| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3As 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5So 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Dear 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7For 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? |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9Instead, 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Our 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11Even 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12We 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13We 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15For 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16So I urge you to imitate me. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17That’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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19But 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[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit? |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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