So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
Planting is the first work of preaching the gospel and gathering believers, and watering is the later work of giving further instruction to help what was planted grow, while the growth itself comes from God alone. Those who plant and those who water are nothing in themselves and have no power to change character or convert even one soul, but are only weak instruments commissioned to teach the truth. God gives the increase by His Spirit working on hearts to quicken, convict of sin, and bring repentance and conversion, as the farmer cannot make the seed grow but depends on rain, sunshine, and unseen life-giving agencies. He that plants and he that waters are one in object as laborers together with God, so taking sides over ministers and glorying in men reveals carnality and division instead of the unity God requires. Human effort and divine power must be combined, for God will not do the worker's part, yet the worker can do nothing without God, so truth must be sown faithfully everywhere and results left with Him who alone can make it bear fruit.
Planting and Watering Defined
Planting is the first preaching of the gospel and gathering of believers, as Paul did at Corinth, and watering is the later work of giving further instruction to help the seed develop, as Apollos did. Different workers do not have the same work, but serve one mission as ministers by whom others believed, each as the Lord gave to him, with public preaching blended with personal teaching according to variety of gifts. Planting sows the first rudiments, the very alphabet of Christian faith and doctrine, feeding carnal babes in Christ with milk and not with meat because, however wise in worldly knowledge, they have no experience in spiritual life and cannot bear deeper truth. Watering carries the work forward from the point where planting left it, giving spiritual light and knowledge in due season as the people are able to bear it. Planting can be a doctrinal discourse presenting the evidences and sowing the seed, and watering can be a following exhortation of considerable length melting into the tenderest feelings of the congregation, with both parts important and the watering no less than the planting.
Planting and watering cover varied shared labor in one field, with one fitted for one line of work and another for another, moving forward together harmoniously. Some plow the field and sow the seed, some plant, water, prune, support, tend, cultivate, and care for the growing plants, while others reap and gather the harvest, and sower and reaper rejoice together at harvest. No one is to feel cut off when the work progresses under others, but to keep interest in it and be thankful that others can carry it forward successfully, since every person from the lowliest worker to the most highly educated has a distinctive place. Truth is to be sown beside all waters among every kind of hearer, including outsiders, without knowing whether this or that effort shall prosper, and in new fields faithful laborers break up the soil and sow in trust for results.
At Corinth believers divided into parties crying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, revealing jealousy, strife, envy, prejudice, evil surmising, and division. One group claimed to follow Christ alone and refused due respect to His ambassadors and submission to the voice of the church, others claimed Paul as leader, others claimed Apollos far exceeded Paul in address and power of oratory, and others claimed Peter as leader because he had been most intimate with Christ on earth while Paul had been a persecutor of believers. Such taking sides showed a carnal spirit, walking as men, and the state of babes fed with milk rather than the mind and Spirit of Christ, threatening to ruin the church. Paul and Apollos were in perfect harmony, and Apollos was disappointed and grieved by the dissension, taking no advantage of the preference shown him and encouraging none of it. He hastily left the field of strife and declined to visit Corinth again until the church had reached a better spiritual state, returning to labor there only afterward.
The same pattern appears later, where Luther was the rough pioneer who had to break the road and fight, so his books are belligerent, while Melanchthon came along softly and gently and sowed and watered heartily, richly endowed with gifts for logical thought and polished writing. The Russian mission's truth was planted despite dangers and restrictions for God to make it grow and prosper. Planting means planting the standard of truth in new places, including the more distant parts of the vineyard and the regions beyond and the waste places of the earth, seeking the lost, and watering means enabling workers in every portion of the field to move forward without hindrance. Growth is God's increase in believers, seen as gradual growth from few poor workers meeting in private houses, large kitchens, barns, groves, and schoolhouses to building humble houses of worship, with no portion of the vineyard to be robbed to overdo the work in another portion.
