The Divine Husbandry: God's Field, God's Building Text: 1 Corinthians 3:5-9
Introduction: The Carnal Celebrity Pastor
The Corinthian church was a mess, but it was a sophisticated, metropolitan mess. They were carnal, to be sure, but they were not simpletons. Their carnality expressed itself in a very modern way: through factionalism, party spirit, and the idolizing of gifted men. They were treating the ministers of the gospel like rival philosophers or rock stars. "I am of Paul." "Well, I am of Apollos." "I follow Cephas." And the really spiritual ones, of course, said, "I am of Christ," which was just another way of saying, "I am of my own little party that is too spiritual to have a party."
This is the perennial temptation of the church. We are drawn to charisma, to eloquence, to personality. We want to attach our identities to a particular brand of Christian leadership. We create fan clubs around preachers. This is not a sign of spiritual maturity, but of its precise opposite. Paul calls it carnality. It is baby-Christian behavior. It is to be "of the flesh," acting like mere men who have not yet grasped the fundamental realities of the kingdom.
The problem is not that Paul and Apollos were unworthy men. The problem was that the Corinthians were esteeming them in an unworthy manner. They were focusing on the instruments and forgetting the God who wields them. They were looking at the shovel and the trowel and ignoring the Gardener. They were admiring the hammers and saws and forgetting the Architect. This is a profound miscalculation. It is to get the entire universe upside-down.
In our text today, Paul takes a wrecking ball to this entire celebrity-preacher system. He does it not by elevating himself, but by radically demoting himself, and Apollos with him. He wants to cure the Corinthians of their man-centeredness by showing them that all true ministry is God-centered. He is going to show them that the church is not a fan club, but a field. It is not an auditorium for gifted speakers, but a building site. And in all of it, the ministers are nothing, and God is everything.
The Text
What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
(1 Corinthians 3:5-9 LSB)
Mere Delivery Boys (v. 5)
Paul begins by asking a rhetorical question designed to pop their inflated view of their favorite teachers.
"What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one." (1 Corinthians 3:5)
Notice the "what," not "who." He is treating himself and Apollos not as personalities, but as functions, as instruments. What are they? They are "servants." The word here is diakonoi, deacons, waiters, table-servants. They are not the hosts of the banquet; they are the ones carrying the trays. They are delivery boys. The gospel is the meal, God is the host, and the preachers are simply the ones who bring the food to the table. To get into a faction over which waiter is your favorite is to miss the point of the feast entirely.
They are servants "through whom" you believed. They are channels, not sources. They are conduits, not reservoirs. The faith you have was not manufactured by Paul's rhetoric or Apollos's eloquence. It was a gift, and these men were simply the means of its delivery. A man who receives a life-saving package does not fall down and worship the mailman. He is grateful for the delivery, but his ultimate gratitude is for the one who sent the package.
And even the opportunity to serve was a gift. The Lord "gave to each one." Paul's apostolic ministry was a gift of grace. Apollos's powerful preaching was a gift of grace. God assigns the roles. He distributes the gifts. One man gets the shovel, another gets the watering can. To boast in the instrument is to insult the one who assigned the task. It is all of grace, from beginning to end. This is the great leveler of all human pride.
Divine Agriculture (v. 6-7)
Paul now shifts the metaphor from servanthood to farming. This is a picture of organic, dependent, sovereignly-produced growth.
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." (1 Corinthians 3:6-7 LSB)
Paul came to Corinth first and planted the seed of the gospel. He did the initial work of evangelism and church planting. After he left, Apollos came, a man mighty in the Scriptures, and he watered what Paul had planted. He taught, discipled, and built upon that foundation. These are distinct and necessary tasks. But notice the central, decisive action: "but God was causing the growth." The verb is in the imperfect tense, meaning God was continually, consistently, and constantly causing the growth. Paul's work was a past event. Apollos's work was a past event. God's work is the ongoing reality.
A farmer can do everything right. He can plow the field, sow the best seed, and water it diligently. But he cannot make the seed germinate. He cannot command the sun to shine or the rain to fall. He cannot force life to spring from the dead seed. That is a miracle that belongs to God alone. So it is with the church. We can preach, teach, evangelize, and disciple. We can set up programs and run ministries. But we cannot cause a single soul to be born again. We cannot produce one ounce of spiritual growth. That is the exclusive and sovereign work of God the Holy Spirit.
