1 Corinthians 4:6-21 ▼

6 Now I have applied these things, brothers, to myself and Apollos on account of you?, so that in us you? may learn, “Not beyond what has been written,” so that not one of you? may be puffed up over one against the other.

7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if also you did receive it, why do you boast as not having received it?

8 Already you? are satiated; already you? were enriched; apart from us you? reigned—and I wish that you? indeed reigned, so that we also might reign together with you?.

9 For I think God set forth us, the apostles, last, as appointed to death, because we became a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

10 We are fools on account of Christ, but you? are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you? are strong; you? are glorious, but we are without honor.

11 As far as the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and are battered, and wander homeless,

12 and we toil, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we bear it;

13 being slandered, we entreat. We became as the scum of the world, the refuse of all, until now.

14 I do not write these things shaming you?, but admonishing you as my beloved children.

15 For although you? may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begat you? through the gospel.

16 Therefore I exhort you?, become imitators of me.

17 Because of this, I sent to you? Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you? of my ways that are in Christ Jesus, as I teach everywhere in every church.

18 Now some were puffed up, as if I were not coming to you?.

19 But I will come to you? shortly, if the Lord might will, and I will know not only the talk of those being puffed up, but the power.

20 For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

21 What do you? want? Should I come to you? with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?