Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Learning to Imitate Messiah’s Emissary

4 So let each one think of us in this way—as Messiah’s helpers and stewards of the mysteries of God. ² In this case, moreover, what is required of stewards is to be found trustworthy. ³ But to me it matters very little to be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. ⁴ For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵ Therefore do not judge anything before the time—wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and also make clear the motives of the hearts. Then the praise for each one will come from God.

⁶ Now I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so you might learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then none of you will be puffed up in favor of one against the other. ⁷ For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

⁸ Already you are full! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish you were kings, so we also might be kings with you! ⁹ For it seems to me that God has put us, the emissaries, on display last of all—like men sentenced to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. ¹⁰ We are fools for Messiah’s sake, but you are wise in Messiah! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ To this very hour we are both hungry and thirsty, dressed in rags and mistreated and homeless. ¹² We toil, working with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. ¹³ When we are slandered, we speak kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the dregs of all things—even to this moment.

¹⁴ I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to warn you as my dearly loved children. ¹⁵ For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Messiah, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Messiah Yeshua, I became your father through the Good News. ¹⁶ I urge you therefore—be imitators of me. ¹⁷ For this reason I have sent you Timothy, my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Messiah, just as I teach everywhere in every community.

¹⁸ Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing; and I will find out not the talk of those who are puffed up, but their power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God does not consist of talk but of power. ²¹ What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

Removing the “Hametz” from Your House

5 It is actually reported that among you there is sexual immorality, and such immorality as is not even among the pagans—that someone has his father’s wife. ² And you are puffed up! Shouldn’t you have mourned instead, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from among you? ³ For even though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit—I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this thing, as though I were present. ⁴ When you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Yeshua, I am with you in spirit. With the power of our Lord Yeshua, ⁵ you are to turn such a fellow over to satan for the destruction of his fleshly nature,^[a] so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

⁶ Your boasting is no good. Don’t you know that a little hametz leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old hametz,^[b] so you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old hametz,^[c] the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread—the matzah of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to mix together^[d] with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters, for then you would have to exit the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to mix together with anyone who is being called a brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler—not even to eat with such a fellow. ¹² For what business do I have judging outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? ¹³ But those who are outside, God judges. Put away the wicked fellow from among yourselves.^[e]

Settle Disputes Within the Community

6 Does any one of you, when he has a matter against his neighbor, dare to go to court before the unrighteous and not before the kedoshim? ² Don’t you know that the kedoshim will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial matters? ³ Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life! ⁴ So if you have courts for matters of this life, why do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the community? ⁵ I say this to put you to shame! Isn’t there even one wise man among you who will be able to settle disputes between his brethren? ⁶ Instead, a brother goes to court against a brother—and before unbelievers at that!

⁷ Therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and cheat—and against your brothers and sisters at that!

Morality in the Temple of God

⁹ Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ That is what some of you were—but you were washed, you were made holy, you were set right in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and by the Ruach of our God.

¹² “Everything is permitted for me”—but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. ¹³ “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food”—but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ Now God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. ¹⁵ Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Messiah? Shall I then take the members of Messiah and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! ¹⁶ Or don’t you know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall become one flesh.” ^{[f] 17} But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality! Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body—but the one committing sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Ruach ha-Kodesh who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.^[g]