Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 3:22
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the divided Corinthian congregation to halt their factional boasting in human leaders. He writes this during a period of internal strife where believers were aligning themselves with specific apostolic figures.
The words — εἴτε (eite) functions as the conjunction "whether or," and κόσμος (kosmos) literally means "world."
The thread — The passage intersects with Ephesians 4:11 on distributed church leadership gifts, Philippians 1:21 on Paul's personal assessment of life and death, and Romans 8:37 on believers overcoming through divine love.
Why it lands — The text explicitly lists human teachers, temporal realities, and cosmic circumstances as belonging to the believers. This requires readers to abandon reliance on any created authority or circumstance and recognize their ultimate subordination to Christ.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Cross-references
- Ephesians 4:11 And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,
- Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
- Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
- 1 Corinthians 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
- 1 Corinthians 9:19 Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
- 2 Corinthians 4:5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
- 1 Corinthians 1:12 What I mean is this: Individuals among you are saying, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”