1 Corinthians 3

International Children’s Bible

Following Men Is Wrong

3 Brothers, in the past I could not talk to you as I talk to spiritual people. I had to talk to you as I would to people of the world—babies in Christ. ² The teaching I gave you was like milk, not solid food. I did this because you were not ready for solid food. And even now you are not ready. ³ You are still not spiritual. You have jealousy and arguing among you. This shows that you are not spiritual. You are acting like people of the world. ⁴ One of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos.” When you say things like this, you are acting like worldly people.

⁵ Is Apollos important? No! Is Paul important? No! We are only servants of God who helped you believe. Each one of us did the work God gave us to do. ⁶ I planted the seed of the teaching in you, and Apollos watered it. But God is the One who made the seed grow. ⁷ So the one who plants is not important, and the one who waters is not important. Only God is important, because he is the One who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose. And each will be rewarded for his own work. ⁹ We are workers together for God. And you are like a farm that belongs to God.

And you are a house that belongs to God. ¹⁰ Like an expert builder I built the foundation of that house. I used the gift that God gave me to do this. Others are building on that foundation. But everyone should be careful how he builds. ¹¹ The foundation has already been built. No one can build any other foundation. The foundation that has already been laid is Jesus Christ. ¹² Anyone can build on that foundation, using gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw. ¹³ But the work that each person does will be clearly seen, because the Day^[a] will make it plain. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test every man’s work. ¹⁴ If the building that a man puts on the foundation still stands, he will get his reward. ¹⁵ But if his building is burned up, he will suffer loss. The man will be saved, but it will be as if he escaped from a fire.

¹⁶ You should know that you yourselves are God’s temple. God’s Spirit lives in you. ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him, because God’s temple is holy. You yourselves are God’s temple.

¹⁸ Do not fool yourselves. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this world, he should become a fool. Then he can become truly wise, ¹⁹ because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. It is written in the Scriptures, “He catches wise men in their own clever traps.”^{[b] 20} It is also written in the Scriptures, “The Lord knows what people think. He knows they are just a puff of wind.”^{[c] 21} So you should not brag about men. All things are yours: ²² Paul, Apollos and Peter; the world, life, death, the present, and the future—all these things are yours. ²³ And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.