For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.

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.

I write this to you, not because I want to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children.

For even if you have ten thousand guardians in your Christian life, you have only one father. For in your life in union with Christ Jesus I have become your father by bringing the Good News to you.

Am I not a free man? Am I not an apostle? Haven't I seen Jesus our Lord? And aren't you the result of my work for the Lord?

What soldiers ever have to pay their own expenses in the army? What farmers do not eat the grapes from their own vineyard? What shepherds do not use the milk from their own sheep?

We read in the Law of Moses, "Do not muzzle an ox when you are using it to thresh grain." Now, is God concerned about oxen?

We have sown spiritual seed among you. Is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm.

I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures;

that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles.

Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.

For I am the least of all the apostles---I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church.

So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach, and this is what you believe.

He held discussions in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.

When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his family; and many other people in Corinth heard the message, believed, and were baptized.

for I am with you. No one will be able to harm you, for many in this city are my people."

And since you are within those limits, we were not going beyond them when we came to you, bringing the Good News about Christ.

So we do not boast about the work that others have done beyond the limits God set for us. Instead, we hope that your faith may grow and that we may be able to do a much greater work among you, always within the limits that God has set.

Be generous, and you will be prosperous. Help others, and you will be helped.

At that time a Jew named Apollos, who had been born in Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home with them and explained to him more correctly the Way of God.

Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia, urging them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who through God's grace had become believers.

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the province and arrived in Ephesus. There he found some disciples

But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom. By him we are put right with God; we become God's holy people and are set free.

But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me.

Human beings are all like a puff of breath; great and small alike are worthless. Put them on the scales, and they weigh nothing; they are lighter than a mere breath.

More than once I have heard God say that power belongs to him

They are like trees planted in the house of the LORD, that flourish in the Temple of our God,

This shows that the LORD is just, that there is no wrong in my protector.

If the LORD does not build the house, the work of the builders is useless; if the LORD does not protect the city, it does no good for the sentries to stand guard.

"My word is like the snow and the rain that come down from the sky to water the earth. They make the crops grow and provide seed for planting and food to eat.

So also will be the word that I speak--- it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.

As surely as seeds sprout and grow, The Sovereign LORD will save his people, And all the nations will praise him.

When they heard this, they stopped their criticism and praised God, saying, "Then God has given to the Gentiles also the opportunity to repent and live!"

When they arrived in Antioch, they gathered the people of the church together and told them about all that God had done with them and how he had opened the way for the Gentiles to believe.

One of those who heard us was Lydia from Thyatira, who was a dealer in purple cloth. She was a woman who worshiped God, and the Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

Paul greeted them and gave a complete report of everything that God had done among the Gentiles through his work.

I will be bold and speak only about what Christ has done through me to lead the Gentiles to obey God. He has done this by means of words and deeds,

You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read.

We say this because we have confidence in God through Christ.

For we brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth. You know how we lived when we were with you; it was for your own good.