God’s Fellow Workers (Hebrews 5:11–14)
1 UDB My brothers and sisters, when I was with you, you were not ready to hear the difficult truths about God. I could speak to you only as if you were little children who are joined to Christ. BSB BSB: Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.
2 UDB I taught you things that were easy to understand, as a mother feeds milk to her babies. You were not ready for solid food. And even now you are not ready. BSB BSB: I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,
3 UDB I say this because you are still acting as unbelievers even though you are Christians. I know you are not ready, because many of you are jealous and quarreling with each other, and you are judging things just as if you were still unbelievers. BSB BSB: for 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?
4 UDB Some of you say you are following what I, Paul, have taught; others say they are following what Apollos has taught. You are acting the way unbelievers act. BSB BSB: For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?
5 UDB Compared to the great work that God has done in your lives, Apollos is not important. Neither is Paul important. We are both servants, and we serve the same God in the ways that he has assigned to us. BSB BSB: What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
6 UDB Even though I was the first to plant the seed of God's word in you, it was Apollos who made sure you grew in faith. But it was God alone who can give spiritual growth to you. BSB BSB: I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
7 UDB Let me say it again: The ones who plant the seeds and water them, we do not matter in the least. God is the one who gives the growth. You are like a garden that he has planted. BSB BSB: So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
8 UDB The one who plants and the one who waters are working on the same job. But each one individually will be paid according to the work he has done. BSB BSB: He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
9 UDB We are working together with God and we both belong to God. But as for you, God is growing you in his field. It is as if he were constructing a building out of you. BSB BSB: For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Christ Our Foundation (Isaiah 28:14–22; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:1–8)
10 UDB God generously gave me the skills so I can do this task for him. I worked among you like an expert builder with great care. But after me, someone else will build on what I began. Everyone builds on what others did before. But each one must be careful how they build. BSB BSB: By 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.
11 UDB For no other foundation can be laid other than the one that has already been set in place. That foundation is Jesus Christ. BSB BSB: For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 UDB We are like builders who choose what to put on top of that foundation. Builders can choose to use valuable materials like gold, silver, and precious stones, or they can choose to use worthless materials like wood, hay, and straw. BSB BSB: If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
13 UDB God will judge our work and put on display what each of us has done for him. He will send fire to test the work we have done. That fire will prove the quality of the work that we did for him. BSB BSB: his 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.
14 UDB If what a person builds survives the fire that tests what he built, he will receive a reward for his work. BSB BSB: If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.
15 UDB But if the fire burns up all his work, he will lose all his reward; but God can still save him, even though the flames completely devour everything he did. BSB BSB: If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.
God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom (Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20)
16 UDB Surely you know that you are the dwelling place where God lives, that you are his temple. Surely you know that the Spirit of God lives inside you. BSB BSB: Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
17 UDB God promises that he will destroy anyone who attempts to destroy his temple. This is because his temple belongs to him alone. And he protects you by the same promise because you are now his temple and you belong to him alone! BSB BSB: If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
18 UDB Be on guard that you do not deceive yourselves. If any of you thinks he has great wisdom that unbelievers will admire, he should be careful. He would be far better off if he leaves alone all the things that unbelievers want, even if they consider him a fool for doing so. When he leaves those things alone, he will begin to learn what true wisdom is. BSB BSB: Let 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.
19 UDB What the world considers to be great wisdom is really foolishness to God. For scripture says, "God catches the wise in their own foolish plans." BSB BSB: For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”
20 UDB And again scripture teaches, "The Lord overhears all the planning of the wise, and he knows that in the end they will lose everything." BSB BSB: And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
21 UDB So stop boasting about how good one Christian leader is or how good another Christian leader is. For God has given you all things. BSB BSB: Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,
22 UDB God gave you Paul, and he gave you Apollos, and Peter. And God gave you this world, and your life, and his victory over death. And God gives you everything that exists and everything that will exist in the future—they are all yours; BSB BSB: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
23 UDB and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. BSB BSB: and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
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