1 Corinthians · Free Bible Version
1 Corinthians 4 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 So think of us as Christ's servants given the responsibility for “the mysteries of God.”
1 So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries.
2 More than this, those who have such responsibilities are required to be trustworthy.
2 Here, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
3 Personally it hardly matters to me if you or anyone else judges me—in fact I don't even judge myself.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by a human court. Yes, I don’t even judge my own self.
4 I don't know of anything I've done wrong, but that doesn't make me morally right. It's the Lord who judges me.
4 For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord.
5 So don't judge anything before the right time—when the Lord comes. He will bring to light all the darkest secrets that are hidden, and he will reveal people's motives. God will give everyone whatever praise they deserve.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
6 Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied this to Apollos and myself as an example for you. That way you will learn not to go beyond what has been written, and not in arrogance prefer one over the other.
6 Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.
7 Who made you so special? What do you have that you weren't given? Since you were given it, why do you proudly claim you weren't?
7 For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
8 You think you have all you need. You think you're so wealthy. You think you're kings already, and don't need us. I wish you were really ruling as kings, so we could rule with you!
8 You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you!
9 The way I see it, God has put us apostles on display as the last in the line, condemned to die. We have been made a public show before the entire universe, to angels and to human beings.
9 For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men.
10 We're Christ's fools, but you are so wise in Christ! We're the weak ones, but you are so strong! You have the glory, but we are despised!
10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You have honor, but we have dishonor.
11 Right up till now we're hungry and thirsty. We have no clothes. We're badly beaten up, and we have no place to call home.
11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
12 We struggle on doing manual work. When people curse us, we bless them. When they persecute us, we put up with it.
12 We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.
13 When they insult us, we respond with kindness. Even now we are treated like dirt, the worst trash in the whole world.
13 Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
14 I'm not writing like this to make you feel ashamed, but to caution you as my children whom I love so much.
14 I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15 Even though you may have thousands of Christian instructors, you don't have many fathers—it was in Christ Jesus that I became your father when I shared the good news with you.
15 For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
16 So I'm pleading with you to imitate me!
16 I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.
17 That's why I sent Timothy to you, my trustworthy son in the Lord whom I love so much. He will remind you about the way I follow Christ, just as I always teach in every church I visit.
17 Because of this I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every assembly.
18 Some among you have become arrogant, thinking I wouldn't bother coming to see you.
18 Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.
19 But I am coming to visit you soon, if that's what the Lord wants. Then I'll find out what these arrogant people are saying, and what kind of power they have.
19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.
20 For the kingdom of God is not about mere words, but about power.
20 For God’s Kingdom is not in word, but in power.
21 So what do you want? Shall I come with a stick to beat you, or in love and a gentle spirit?
21 What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Timothy
A disciple from Lystra with a Greek father and a believing Jewish mother, whom Paul circumcised and took with him as a coworker; he received two letters from Paul.
Cited in the guide: Acts 16:1; 1 Corinthians 4:17; Philippians 2:19
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Peter 4:10; Titus 1:7; 1 Timothy 3:9; Ephesians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 4:5
- 2 Matthew 25:21; Luke 12:42; Luke 16:10–12; Colossians 4:17; Numbers 12:7
- 3 John 7:24; 1 Corinthians 2:15; 1 Samuel 16:7; 1 Corinthians 3:13
- 4 Psalm 143:2; 1 John 3:20–21; Psalm 130:3; Proverbs 21:2; Psalm 19:12
- 5 James 5:7; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:13; Hebrews 4:13; 2 Corinthians 10:18
- 6 2 Corinthians 11:4; 2 Corinthians 12:19; 2 Corinthians 12:6; Colossians 2:18; Romans 12:3
- 7 John 3:27; 1 Peter 4:10; James 1:17; 1 Chronicles 29:11–16; John 1:16
- 8 Proverbs 13:7; Romans 12:3; Luke 6:25; 1 Corinthians 5:6; 2 Corinthians 13:9
- 9 Hebrews 10:33; 2 Corinthians 4:8–12; Romans 8:36; 2 Corinthians 1:8–10; 1 Corinthians 15:30–32
- 10 1 Corinthians 2:3; Acts 26:24; 1 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 13:9; Acts 17:18
- 11 Romans 8:35; Philippians 4:12; 2 Corinthians 11:23–27; Matthew 8:20; 2 Timothy 3:11
- 12 1 Peter 3:9; Romans 12:14; Matthew 5:11; 1 Peter 4:12–14; Luke 6:28
- 13 Lamentations 3:45; Acts 22:22
- 14 1 Thessalonians 2:11; 3 John 4; 1 Corinthians 9:15; 1 Corinthians 4:15; Colossians 1:28
- 15 1 Corinthians 3:10; Galatians 4:19; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:14; 1 Corinthians 9:23
- 16 1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 3:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; Hebrews 13:7
- 17 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Corinthians 16:10; 1 Corinthians 7:17; 2 Timothy 1:2; 1 Corinthians 16:1
- 18 1 Corinthians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 4:6–8; 1 Corinthians 4:21
- 19 2 Corinthians 13:1–4; Acts 18:21; Acts 19:21; 1 Corinthians 11:34; 1 Corinthians 2:6
- 20 1 Corinthians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2 Corinthians 10:4–5; Romans 14:17; Romans 1:16
- 21 2 Corinthians 13:2; 2 Corinthians 13:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 12:20–21; James 3:17
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Together with all other ills, I know not how, there hath come upon man's nature the disease of restless prying and of unseasonable curiosity, which Christ Himself chastised, saying, (St. Matt. vii. 1.) "Judge not, that ye be not judged." A kind of thing, which hath no pleasure as all other sins have, but only punishment and vengeance.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
… not one thing in one place, and another in another; according to which Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and all those commended by the mouth of God were righteous, but were judged unrighteous by foolish men, judging out of man's judgment, and gauging by the petty standard of their own manners the manners of the whole …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… is against our will; but nevertheless it doth not escape punishment, but of it too we have to give account:--both of what we know, and of what we do not know; "For I know nothing by myself," saith one, "yet am I not hereby justified:" --both for what we have done in ignorance, and what in knowledge; "For I bear …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
And the Martyrs confess, by being made a spectacle unto the world, and to Angels, and to men; and thou wilt soon confess:--but it is not yet the time for thee to hear of this.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
7. For it is Thou, Lord, that judgest me; for although no "man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him," yet is there something of man which "the spirit of man which is in him" itself knoweth not.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)