1 Corinthians 3:15-23

3:15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. ¹  He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple ²  and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 3:17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.

3:18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. ³  If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. 3:19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” ⁴  3:20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” ⁵  3:21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! ⁶  For everything belongs to you, 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

[3:15]  ¹ tn The translation “[will] be punished” is given here by BDAG 428 s.v. ζημιόω 2. But the next clause says “he will be delivered” and so “suffering loss” is more likely to refer to the destruction of the “work” by fire or the loss of the reward that could have been gained.

[3:16]  ² sn You are God’s temple refers here to the church, since the pronoun you is plural in the Greek text. (In 6:19 the same imagery is used in a different context to refer to the individual believer.)

[3:18]  ³ tn Grk “let no one deceive himself.”

[3:19]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Job 5:13.

[3:20]  ⁵ sn A quotation from Ps 94:11.

[3:21]  ⁶ tn Grk “so then, let no one boast in men.”