Workers Are Only Instruments
Those who plant and those who water are nothing in themselves and have no power in themselves to produce spiritual growth, changed character, or conversion. Ministers are only men commissioned by God to teach the truth, appointed agents who serve together under Him and depend wholly on His power for fruitfulness, so honor for success belongs to God and not to the workers. This corrects pride and factional loyalty around human workers and rebukes envy, strife, and divisions over them, since each laborer is accountable and each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. The third chapter of First Corinthians that contains this teaching is full of sound, definite instruction to be studied, and none need err who follow its teachings.
They hold the treasure of the gospel as weak earthen vessels possessing no grace or holiness of their own. They are ordained by God to be a powerful means for the salvation of souls, but are effective only as God the eternal Spirit makes them so and makes them vessels of honor, with success coming only as they cooperate with heavenly intelligences and as His grace becomes a living reality transforming character to reflect God rather than self. They may cultivate the vineyard, with one planting as Paul did and another watering as Apollos did, yet only God brings the growth by His Spirit working on hearts. Because the ministry is wholly dependent in this way, Satan directs his special efforts against it. To refuse God's words because of the servant who brings them dishonors God who chose and sent him and grieves His Holy Spirit, cheating the hearer of great blessing and Christ of due glory, and causing confusion, falling away, and weakness.
Even apostolic authority cannot convert one soul, for Paul's deep learning united with zeal, earnestness, and restless energy, and Apollos's stirring eloquence, skillful logic, talent, and address are powerless in themselves to bring repentance and conversion. Human eloquence and power alone accomplish nothing, and reading, studying, knowledge, mere theory of truth, education, persistent effort, loving manner, flowery discourses, floods of empty words, sarcasm, and ridicule cannot produce effect, lodge truth in the heart, or make faith grow. Only God gives the increase and efficiency, changing the heart He created, touching and subduing it by the Holy Spirit, setting truth home as a sharp two-edged sword, and adding the heavenly endorsement that gives success. That divine efficiency comes behind the instrument and cooperates with the human agent, requiring living faith and godliness rather than much knowledge, with much praying, humbling of the soul, laying hold above, importunate wrestling, daily submission to the sanctification of the Spirit, and bringing all human methods, plans, and ideas to God for correction and endorsement in the meek spirit of a learner, lest self take control and even the most experienced judgment prove imperfect, faulty, and shaped by hereditary traits.
Ministers have distinctive work amid diversity of gifts, with the Lord giving to every man as Paul planted and Apollos watered, yet all belong to the same work given by their Heavenly Father, are one as laborers together with God, and are wholly dependent on Him for success. They must blend harmoniously in carrying forward salvation as only instruments of divine grace and power, working with energy and diligence with an eye single to the Master's glory, staying near the cross, preaching Christ, and studiously avoiding calling attention to self lest sacred truth be encumbered and its saving power hindered. Therefore no one is to glory in men or be puffed up for one minister against another by preferring and comparing one with another to the detriment of another, drawing apart over misconceived opinions, building in self-confidence after his own plans without reference to brethren, deceiving self with worldly wisdom, or judging brethren for lack of perfection in word, spirit, and action. Every gift is received from God so there is no ground for self-exaltation or for exaltation through success, on pain of having light removed, and ministers are to be accounted only as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God required to be found faithful, with hearts humbled, judgment left until the Lord comes to bring hidden things to light, and every man's building on the only foundation Jesus Christ — whether gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble — made manifest, revealed and tried by fire, abiding unto reward or else consumed.
Success in God's work does not depend on human business ability and experience. Men given to worldly pursuits with cultivated sharp business traits do not come into the truth in large numbers because they are too worldly-wise and the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them, so not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Christ is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so he that glories must glory in the Lord.
God Alone Gives Increase
God alone gives the increase, producing spiritual growth, transformation of character, conversion, and success, for those who plant and those who water are only human workers and appointed agents who do not themselves produce such results. All good accomplished and all efficiency come from divine power, and the honor and glory for successful work belong to God and not to the workers. The human and the divine agencies stand in comparative value as inferior instruments and the great efficient Agent, for man in himself is nothing and can accomplish nothing without God, yet God has chosen human agencies to cooperate with His divine power as laborers together with Him. Human instruments are therefore to labor to win souls to Christ while the change of character and spiritual transformation come through divine power. God has made His church the depository of sacred trusts and His people the channels through which spiritual light flows to the world, requiring each worker to understand his individual relation to the work, his personal responsibility, and his own weakness and inefficiency.
