1 So let a man regard us as attendants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
3 But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by man's day of judgment; indeed, I do not even examine myself.
4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but the one who examines me is the Lord.
5 So do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then each one will have his praise from God.
6 Now these things, brothers, I have applied in a figure to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you be puffed up for one against another.
7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
8 Already you are full! Already you have become rich! You have reigned as kings without us! And I wish indeed that you did reign, so that we too might reign with you!
9 For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are glorious, but we are without honor.
11 To this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are poorly clothed, and are beaten, and have no settled home,
12 and we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it;
13 being slandered, we entreat. We have become as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things, until now.
14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.
15 For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel.
16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.
17 For this reason I sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways that are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church.
18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the speech of those who are puffed up, but the power.
20 For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.
21 What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?