Bible / 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 3

World English Bible, Catholic edition, in plain modern English. About the translations

1 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.

2 I fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now, Fathers

3 for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?

5 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?

6 I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Fathers

8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building. CCC

10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it.

11 For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. CCC

12 But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13 each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. Fathers

14 If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.

15 If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire. CCC

16 Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? CCC · Fathers

17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are. CCC · Fathers

18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”

20 And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

21 Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,

23 and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church

Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.

  1. Read the Fathers
    • “And on this account does Paul declare to the Corinthians, "I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXXVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  2. Read the Fathers
    • “Just as it is one that planteth, and another who watereth, but one God who giveth the increase.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  3. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
  4. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 756 “Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. the Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but…”
  5. Read the Fathers
    • “Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote to you concerning himself, and Cephas, and Apollos,”

      Quoted in First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Clement of Rome (c. AD 96), Chapter XLVII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  6. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 1031 “The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the…”
  7. Read the Catechism and Fathers
    • CCC 797 “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." "To…”
    • “If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter VI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  8. Read the Catechism and Fathers
    • CCC 797 “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." "To…”
    • “For every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire;" and "whosoever shall defile the temple of God, him shall God defile.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter VIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

    • “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter VI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1