God gives the increase by His Spirit and power working on hearts, for as farmers can plant and sow but cannot make a seed grow, so people depend on God to cause growth in grace. The Holy Spirit waters the seed sown, makes the impression, quickens the soul, reveals sin, touches and subdues the heart, and impresses minds with the need for repentance and conversion. Even when the word appears to have little effect on the minds and hearts of many students, work wrought in God does not fail, for some lessons of divine truth linger in the memory even of the most careless and after many days spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God. When a wonderful work is done in bringing truth to a city like New York and its suburbs, with Paul planting and Apollos watering in their different roles, only God produces the growth through the Holy Spirit working with willing men, so all the glory belongs to God.
God makes the application of all religious labor and testimony, being present with His angels in every meeting and wherever people are, watching every action and hearing every word, testimony, and prayer. Angels surround people to make the impression that gives continual enlightenment and spiritual understanding to know the truth when it is proclaimed, in proportion to each person's interest in religious things, individual course, untiring effort, earnest prayer, and devotion in seeking God, so each one must know for himself where he stands in order to glorify God. No worker can convert anyone, for only the Lord God of Israel converts and makes the effort effective, working in the worker both to will and to do and sending angels to move on the hearts of hearers. Angels stand right beside consecrated workers who press truth into the cities, establish meetings, speak the message, give means, open the Bible, share the light given them, make sacrifices for Christ's sake, and exert themselves with intense desire for the salvation of the perishing.
As farmers plant and sow but cannot make seed grow, spiritual growth depends on unseen divine agencies, for God gives rain, dew, and sunshine from heaven to refresh flowers and make vegetation spring up and flourish. God creates even the electricity that gives life to the seed and vitality to the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear, and He alone can be depended on to give the due proportion required of all the agencies to perfect the harvest of fruits and grains. He holds to Himself by wonderful links of His own wonderful power beyond human agency just what is needed for the harvest, and without these unseen agencies seed apparently thrown away yet made into living plants would be valueless. Planting and caring for crops and the careful culture of the soil with a view to the harvest are necessary work, and saving souls calls for such intelligent human work under God, with practical lessons belonging in a proper education and Christian motives leading to right actions and to moving forward with firm, steady, ever-increasing trust till the end of life. Yet God will not give a harvest if man folds his arms, takes his ease, and does nothing, for man must prepare the soil, use the plow and other implements at the right time, sow the seed in its season, and act his part, with the harvest reaped proportionate to the energy expended and carelessness testifying against him.
Christ alone gives life to the seed and rest to souls, for the physician's or worker's words are only seed while Christ waters them and causes them to bear fruit unto eternal life. When a physician prays with a patient after the crisis has passed and speaks timely words of wisdom to lead the sick to Christ, he only plants the seed, but Christ waters the seed sown and gives the increase as Christ is accepted and confessed on the sick-bed. Though words of gratitude may flow to the physician through whom God has bound this life up with his own, praise and thanksgiving for life spared and for spiritual results belong to God who is present though invisible and upon whom all are dependent for life. Words and works of compassion and love are good seeds dropped into the soil of the heart, and love produces love and good fruit because the Lord Jesus alone can give the increase, since all spiritual life is the life of God in the soul and everything that works in the human agent to perfect Christian character is divine. A Paul may plant and an Apollos may water, but the work of giving rest, assurance, and confidence to all who receive Him by faith is one none of the wisest of the human family can do, so believers are not to conjure up a variety of things they must enter into in order to find rest but to do just what Christ told them to do, leave that divine work to Him, put trust in the One who promised rest to the soul, and be assured that God will do all that He has engaged to do.
