The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow.

You should think of us as Christ's servants, who have been put in charge of God's secret truths.

The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful to their master.

They wrote what we have been told by those who saw these things from the beginning and who proclaimed the message.

But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed?

And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, "How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!"

it is he who made us capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

For it is not ourselves that we preach; we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us.

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted.

Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties.

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman---but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.

Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build.

If I did my work as a matter of free choice, then I could expect to be paid; but I do it as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted me with this task.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them.

There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service.

The Spirit gives one person a message full of wisdom, while to another person the same Spirit gives a message full of knowledge.

The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God's message; and to yet another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person he gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another he gives the ability to explain what is said.

He gave to each one according to his ability: to one he gave five thousand gold coins, to another he gave two thousand, and to another he gave one thousand. Then he left on his trip.

John answered, "No one can have anything unless God gives it.

And because of God's gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you.

In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body.

Each one, as a good manager of God's different gifts, must use for the good of others the special gift he has received from God.