1Cor 4:7-21 | ESV | STEP | For who sees anything different in you ? What do you have that you did not receive ? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

1 Corinthians 4:7-21

7 For who sees anything different in you? ^aWhat do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, ^blike men sentenced to death, because we ^chave become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 ^dWe are fools for Christ’s sake, but ^eyou are wise in Christ. ^fWe are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour ^gwe hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and ^hbuffeted and ⁱhomeless, 12 and we ^jlabor, working with our own hands. ^kWhen reviled, we bless; ^lwhen persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. ^mWe have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, ⁿthe refuse of all things.

14 I do not write these things ^oto make you ashamed, but to admonish you ^pas my beloved children. 15 For ^qthough you have countless ^{▼▼Greek you have ten thousand} guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For ^sI became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, ^tbe imitators of me. 17 That is why ^uI sent ^{▼▼Or am sending} you Timothy, ^wmy beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, ^{▼▼Some manuscripts add Jesus} ^yas I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 Some are ^zarrogant, ^aaas though I were not coming to you. 19 But ^abI will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For ^acthe kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. 21 What do you wish? ^adShall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?