The Wise Builder

1 Corinthians 3:1-15

¹ Brothers and sisters, I couldn’t talk to you like spiritual people but like unspiritual people, like babies in Christ. ² I gave you milk to drink instead of solid food, because you weren’t up to it yet. ³ Now you are still not up to it because you are still unspiritual. When jealousy and fighting exist between you, aren’t you unspiritual and living by human standards? ⁴ When someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and someone else says, “I belong to Apollos,” aren’t you acting like people without the Spirit? ⁵ After all, what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants who helped you to believe. Each one had a role given to them by the Lord: ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. ⁷ Because of this, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but the only one who is anything is God who makes it grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters work together, but each one will receive their own reward for their own labor. ⁹ We are God’s coworkers, and you are God’s field, God’s building. ¹⁰ I laid a foundation like a wise master builder according to God’s grace that was given to me, but someone else is building on top of it. Each person needs to pay attention to the way they build on it. ¹¹ No one can lay any other foundation besides the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² So, whether someone builds on top of the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or hay, ¹³ each one’s work will be clearly shown. The day will make it clear, because it will be revealed with fire—the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. ¹⁴ If anyone’s work survives, they’ll get a reward. ¹⁵ But if anyone’s work goes up in flames, they’ll lose it. However, they themselves will be saved as if they had gone through a fire.