1 Corinthians · 23 verses
1 Corinthians 3
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The builder's work may be reduced to smoke while the builder himself is saved, but only as if through the flames.
Milk, seed, and rival namesvv. 1–9
Paul begins with a dietary diagnosis: the brothers are infants in Christ, still on milk because jealousy and dissension have left them worldly. Their loyalties have been arranged around Paul and Apollos, though both men are merely servants, one planting and the other watering. The growth belongs to God, while the brothers themselves are called God’s field and God’s building—a remarkably busy piece of spiritual real estate.
The foundation and the firevv. 10–17
Paul has laid the foundation, and others are building on it, but the materials now become very specific: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The Day will set the workmanship in the light of fire. A durable building brings reward; a burned one brings loss, while its builder is saved in the chapter’s most peculiar escape clause, “but only as if through the flames.” The image then enlarges from one building to a temple, with God’s Spirit dwelling in the brothers and destruction answered by destruction.
Wisdom turned upside downvv. 18–23
Wisdom receives a prescription that defeats itself: anyone who thinks himself wise must become a fool in order to become wise. The chapter then gathers Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, and the future into one astonishing inventory. All belong to the brothers; the brothers belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. The boasting has become a very large possession, followed immediately by a chain of belonging.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
1 Cor 3:1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
1 Cor 3:2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,
1 Cor 3:3for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?
1 Cor 3:4For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
1 Cor 3:5What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
1 Cor 3:6I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
1 Cor 3:7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Cor 3:8He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
1 Cor 3:9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Cor 3:10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds.
1 Cor 3:11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 3:12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
1 Cor 3:13his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.
1 Cor 3:14If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
1 Cor 3:15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.
1 Cor 3:16Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Cor 3:17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Cor 3:18Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
1 Cor 3:19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”
1 Cor 3:20And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
1 Cor 3:21Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
1 Cor 3:22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
1 Cor 3:23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 365 passages were voted onto 23 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 161 Corinthians 6:19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
- 16Ezekiel 36:27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
- 162 Corinthians 6:16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
- 16Romans 8:11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
- 16Ephesians 2:21–22In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
- 16Romans 8:9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
- 16John 14:17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
- 161 Peter 2:5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 19Job 5:13He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.
- 162 Timothy 1:14Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
- 11Ephesians 2:20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- 11Isaiah 28:16So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
- 161 John 4:15–16If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
- 16Hebrews 3:6But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.
- 112 Timothy 2:19Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”
- 161 John 4:12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Onward