Commentary - 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Bird's-eye view

In this crucial passage, the apostle Paul addresses the root of the Corinthian church's factionalism and carnality. They were behaving like a fan club, dividing themselves into personality cults around their favorite preachers, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos." Paul demolishes this entire way of thinking by radically decentering the human minister and re-centering God as the sole agent of spiritual growth. He uses two powerful metaphors to explain the nature of Christian ministry. First, ministry is like farming. Some servants plant the seed, others water it, but only God can make it grow. The servants are nothing; God is everything. Second, ministry is like construction. The church is God's building, and ministers are simply fellow workers, laborers on God's construction site. The central point is a radical God-centeredness that exposes the Corinthians' man-centered squabbles as spiritually infantile. Their focus was entirely misplaced, leading to division, when the reality of God's sovereign work should have led them to unity and humility.

This section is a potent corrective to our modern celebrity-pastor culture. Paul is not engaging in false humility; he is stating a bedrock theological reality. Ministers are merely instruments, servants, conduits. The power, the life, the growth, all of it comes from God. Therefore, to boast in a particular minister is as foolish as a crop boasting in the farmhand who scattered the seed, or a building boasting in the man who laid the bricks. All glory belongs to the one who gives the life and designs the building. Paul's argument here is designed to lift the Corinthians' eyes from the servants to the Master, from the instruments to the sovereign God who alone is worthy of their ultimate allegiance.

Outline

Context In 1 Corinthians

This passage flows directly from Paul's rebuke of the divisions in the Corinthian church, which he began back in chapter 1. He has already identified their factionalism ("I am of Paul," etc.) as a sign of their carnality and spiritual immaturity (1 Cor 3:1-4). They were thinking like mere men, not like spiritual men. Now, in verses 5-9, he explains why this is so foolish. He does so by defining the proper role of Christian ministers. The Corinthians had an inflated, worldly view of their leaders, treating them like rival philosophers or heads of schools of thought. Paul systematically dismantles this view. This section, therefore, provides the theological foundation for his practical exhortations. Before he can build them up in unity, he must first tear down the idolatrous pedestals they had erected for their teachers. This argument sets the stage for the subsequent discussion of the church as God's temple and the nature of true wisdom versus worldly wisdom that continues through chapter 4.

Key Issues

Nothing But Servants

The Corinthian error was a man-centered error. They were focused on the gifts, the eloquence, the style, and the personality of the preacher. This is a constant temptation for the church. We like to attach ourselves to impressive men. But Paul redirects their attention with a series of blunt, God-centered correctives. The issue is not the skill of the farmer, but the life-giving power of God. The issue is not the fame of the builder, but the identity of the One who owns the building.

Paul's argument is devastating to human pride. He says that the planter is "nothing" and the waterer is "nothing." This is not to say that their work is unimportant, but that in the grand scheme of things, compared to the divine power that actually produces spiritual life, the human instrument is of no account. It is like a scalpel saying it performed the surgery, or a pen saying it wrote the novel. The instrument is essential for the task, but the intelligence, the power, and the creative force all belong to the one wielding it. Until the Corinthians, and we, grasp this, we will continue to fall into the carnal trap of exalting men and, as a result, creating factions and divisions in the body of Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one.

Paul begins with two rhetorical questions that get right to the point. You are dividing over Paul and Apollos, but who are they really? He immediately demotes himself and his colleague from the status of faction leaders to their true position: servants. The word is diakonoi, ministers, waiters, those who serve at a table. They are not the masters of the feast; they are the ones carrying the trays. They are simply the instruments "through whom" the Corinthians came to believe. The faith did not originate with them, nor was it sustained by them. They were mere channels. And even the opportunity to serve in this way was not something they seized for themselves; it was a task "as the Lord gave to each one." God is the one who assigns the roles. He gave Paul a task, and He gave Apollos a task. They are not competitors, but colleagues under the same divine management.

