1Corinthians:4

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* LET a man view us as servants of Christ and stewards of God 's mysteries . * Moreover , in the case of stewards it is required that a man be found faithful . * But it is of very slight importance to me to be judged by you or any human court . I do not even pass judgment on myself . * For I am not conscious of any wrong , but I am not proved by that to be faultless . The Lord is my judge . * So do not judge anything before the time , before the Lord comes . He will throw light on the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the purposes of hearts . Then each one will have his praise from God . * All this , brethren , I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sake , that you may learn the maxim , "Nothing beyond what is written ," and may not be puffed up in partisanship for one against the other . * For who gives you superiority ? What have you that you did not receive ? Why are you boasting as if you had not received it ? * You are already fully satisfied . You have already become rich . You have become kings without us . Would that you had become kings so that we might be kings with you ! * For it seems to me that God has set us apostles out last of all as men doomed to death , that we may be a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men . * We are fools for Christ 's sake , but you are wise in Christ ; we are weak , but you are strong ; you have glory , but we are despised . * Up to this present hour we are hungry and thirsty and naked and beaten . We wander about * and labor , working with our own hands . When abused we bless , when persecuted we endure it , * when slandered we entreat . We have come to be , as it were , the sweepings of the world , the riffraff of all things up to now . * I am not writing this to shame you , but to warn you as my beloved children . * For if you have ten thousand teachers in Christ , still you have not many fathers . For I was your father in Christ Jesus through the good news . * So I beg you to be imitators of me . * For this very purpose I have sent to you Timothy , who is my loved and faithful child in the Lord . He will remind you of my ways in Christ \'97 how I teach everywhere in every church . * Some persons have become puffed up , thinking that I am not coming to you . * But I shall come to you shortly , if the Lord wills , and I will find out , not the talk of these puffed-up ones , but their power . * For the kingdom of God is not in talk , but in power . * Which do you wish ? Shall I come with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness ?

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