Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks
The Ministry of the Apostles
4 Think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.(A) 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4 I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.(B)
6 I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us what “Not beyond what is written” means, so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you?[a] What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive?(C)
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! If only you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to humans.(D) 10 We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are sensible people in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.(E) 11 To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are naked and beaten and homeless,(F) 12 and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;(G) 13 when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
Fatherly Admonition
14 I am not writing this to make you ashamed but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.(H) 16 I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me.(I) 17 For this reason I sent[b] you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.(J) 20 For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. 21 What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick or with love in a spirit of gentleness?(K)
Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and the sort of sexual immorality that is not found even among gentiles, for a man is living with his father’s wife.(L) 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
3 For I, though absent in body, am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgment 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing.[c] When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus,(M) 5 you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.[d](N)
6 Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all of the dough?(O) 7 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.(P) 8 Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.(Q)
Sexual Immorality Must Be Judged
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons, 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world.(R) 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler. Do not even eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging those outside? Are you not judges of those who are inside?(S) 13 God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”(T)
Lawsuits among Believers
6 When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?(U) 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels, to say nothing of ordinary matters? 4 If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one person wise enough to decide between brothers and sisters? 6 Instead, brothers and sisters go to court against one another, and this before the unbelievers.(V)
7 In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?(W) 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers and sisters at that.
9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes,[e] men who engage in illicit sex,[f](X) 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ[g] and in the Spirit of our God.(Y)
Glorify God in Body and Spirit
12 “All things are permitted for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,”[h] and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.(Z) 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.(AA) 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!(AB) 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.”(AC) 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.(AD) 18 Shun sexual immorality![i] Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person[j] sins against the body itself.(AE) 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple[k] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?(AF) 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.(AG)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.