Outline
IV.
Instruction on
Marriage (ch. 7)
VII.
Instruction on the
Resurrection (ch. 15)
1 Corinthians 4 NLT
1 So look at Apollos and me as mere
servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s
mysteries.
2 Now, a person who is put in charge as a
manager must be faithful.
3 As for me, it matters very little how I
might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own
judgment on this point.
4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t
prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.
5 So don’t make judgments about anyone
ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to
light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one
whatever praise is due.
6 Dear brothers and sisters, I have used
Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to
what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your
leaders at the expense of another.
7 For what gives you the right to make
such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything
you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?
8You think you already have everything you
need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom
without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be
reigning with you.
9 Instead, I sometimes think God has put
us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade,
condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and
angels alike.
10 Our dedication to Christ makes us look
like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so
powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed.
11 Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and
we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no
home.
12 We work wearily with our own hands to
earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who
abuse us.
13 We appeal gently when evil things are
said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s
trash—right up to the present moment.
14 I am not writing these things to shame
you, but to warn you as my beloved children.
15 For even if you had ten thousand others
to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became
your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you.
16 So I urge you to imitate me.
17 That’s why I have sent Timothy, my
beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow
Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.
18 Some of you have become arrogant,
thinking I will not visit you again.
19 But I will come—and soon—if the Lord
lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give
pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power.
20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot
of talk; it is living by God’s power.
21 Which do you choose? Should I come with
a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?
