1 Corinthians 3:5-17 - The Role Of God's Servants

⁵ Who is Apollos, anyhow? Or who is Paul? They're merely servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each of us his task. ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God kept everything growing. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, but God, who keeps everything growing, is the one who matters. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have the same goal, and each will receive a reward for his own action. ⁹ For we are God's co-workers. You are God's farmland and God's building. ¹⁰ As an expert builder using the grace that God gave me, I laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each person must be careful how he builds on it. ¹¹ After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that is Jesus the Messiah. ¹² Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw, ¹³ the workmanship of each person will become evident, for the day of judgment will show what it is, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's action. ¹⁴ If what a person has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If his work is burned up, he will suffer loss. However, he himself will be saved, but it will be like going through fire.

¹⁶ You know that you are God's sanctuary and that God's Spirit lives in you, don't you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God's sanctuary, God will destroy him, for God's sanctuary is holy. And you are that sanctuary!