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

Here Paul introduces his first great metaphor: agriculture. The ministry is like farming. Paul's role in Corinth was foundational; he was the pioneer church planter. He came first and "planted" the seed of the gospel. After he left, Apollos came, and his ministry "watered" the seed that had been planted, likely through his powerful preaching and teaching from the Scriptures. The roles were different but complementary. Planting is essential, but so is watering. But then comes the crucial, central point of the entire passage: "but God was causing the growth." The Greek is in the imperfect tense, indicating a continuous, ongoing action. All along, while Paul was planting and Apollos was watering, God was the one consistently, sovereignly, and powerfully giving the increase. The planting and watering are visible, human activities. The growth is a silent, mysterious, divine work. No farmer can make a seed grow. He can provide the right conditions, but the life itself is a gift from God. So it is in the church.

7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

This verse draws the stark, humbling conclusion from the agricultural metaphor. If God is the one who gives the growth, then what does that make the planter and the waterer? In comparison to God, they are "anything" is a bit of a polite translation. The Greek is simply "nothing." Paul is not engaging in self-pity or false modesty. He is stating a profound theological truth. In the economy of salvation, the human agent is a zero. The power is entirely of God. This statement is designed to utterly destroy the basis of the Corinthian factions. Why would you boast in a "nothing?" Why would you divide the church over a zero? All the attention, all the glory, all the allegiance must be directed to the only one who is "something", that is, God, the one who gives the growth.

8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Having established their "nothingness" in relation to God, Paul now clarifies their relationship to each other. The planter and the waterer "are one." They are not rivals in a competition; they are partners on the same team, united in purpose and goal. Their functions may differ, but their essence as servants of the one Master makes them one. This directly rebukes the Corinthians who were setting them against each other. But this unity does not erase individual accountability. Paul adds that "each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." The reward is not based on results, because the results, the growth, belong to God. The reward is based on the faithfulness of the labor. God judges the work, not the fruit. This is a great encouragement to the faithful minister whose labors may not see spectacular visible results. God sees the labor, and He rewards faithfulness, not worldly "success."

9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul concludes this section with a summary that introduces a new metaphor. First, he clarifies the relationship between the ministers and God. "We are God's fellow workers." This does not mean they are God's equals, but rather that they have the high privilege of being called to work together with Him and for Him. He is the owner and director of the project; they are the laborers. Then Paul turns his attention to the Corinthians themselves, defining their identity in relation to God. "You are God's field, God's building." He repeats the word "God's" for emphasis. The Corinthians do not belong to Paul, nor to Apollos. They belong to God. They are His agricultural project, His field. And, shifting the metaphor, they are His architectural project, His building. This second metaphor will be developed in the verses that follow. The point is clear: the church, and everything in it, belongs to God. The ministers are His workers, and the people are His property. Therefore, all factionalism based on human leaders is a fundamental denial of God's ownership.

Application

This passage is a bucket of cold water in the face of the modern church's obsession with celebrity. We have our celebrity pastors, celebrity worship leaders, and celebrity authors, and we often function more like fan clubs than as the body of Christ. We compare church attendance numbers, book sales, and podcast downloads, treating ministry as a competition for market share. Paul's words call us to a radical repentance.

First, for those of us in ministry, we must constantly remember that we are nothing. We are servants, tools, empty vessels. Any fruit that comes from our labor is a sovereign work of God, and we have no grounds for boasting. Our job is not to produce growth, but to be faithful in our planting and watering. Our reward will come from the Master, and it will be for faithfulness, not for fame.

Second, for all Christians, this passage demands that we check our hearts. Who are we following? Are we more attached to a particular preacher's personality than to the Christ he proclaims? Do we feel a sense of pride because "our" church is bigger or "our" pastor is more eloquent than the one down the street? This is the very carnality Paul is condemning. We are to be followers of Christ, not of men. We are God's field, and we must look to Him for growth. We are God's building, and our loyalty is to the Owner and Architect, not to one of the bricklayers. The proper response to a faithful ministry is not to exalt the minister, but to give all glory to the God who is pleased to use such humble, nothing-servants for His glorious purposes.