighten the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the counsels of hearts, and then praise will come to each one from God.

The Apostles’ Humility

⁶ Now I have applied these things, brothers, to myself and Apollos for your sake, in order that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, lest someone be inflated with pride on behalf of one person against the other. ⁷ For who concedes you superiority? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if indeed you received it, why do you boast as if you^[b] did not receive it? ⁸ Already you are satiated! Already you are rich! Apart from us you reign as kings! And would that indeed you reigned as kings, in order that we also might reign as kings with you! ⁹ For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to people. ¹⁰ We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are prudent in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ Until the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless, ¹² and we toil, working with our own hands. When we are^[c] reviled, we bless; when we are^[d] persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when we are^[e] slandered, we encourage. We have become like the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things, until now.

Paul’s Concern for the Corinthian Believers

¹⁴ I am not writing these things to shame you, but admonishing you as my dear children. ¹⁵ For if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel. ¹⁶ Therefore I exhort you, become imitators of me. ¹⁷ Because of this, I have sent to you Timothy, who is my dear and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ But some have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I am coming to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk of the ones who have become arrogant, but the power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not with talk, but with power. ²¹ What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

Immoral Behavior and Church Discipline

5 It is reported everywhere that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which does not even exist among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of his father. ² And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? ³ For although I^[f] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as if I^[g] were present. ⁴ In the name of our Lord Jesus, when^[h] you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ I have decided^[i] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. ⁸ So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ By no means did I mean the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world. ¹¹ But now I have written to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is a sexually immoral person or a greedy person or an idolater or an abusive person or a drunkard or a swindler—with such a person not even to eat. ¹² For what is it to me to judge those outside? Should you not judge those inside? ¹³ But those outside God will judge. Remove the evil person from among yourselves^[j].

Lawsuits between Believers

6 Does anyone among you, if he^[k] has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters? ⁴ Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat^[l] these despised people in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. So is there not anyone wise among you who will be able to render a decision between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers! ⁷ Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you wrong and defraud, and do this to brothers!

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus^[m] and by the Spirit of our God.

Avoid Sexual Immorality

¹² All things are permitted for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³ Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish both of them^[n]. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”^{[o] 17} But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.