Chapter 4
1 So let a man think of us as Christ ’s servants and stewards of God ’s mysteries .
2 Here , moreover , it is required of stewards that they be found faithful .
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 For I know nothing against myself . Yet I am not justified by this , but he who judges me is the Lord .
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 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 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 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 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 are fools for Christ ’s sake , but you are wise in Christ . We are weak, but you are strong . You have honour, but we have dishonour.
11 Even to this present hour we hunger , thirst , are naked , are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
12 We toil , working with our own hands . When people curse us , we bless . Being persecuted , we endure.
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 don’t write these things to shame you , but to admonish you as my beloved children .
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 I beg you therefore , be imitators of me .
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 Now some are puffed up , as though I were not coming to you .
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 God ’s Kingdom 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 gentleness ?