Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

2 My brothers and sisters, I did not pose as an expert with all the answers. I did not pretend to explain the mystery of God with eloquent speech and human wisdom. ² I claimed to know nothing with certainty other than the reality that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Liberating King, who was crucified on our behalf. ³ I was moved to utter despair during my time with you. I would find myself trembling in dread and fear. ⁴ The sermons I preached were not delivered with the kind of persuasive elegance some have come to expect, but they were effective because I relied on God’s Spirit to demonstrate God’s power. ⁵ If this were not so, your faith would be based on human wisdom and not the power of God.

⁶ However, in the presence of mature believers, we do impart true wisdom—not the phony wisdom typical of this rebellious age or of the hostile powers who rule this age. Despite what you may think, these ruling spirits are losing their grip on this world. ⁷ But we do impart God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom. Before the ages began, God graciously decided to use His wisdom for our glory. ⁸ This wisdom has not been grasped by the ruling powers of this age; if they had understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. ⁹ But as the Scriptures say,

¹⁰ God has shown us these profound and startling realities through His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep mysteries of God. ¹¹ Who can see into a man’s heart and know his thoughts? Only the spirit that dwells within the man. In the same way, the thoughts of God are known only by His Spirit. ¹² You must know that we have not received the spirit of this rebellious and broken world but the Spirit that comes from God, so that we may experience and comprehend the gifts that come from God. ¹³ We do not speak of these gifts of God in words shaped by human wisdom; we speak in words crafted by the Spirit because our collective judgment on spiritual matters is accessible to those who have the Spirit. ¹⁴ But a person who denies spiritual realities will not accept the things that come through the Spirit of God; they all sound like foolishness to him. He is incapable of grasping them because they are disseminated, discerned, and valued by the Spirit. ¹⁵ A person who walks by the Spirit examines everything, sizing it up and seeking out truth. But no one is able to examine or size up that kind of spiritual person, ¹⁶ for the Scripture asks, “Does anyone know the mind of the Lord well enough to become His advisor?”^[b] But we do possess the mind of the Anointed One.

3 My brothers and sisters, I cannot address you as people who walk by the Spirit; I have to speak to you as people who tend to think in merely human terms, as spiritual infants in the Anointed One. ² I nursed you with milk, as a mother would feed her baby, because you were not, and still are not, developed enough to digest complex spiritual food. ³ And here’s why: you are still living in the flesh, not in the Spirit. How do I know? Are you fighting with one another? Are you comparing yourselves to others and becoming consumed with jealousy? Then it sounds like you are living in the flesh, no different from the rest who live by the standards of this rebellious and broken world. ⁴ If one of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” and the other says, “I am with Apollos,” aren’t you like everybody else? ⁵ So who is Apollos really? Or Paul for that matter? We are only servants, agents who led you to faith, and the Lord commissioned each of us to do a particular job.

⁶ My job was to plant the seed, and Apollos was called to water it. Any growth comes from God, ⁷ so the ones who water and plant have nothing to brag about. God, who causes the growth, is the only One who matters. ⁸ The one who plants is no greater than the one who waters; both will be rewarded based on their work. ⁹ We are gardeners and field workers laboring with God. You are the vineyard, the garden, the house where God dwells. ¹⁰ Like a skilled architect and master builder, I laid a foundation based upon God’s grace given to me. Now others will come along to build on the foundation. Each serves in a different way and is to build upon it with great care. ¹¹ There is, in fact, only one foundation, and no one can lay any foundation other than Jesus the Anointed. ¹² As others build on the foundation (whether with gold, silver, gemstones, wood, hay, or straw), ¹³ the quality of each person’s work will be revealed in time as it is tested by fire. ¹⁴ If a man’s work stands the test of fire, he will be rewarded. ¹⁵ If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire. ¹⁶ Don’t you understand that together you form a temple to the living God and His Spirit lives among you? ¹⁷ If someone comes along to corrupt, vandalize, and destroy the temple of God, you can be sure that God will see to it that he meets destruction because the temple of God is sacred. You, together, are His temple.

¹⁸ Don’t let anyone deceive himself. If any one of you thinks he is wise in matters pertaining to this world, he is going to be really disappointed. In fact, one must be deemed a fool by worldly standards in order to become truly wise ¹⁹ because the wisdom of this rebellious and broken world looks like foolishness when put next to God. So it stands in Scripture, “He catches the wise in their deceitful plotting.”^{[c] 20} And the Scriptures add, “The Lord knows the highest thoughts of the wise, and they are worthless.”^{[d] 21} So there is no reason for anyone to boast in human leaders. You already have it all. ²² So whether it is Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future—it all belongs to you. ²³ You belong to the Anointed One, and the Anointed One belongs to God.