As for our brother Apollos, I tried my best to get him to come to you with the others, but he really didn’t want to. He’ll come when it’s a better time.
Here’s what I mean. One of you says, “I follow Paul.” Another says, “I follow Apollos.” Another says, “I follow Peter.” And still another says, “I follow Christ.”
The synagogue leader Crispus and everyone living in his house came to believe in the Lord. Many others who lived in Corinth heard Paul, and they too believed and were baptized.
When the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus heard about this, they were all overcome with fear. It led them to hold the name of the Lord Jesus in high honor.
But you’ve seen and heard what this man Paul is doing. Here in Ephesus and almost everywhere in the province of Asia he has led large numbers of people away from our gods. He says that gods made by human hands aren’t gods at all.
Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus because didn’t want to spend too much time in the province of Asia. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem because he wanted to be there if possible by the day of Pentecost.
Brothers and sisters, I’ve used myself and Apollos as examples. I want to help you learn from us what the saying means, “Don’t go beyond what’s written.” If you understand that, you won’t feel proud that you follow one of us instead of the other.
If I fought wild animals in Ephesus with nothing more than human hopes, then what did I gain by that? If the dead aren’t raised, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we’ll die.”