1 Corinthians 3:12

Plain English Version

I’ll tell you more of this picture story about the builders. Good builders build with really good things like gold, or silver, or jewels. But other builders don’t work properly, they don’t care, they only use wood, or grass, or leaves. If a fire comes, the parts of the house that are made of wood, or grass, or leaves, those parts will burn up. But the parts that are made of gold, or silver, or jewels, those parts will stay good. So you can know which builders did a good job. Christian workers are like those builders in the picture story. Some Christian workers do a good job and tell God’s word properly, and some don’t do a good job.

Cross References

Romans 16:17

Listen, my Christian friends, I’m telling you straight, you’ve got to be really careful about people that make you split up and argue with each other. Remember that you heard the true message about Jesus Christ, and you learned to follow his way, but there are some people that want you to leave that way and go another way. They tell you a different story, and they get you to argue with each other. So don’t listen to them. Keep away from them.

1 Corinthians 3:13

One day, Jesus Christ will come back, and then God will show which workers did a good job, like the fire in the picture story shows if part of the house is good or not.

Colossians 2:8

Some people might try to make you believe some ideas about God that are wrong. Those ideas didn’t come from Jesus Christ, but they came from bad spirits, and from the people of this world. People taught those ideas to their kids, and to their grand-kids. But those ideas are not true. They might sound good, but they are tricky lies. Be careful. Don’t believe them.

1 Timothy 6:3

Some people teach things that are wrong. They teach things that are different from the good things that our leader, Jesus Christ, taught. He taught things that help people live in a way that makes God happy.

2 Timothy 2:20

Let me use another picture story. In a big house there are lots of things that people use all the time. Some of those things are really special, like gold bowls and silver spoons, and people use those things for good clean jobs. But for dirty jobs, they use pots made from the ground, or from wood.

2 Timothy 3:13

And those bad liars will get worse and worse. They will go on tricking people, and just like that, other people will trick them too.

2 Timothy 4:3

You see, people are getting less interested in true stories. One day, they will not listen to good people that teach the true message, but instead they will listen to somebody that says strange things. And they will find teachers that will just say whatever people want to hear.

1 Peter 1:7

You know about gold. It is very special. People put that gold into a fire to make it really clean. The fire makes it better, it burns away all the rubbish that isn’t real gold. But even gold will not last for ever. It belongs to this world. Now think about the troubles that come to us. They make us better because they show that we really trust God. If we keep on trusting him, God will say, “You are very special to me. You are much more special to me than gold.” So keep on trusting God, and after Jesus comes again, God will talk to you like that, and he will make you important.