This leads to Paul's radical conclusion in verse 7. "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything." Anything. Zero. A nullity. This is not false humility; it is theological reality. In the ultimate equation of salvation and sanctification, the human minister is a zero. Of course, we are something in a relative sense; we are men made in God's image with real tasks. But when compared to the infinite, life-giving power of God, we are nothing. The only one who is "anything" in this process is "God who causes the growth." The Corinthians were making everything of the ministers, and Paul says that in the grand scheme, they are nothing. The focus must be on God, the life-giver.
Unified Labor, Individual Reward (v. 8)
Having established that the ministers are nothing in comparison to God, Paul now shows how they relate to one another and to their future reward.
"Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." (1 Corinthians 3:8 LSB)
The planter and the waterer "are one." Paul and Apollos are not rivals in a competition; they are partners in the same enterprise. They have one purpose, one goal, one master, and one field. To set them against each other is to misunderstand the nature of their work entirely. It is a unified, cooperative effort. This is a direct rebuke to the Corinthian party spirit. You cannot divide what God has joined together in common purpose.
But this unity of purpose does not erase individual accountability. "Each will receive his own reward according to his own labor." Notice, the reward is not according to the results, but according to the labor. The growth belongs to God, but the work belongs to the servant. God will not reward a planter for the size of the harvest; He will reward him for the faithfulness of his planting. He will not reward the waterer for how tall the stalks grow; He will reward him for the diligence of his watering. This is a great comfort. Our success is not measured by numbers, but by faithfulness. God is the one who judges the work, and He judges the work itself, not the results which He alone can give.
God's Co-laborers, God's Property (v. 9)
Paul concludes this section with two powerful metaphors that summarize the relationship between God, His ministers, and His church.
"For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building." (1 Corinthians 3:9 LSB)
First, "we are God's fellow workers." This seems to contradict his earlier statement that ministers are "nothing." But there is no contradiction. We are nothing in our own power, but we are something by His grace. The dignity of our labor comes not from us, but from the One with whom we work. A child "helping" his father in the workshop is not contributing much in terms of skill or power, but he is a true co-laborer because his father has invited him into the work. God, in His condescending grace, invites us to be His co-laborers. We are not His peers, but we are His partners. It is an astonishing privilege.
Second, Paul turns to the Corinthians and says, "you are God's field, God's building." This is the knockout punch to their pride and factionalism. You are not Paul's field. You are not Apollos's building. You belong to God. He owns you by right of creation and by right of redemption. The field does not belong to the farmhands. The building does not belong to the construction workers. To say "I am of Paul" is to attempt to transfer the title deed of your soul from God to a mere man. It is an act of spiritual larceny.
He shifts the metaphor from agriculture to architecture. You are God's field, where He causes the growth. And you are God's building, where He is the architect and the owner. This sets up the next section, where Paul will describe himself as a wise master builder who laid a foundation, which is Christ himself. The church is a divine project, a holy temple being constructed by God. The ministers are just the workmen on the site, and the people are the living stones that make up the structure. All glory, all ownership, and all praise belong to God alone.
Conclusion: From Consumers to Co-Laborers
The Corinthian error is the default error of the modern American church. We have been conditioned to be religious consumers. We shop for churches based on the preaching style, the music quality, and the children's programs. We evaluate the sermon like a movie review. We are, in short, making it all about us and our preferred delivery systems. We are making everything of the planters and the waterers.
Paul's message is the necessary antidote. We must repent of our consumer mindset and see the church for what it is: God's field and God's building. The focus is not on the servants, but on the Master. The glory is not in the process, but in the result that only God can bring about.
This means two things. First, for those of us who are members of the congregation, we must stop idolizing men. We should be grateful for faithful ministers, but our ultimate loyalty, our identity, and our boast must be in Christ alone. We are not fans in the stands; we are the field itself, the building itself. Our job is to grow, to be built up together into a holy temple for the Lord.
Second, for those who are called to ministry, this is both a humbling and an liberating word. It is humbling because it reminds us that we are "nothing." Any fruit that comes from our ministry is 100% the work of God. There is no room for pride. But it is also liberating, because the results are not up to us. Our task is to be faithful with the work assigned to us, to plant and to water, and to leave the growth to God. We are free from the crushing burden of having to produce results. We are called to be faithful laborers, not successful CEOs.
In the end, it all comes back to God. He is the owner of the field, the architect of the building, and the source of all growth. Let us therefore stop our foolish squabbles over farmhands and construction workers, and turn our eyes to the Lord of the harvest, the Master Builder, and give Him all the glory.