Unity Instead of Division
He who plants and he who waters are one, laborers together with God with one object though their work may differ, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. They are only ministers by whom people believed, even as the Lord gave to every man, one planting and another watering while God alone gives the increase, so in themselves they are nothing. The church is God's husbandry and God's building, laid on the only foundation that can be laid, which is Jesus Christ. The third chapter containing this teaching is full of sound, definite instruction to be studied, for none need err who follow its teachings. If workers become exalted because of success and lift up their souls unto vanity, God will remove their light from them.
Taking sides over Paul, Apollos, or Cephas with cries of I am of Paul or I am of Apollos shows jealousy, strife, envy, prejudice, evil surmising, and division. Such partisanship reveals a carnal spirit, walking as men, rather than the mind and Spirit of Christ. It is the state of babes in Christ fed with milk, showing lack of growth in grace, narrow comprehension, and defective experience. One who partakes of the divine nature does not seek to stand at the head of a party. True workers do not draw men to themselves but to Christ, preaching the truth that makes all men one in Christ Jesus.
No one is to glory in men or be puffed up for one minister against another by preferring and comparing one with another to the detriment of another. Believers must not attach themselves to the one man under whose labors they received the light of present truth, draw apart from brethren over misconceived opinions, or build in self-confidence after their own plans and desires without reference to brethren, for that lays suppositions and rubbish on the foundation. Converts who consider themselves independent atoms and tie up in separate bundles cemented to the man who brought them truth and refuse harmony with brethren prove they are not being sanctified through the truth. They need reconversion as soon as possible, or their claimed conversion becomes a stumbling block to sinners, and all who receive the truth in love must make straight paths for their feet in love and unity. Every gift is received from God, so there is no ground for self-exaltation, deceiving self with worldly wisdom, or judging brethren because they do not see perfection in words and spirit and actions. Hearts are to be humbled before God, ministers accounted only as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God required to be found faithful, with judgment waited for until the Lord comes to bring hidden things to light, when every man's building of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble on the foundation will be made manifest, revealed and tried by fire in the day, and if his work abides he will receive a reward.
Those laboring in ministry or in medical missionary work must put away jealousy and party cries of Paul or Apollos or Cephas, wear the yoke of Christ and walk in humility of mind before God, use their varied gifts to bless humanity, and then God will use them as His helping hand, all united in one body under Christ with every part of the work controlled and guided by the wisdom God gives, in harmony in every action, drawing in even cords without friction. Human workers are only instruments who cannot produce spiritual growth or claim credit for it, so attention and honor belong to God, the source of the work's success, and exalting religious leaders or trusting in them is warned against. Erecting national barriers is presenting a human invention God can never endorse, and it is carnality, with envying and strife and divisions. Those truly converted to the proclamation of the third angel's message must present unity and not division to the world, to angels, and to men, sanctified by truth to be channels and representatives of His grace who glorify God in love and harmonious action, each strengthening the other and taking diligent heed to his own course in the solemn work of presenting sanctifying truth to souls ready to die.
Different talents, gifts, tasks, and presentations are God's plan, with a variety of gifts brought into exercise together, blending public preaching of truth with personal teaching effort. One may emphasize one phase of truth and another present it differently, so a minister who does not dwell upon the very same things as his brethren but emphasizes some other phase or presents the Word in a different way is not to be condemned, nor need he fear that his brethren do not regard him and his exposition as of consequence. Workers must give room to fellow laborers, blend talents, work faithfully and unselfishly under one Head feeling their need of one another, and use their gifts to uplift Christ and do good to all. One person's rejection of a worker's approach does not mean another worker's efforts are wasted, because God can use both to bring people to the truth. The Lord uses some to plow the field and sow the seed and others to reap, and He causes sower and reaper to rejoice together in the time of harvest, giving every person from the lowliest worker to the most highly educated a distinctive place in soul-saving, each to do his best while the work is prospered if the Lord is present. Gospel workers are given different appointments and gifts to reach different classes and let light shine amid moral darkness in a city wicked and dead in trespasses and sins, with one doing the work of Paul in planting and another the work of Apollos in watering, while God alone produces the result and arranges matters according to the purpose of His will, so workers must submit will and ideas, give God room to work through whom He chooses, stop worrying, complaining, losing courage and blocking His way, and rest in sweet, hopeful, trustful faith. The increase God gives is the progress of His work in each individual soul, and that progress determines the strength of the church, coming when believers are sanctified through the truth and learn meekness and lowliness so self-exaltation is overcome and there is complete and perfect unity.
