Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 142
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
3:5–4:3
After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants
through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the
Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but
it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting,
or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed
grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with
the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s
building.
Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert
builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this
foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other
than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—
gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will
reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a
person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive
a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.
The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a
wall of flames.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that
the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this
temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,
“He traps the wise
in the snare of their own cleverness.”
And again,
“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise;
he knows they are worthless.”
So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you—whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or
life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you,
and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in
charge of explaining God’s mysteries. Now, a person who is put in charge
as a manager must be faithful. 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
