First Corinthians 3: Foundation

However, in spite of the mind we shared in Christ I was unable to communicate to you accordingly. The truth is, I had to speak to you as if your minds were underdeveloped. Of course, I knew you wanted more, but I also knew the longing for more was stirred by those former delusions of higher reasoning. Believe me, I was not the one holding you back. Instead, you constrained me to connect everything I said to your fleshly logic before I could move on. And after all this time you still cannot get beyond your issues to hear what I would tell you.

Are you truly unaware of the source of your heated rivalries? Do you really not know why everything among you revolves around competition? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the fleshly mind causes you to regard yourselves only by what you are outwardly? For when you boast in men as you do - one associating himself with Paul, another with Apollos - aren't you identifying yourselves according to appearances?

What are Apollos and Paul to you? They are men who served you, men through whom you believed, men enabled by God. I may have planted the seed, and Apollos may have watered it, but the growing was all God's doing. What I'm saying is that since God causes the growth, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters can be considered as having anything to do with it, as if either one made it happen.

How do you rationalize the idea of competition between one who plants and one who waters? For even though each will receive benefits according to how he plays his own part, they are still one. As for myself and Apollos, we are God's co-workers; as for you, you are God's garden, his building. Now, God gave me the wisdom to perform as an architect so that I could lay a foundation for the building that you are. Others have come behind me to build upon that foundation, but I urge each who does so to take great care in how he builds upon it. The foundation, Jesus Christ, has already been laid. Anyone attempting to lay another cannot succeed.

Now regarding builders, some use quality materials while others use junk made to look good. However each man's work will become known for what it is, for the day of reckoning is coming when the storms test the quality of what each man built. If a builder's work stands firm upon the foundation he will be recognized accordingly. If any man's work is destroyed his reputation as a builder will suffer, but he will be delivered through the very thing that destroyed his work.

Don't you know who you are? You are God's dwelling ... his Spirit lives in you! And if you think any man will get away with ruining God's abode, think again, because God will ruin him. For the building of God - that's you - is his own protected possession.

Let no man fall for his own BS. If anyone among you supposes that true knowledge is based upon his IQ, let him become ignorant so that he may become wise. For the IQ of this world is ignorance to God. For it is written that God is "the one who traps the wise in the web of their own scheming"; and also, "The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are worthless."

So give up the ridiculous attempts at making yourself look good by finding your identity in men. After all, everything that is really something is yours! And I mean everything: the men who serve you (whether Paul or Apollos or Peter), the world, life, death, that which exists and that which will exist. It's all yours. And you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.