1Let a man regard us as servants of Messiah(Christ) and stewards of the mysterion(mysteries) of God.
2Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.
3But for me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.
4For I am aware of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.
5Therefore do not krino(judge) anything before the kairos(appointed-time), until the Lord comes, who will also bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will disclose the intentions of the kardia(heart, soul-domain)s; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.
6Now these things, brothers, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you might learn the meaning of "not beyond what is written," so that no one of you will become arrogant in favor of one against the other.
7For who diakrino(active: discerns) you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?
8You have already become satisfied, you have already become rich, you have reigned without us; and indeed I wish that you had reigned, so that we also might reign with you.
9For I think God has put us the apostles on display last of all, as men condemned to die, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.
10We are fools for Messiah(Christ)'s sake, but you are prudent in Messiah(Christ); we are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored.
11Until this very hora(hour) we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless,
12and we toil, working with our own hands; when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;
13when slandered, we appeal; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
14I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
15For if you were to have countless instructors in Messiah(Christ), yet you do not have many fathers; for in Messiah(Christ) Yeshua(Jesus) I became your father through the good news.
16Therefore I appeal to you, be imitators of me.
17For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Messiah(Christ), just as I teach everywhere in every ekklesia(called-out community).
18Some have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you;
19but I will come to you quickly, if the Lord is willing, and I will find out not the logos(word) of those who are arrogant but the dynamis(power).
20For the kingdom of God does not rest in logos(word) but in dynamis(power).
21What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in agape(love) and a pneuma(spirit) of gentleness?