MODERN LITERAL VERSION

4:1 So let a man count us as attendants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
4:2 But furthermore, it is required in stewards, that* one should be found faithful.
4:3 But it is at the least concern to me that* I might be judged by you* or by a human judgment day. But I am not even judging myself.
4:4 For* I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I have not been justified by this. But he who is judging me is the Lord.
4:5 So-then judge nothing before the time, until the Lord should come, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then the praise from God will happen for each.

4:6 Now brethren, I fashioned these things to myself and Apollos because of you*; in order that you* may learn in us not to have a mind-set to go beyond what has been written; that* no one should be arrogant on behalf of one against the other.
4:7 For* who is making the distinction between you? But what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you had not received it?
4:8 Already you* are satisfied, already you* were enriched, you* have come to reign without us, and yet, I wish-that you* did yet reign, that* we also might reign together with you*.
4:9 For* I think that God has showed us, the apostles, last of all, as men doomed to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to messengers and men.
4:10 We are foolish because of Christ, but you* are prudent in Christ. We are weak, but you* are strong. You* are glorious but we have dishonor.
4:11 We both are hungry and thirsty even to this current hour and are naked and are battered and are homeless;
4:12 and we are laboring, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we speak well of them; being persecuted, we are tolerating it;
4:13 being blasphemed, we are encouraging. We have become like the scum of the world, the garbage of all things, even until now.

4:14 I am not writing these things to be embarrassing you*, but I am admonishing you* as my beloved children.
4:15 For* even if you* have ten thousand tutors in Christ, but you * do not have many fathers, for* I fathered you* in Christ Jesus through the good-news.
4:16 Therefore I am encouraging you*. Become imitators of me.
4:17 Because of this, I have sent Timothy to you*, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you* of my ways, the ones in Christ, just-as I am teaching everywhere in every congregation*.
4:18 Now some are arrogant as though I was not coming to you*.
4:19 But I will come to you* shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the speech of those who are arrogant, but the power.
4:20 For* the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power.
4:21 What do you* wish? Should I come to you* with a rod or with love* and a spirit of meekness?