However great and good the work a human agent does in converting souls to the truth, he gains no ownership over them. The one who plants and the one who waters are nothing to control those converted through their instrumentality, and converts are not to place themselves under the control of the minister. Ministry is to bring souls directly to Christ, because they are Christ's property and must ever be answerable to Him alone, each person possessing an individuality that no other person can claim. Every minister of the gospel must take a humble position, drawing people to Christ instead of to himself. To become filled with the idea that he is able of himself to gain success, and to bind those who accept the truth under his labors to himself as if they were his property, is contrary to the Word and greatly dishonors God.
Divine Human Cooperation Needed
The verse sets the comparative value of the human and the divine agencies in the work for the salvation of souls and in the conversion of a soul. Those who plant and water are only inferior instruments and are nothing in themselves, teaching human weakness and inefficiency, while God is the great efficient Agent who gives the increase and the efficiency. All good accomplished is the result of divine power combined with human effort, for man can accomplish nothing without God and no human eloquence and power alone can accomplish anything, yet God has chosen human agencies to cooperate with His divine power as laborers together with Him. Even apostolic authority, Paul's deep learning united with zeal and earnest energy, and Apollos's stirring eloquence and skillful logic could not convert one soul, for conversion comes because grace and power are behind the instrument giving divine efficiency, so every work in God's service is a cooperation of divine energy and human endeavor. God honors human workers by taking them into partnership, and talents increase by using them to win souls, with a devoted church called to dedicate soul, body, and spirit to saving souls as proof of real belief.
God does not do the workers' task for them, for they must make opportunities for truth to be planted, especially in cities and new fields where it has not been heard, and must press truth into cities, establish meetings, speak, give means, circulate reading matter, preach, hold camp meetings, and act their part. As in farming, God gives rain, dew, and sunshine to refresh and make vegetation flourish, yet He requires man to prepare the soil and put seed in the ground, and He will not give a harvest if man folds his arms, takes his ease, and does nothing. The harvest reaped is proportionate to energy expended with plow and implements in season, and growth and progress follow when man acts his part and God waters the seed and brings the result. Waiting, watching, working is the only right and safe position, for church members are to be alive to individual obligation and not be idlers, and those who do something will take interest in missionary meetings and count it a privilege to speak. Doing missionary work quickens a missionary spirit and drives workers to the throne of grace in felt dependence on the Holy Spirit for all success, awakening earnest prayer that receives rich answers, and God will water the worker's own soul just as far and as long as the worker in Christ waters others. This requires giving self to the Lord, working by His will, making His Word the rule of daily life, putting away selfishness, doing all possible without failing or discouragement, avoiding strife, and contending for the faith in meekness, assurance, and love, while humbling self before God, doing without complaint what little can be done, and trusting Jesus to make it fruitful even amid insult, abuse, and opposition.
Through connection with the Source of all power by living faith in Christ, without which it is impossible to please God, the frail human instrument becomes a laborer together with God and is placed in the divine channel where the Holy Spirit acts through and uses him. That faith in Christ is essential in every plan and movement, even in temporal business on the farm and in every line of work, requiring the closest connection with Christ. Reading, studying, knowledge, and mere theory of truth are powerless to produce effect, and only God can add the heavenly endorsement that gives success, lodges prayer in heaven with precious returns, sets truth home to hearts, and makes it like a sharp two-edged sword cutting every way. That increase requires living faith and godliness rather than much knowledge, with much praying, humbling the soul before God, laying hold above, and importunate earnest wrestling that God will empower preaching, so ministers depend more on the Spirit and His power than on knowledge from books. Human ministers can only sow and water but cannot make growth or reach people by themselves, for God alone prepares the way, works with human efforts, and gives the increase, so success comes only by clinging by faith to infinite power and by prayer for the harvest field. Dependence must therefore be placed far less on the wisdom of finite men and far more on the wisdom of God, praying with faith that will not be denied, coming to the Father as a child to a parent, and laying hold of the arm of infinite power without letting go, for the Lord goes before as strength, fortress, and righteousness and His glory guards behind.
