Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

2 As for me, brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with superior speech or wisdom in order to proclaim to you the testimony^[a] of God. ² For I had no intention of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³ I came to you^[b] in weakness, in fear, and with much trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not marked by persuasive words of human^[c] wisdom, but by a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

In-Depth Wisdom Is for Spiritual People

⁶ Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, but it is not a wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are being reduced to nothing. ⁷ Instead we speak God’s wisdom that has been hidden in mystery—before the ages, God foreordained that this wisdom would result in our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this world knew it. (If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.) ⁹ But as it is written:

¹⁰ But God revealed it to us through his^[e] Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ Indeed, who among men knows a man’s thoughts except the man’s spirit within him? So also, no one else knows God’s thoughts except God’s Spirit.

¹² What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God. ¹³ We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words.^{[f] 14} However, an unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated. ¹⁵ But the spiritual person evaluates all things, and he himself is evaluated by no one. ¹⁶ Indeed, “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who will instruct him?”^[g] But we have the mind of Christ.

3 Brothers, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people who are led by the flesh, as infants in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you were not yet ready. Why, even now you are still not ready, ³ because you are still people who are following the flesh. Indeed, insofar as jealousy, strife, and factions^[h] have a place among you, are you not people who are following the flesh? Are you not behaving in a merely human way? ⁴ When one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

Analogies Illustrating Ministry and the Church

⁵ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are ministers through whom you believed, and each served as the Lord gave him his role. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. ⁷ So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but it is God who causes the growth. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters are united, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For God is the one whom we serve as coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ In keeping with the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. But let each person be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ In fact, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² But if anyone is building on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ each person’s work will become evident. The Day will make it plain, because it is going to be revealed in fire, and the fire will test each person’s work to show what sort of work it is. ¹⁴ If what someone has built remains, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but it will be like an escape through fire.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in^[i] you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are.

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this world, let him become a fool so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ To be sure, the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”^{[j] 20} and again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise; he knows that it is worthless.”^{[k] 21} Therefore let no one boast about men. For all things belong to you— ²² whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All things belong to you, ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.