Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Brothers, I couldn't speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Messiah.
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But for right now, friends, I'm completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You're acting like infants in relation to Christ,
2 I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren't yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready,
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capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I'll nurse you since you don't seem capable of anything more.
3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren't you fleshly, and don't you walk in the ways of men?
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As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything's going your way?
4 For when one says, "I follow Sha'ul," and another, "I follow Apollos," aren't you fleshly?
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When one of you says, "I'm on Paul's side," and another says, "I'm for Apollos," aren't you being totally infantile?
5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Sha'ul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?
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Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us - servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment.
6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
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I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
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It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
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Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages.
9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building.
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What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.
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Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation!
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah.
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Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.
12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;
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Take particular care in picking out your building materials.
13 each man's work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man's work is.
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Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you'll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won't get by with a thing.
14 If any man's work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.
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If your work passes inspection, fine;
15 If any man's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire.
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if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won't be torn out; you'll survive - but just barely.
16 Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?
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You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you?
17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, which you are.
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No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred - and you, remember, are the temple.
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
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Don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He has taken the wise in their craftiness."
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Be God's fool - that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It's written in Scripture, He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
20 And again, "The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless."
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The Master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls.
21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,
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I don't want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift -
22 whether Sha'ul, or Apollos, or Kefa, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,
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Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future - all of it is yours,
23 and you are Messiah's, and Messiah is God's.
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and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.