God has made His church the depository of sacred trusts and His people the channels through which spiritual light flows to the world, giving every person from lowliest to most educated a distinctive place and requiring each worker to understand his individual relation to the work, his personal responsibility, and his own weakness and inefficiency. Human beings can accomplish much when the Holy Spirit works through them, because God communicates truth through human beings as valuable channels cooperating with divine power. No one is to work independent of the only power that can work successfully, but is to receive orders from God and cooperate with heavenly agencies, trusting Jesus instead of fretting or hurrying, so that the Infinite gives efficiency, finite workers are not left to do impossible things nor to expect impossible things of others, are not discouraged by limits, and labor so that physical, mental, and moral powers are preserved and the soul kept in love. The same grace that distinguished Paul and Apollos is given to devoted missionaries today, so their abilities and service depend on God for spiritual excellence.
To bear much fruit all need to feel daily the converting power of the Holy Spirit, for efficiency that makes preaching successful is provided by God as the Unseen Worker standing behind the minister to bring conviction and conversion, though all do not have the same gifts or disposition. When ministers yield to sin and are separated from God while teaching truth or God's law, their message is not blessed, the seed is not watered, and the increase is not realized. Faith and practice must therefore be energized by the Holy Spirit rather than compelled by finite minds, with no ruling power compelling obedience to dictates of the finite mind. Men must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and must not lean on human wisdom, for turning minds to lean on human wisdom places a veil between God and man so that men do not see Him who is invisible, while dependence rests on God rather than human wisdom or power.
Sow Faithfully Trust God
Sow the seed of truth beside all waters among all people and classes, poor and educated and influential, improving every opportunity without knowing which effort shall prosper, this or that, or whether both shall be alike fruitful, leaving results to God who waters it and brings fruit and growth and progress. Ministers and laymen alike must do earnest, persevering work for the salvation of souls and not leave responsibility to ministers alone, using every connection to reach every nation. Human workers must make opportunities for the truth to be planted, especially in cities and fields where it has not been heard, working to the uttermost of ability even when prejudice stands like a granite wall and past opposition and conviction make people afraid to hear for fear their peace will be disturbed and the ground may prove unfruitful. Jesus expects believers to give the messages of God's Word as healing leaves from the tree of life for soul and body to patients in medical institutions, and this spiritual ministry is the purpose that justifies spending money to erect sanitariums instead of using institutions only to heal bodily disease or putting the money into missions.
Keep laboring faithfully through uncertainty, discouragement, disappointed hopes, hard hearts, opposition, storm, sunshine, and much trembling, trusting God to work with efforts and to quicken the seed, weeping as precious seed is sown and joining full effort with entire dependence. Do not choose only the easiest places but work wherever possible, work earnestly and unselfishly as when equally hard hearts and discouragements were met, pray and believe, meet obstacles and in faith surmount them, labor in opposition and discouragement and in hope and fear lest labor be in vain, and set the light of truth on a candlestick to give light to all even where hearts are hard, teachers block mercy and truth, and forms and customs and tradition resist a better way. Keep laboring in faith even when immediate results cannot be seen or it cannot be known which effort will prosper, trusting God to bring the harvest, for the seed may lie dormant until God's grace convicts the heart, awakens it to life, and brings it to bear fruit for God's glory.
Work wrought in God does not fail even when the word appears to have little effect on the minds and hearts of many students. Some lessons of divine truth linger in the memory even of the most careless, and the Holy Spirit waters the seed sown, and often after many days it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. The precious seed may lie dormant for some time until the grace of God convicts the heart and awakens the sown seed to life, calling for unselfish, earnest, persevering labor with care, anxiety, and self-denial in continued sacrifice for others' good as co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels, without becoming weary in well-doing. Effects spread widely beyond workers' reach and full results are seen only in the hereafter.
