Paul’s Life as Pattern.^* 6I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written,^* so that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over against another. 7Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? 8You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings^* without us! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might become kings with you.

9^* For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike.^c 10We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.^d 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless^e 12and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;^f 13when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.

14I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.^* 15Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.^g