| New Living Translation | King James Bible |
| 1So look at Apollos and me as mere servants of Christ who have been put in charge of explaining God’s mysteries. | 1Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. |
| 2Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. | 2Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. |
| 3As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. | 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. |
| 4My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. | 4For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. |
| 5So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. | 5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. |
| 6Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. | 6And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. |
| 7For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift? | 7For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? |
| 8You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you. | 8Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. |
| 9Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike. | 9For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. |
| 10Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. | 10We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. |
| 11Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. | 11Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; |
| 12We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. | 12And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: |
| 13We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment. | 13Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. |
| 14I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children. | 14I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. |
| 15For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ, you have only one spiritual father. For I became your father in Christ Jesus when I preached the Good News to you. | 15For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. |
| 16So I urge you to imitate me. | 16Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. |
| 17That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go. | 17For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church. |
| 18Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. | 18Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. |
| 19But I will come—and soon—if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power. | 19But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. |
| 20For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. | 20For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. |
| 21Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit? | 21What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
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