God is not confined to large assemblies, so speaking to a small number in a house can bring blessing and tears and hope of good. When good seed is dropped into souls of many through public preaching in a large, crowded, and attentive meeting, the fruit depends on God alone to make truth take effect in hearts. Human labor only plants and waters and never produces the result by itself, whether through eleven discourses to a full hall with solemn feeling and weeping while taxed by speaking through a translator, through preaching the Word in a simple style easy to comprehend that brings people directly to Jesus Christ in whom hopes of eternal life are centered including emigrants and people of intelligence with religious experience, or through tent work and camp meetings with able, God-fearing men and suitable helpers, children's meetings and revival meetings and earnest effort to bring people to a decision. After that sowing, propagation of the seed is divine work and Jesus does the rest, so the seed grows and after a time gives a harvest, yet workers cannot tell what results will be where prejudice is breaking down because increase belongs to God.
Planting and watering include working to the uttermost of ability, spending means, advertising thoroughly, circulating notices, tracts, leaflets, and silent printed messengers, going from house to house, and holding meetings to create interest. Everyone who knows the truth and has received light and knowledge of grace is accountable to impart it by using God-given talents, going out into highways and hedges without waiting for license, watching and praying, searching the Scriptures, and holding forth Christ as crucified and risen Saviour, and as they give to others God will be with them and they will gain precious experience. Printed papers sow seed in hearts of scattered believers in highways and byways, and God Himself waters it so that when they come to holy convocation and hear the living preacher for the first time their hungry souls feast with delight on the rich banquet heaven has prepared.
Teachers sow divine truth with students, and ministers, physicians, and evangelists as planting and watering workers educate people to understand the Word, help every soul build on a sure foundation with the Word as counsellor, and shepherd the flock, while increase and fruit come from God working with faithful workers who teach what Christ commanded. Physicians and medical missionaries minister to soul as well as body with timely words of wisdom and promises and prayer leading the sick to Christ, for their words are seed but Christ gives life and makes them bear fruit unto eternal life, and doors closed to preaching alone are opened through relief of physical suffering as a seed of truth dropped into the mind is watered by God, though much patience may be required before signs of life appear. Parents as planters and waterers diligently sow good character like a gardener raising a pink or rose or lily by little attentions oft repeated, moistening soil and protecting from fierce blasts and scorching sun with no rude touch or violent effort and no continual criticism of every little defect, but correcting wrong traits by strengthening opposite traits and turning the mind into a different channel, while God by miraculous power causes character to flourish and blossom in symmetry and loveliness after the divine model until the divine image is seen, and because grace makes fathers and mothers wise to train, parents give God all glory for success.
The third chapter containing the verse is full of sound, definite instruction for ministers of the gospel and for all churches wherever located, so that none need err who follow its teachings. It is to be read carefully, studied, searched for truth for the soul's sake, and read in every church with humbled heart before God, with warning that without such humility names will not be placed in the book of life. It is essential for instruction in righteousness, emphasizing that God gives each person a work and His servants are to be free to seek His guidance and use gifts to win souls rather than be controlled by fallible people.
There is no room for envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, self-exaltation, building self up to another's injury, glorifying one's own gift, pomposity, or masterly effort to gain supremacy, because planters and waterers are nothing beside God who gives increase and workers are only little children and instruments in His hands who cannot accomplish any good without Him. All good done is divine power combined with human effort, and God honors workers by taking them into partnership, calling each to see personal responsibility to labor for salvation of his own soul and of souls perishing without Christ. Workers are laborers together with God with different talents, gifts, and tasks, one planting and another watering or cultivating, and are to work faithfully and unselfishly under one Head, feeling need of one another, using gifts to uplift Christ and do good to all, with humility, patience, modesty, kindness, and unity, giving thanks to God for blessing rather than crediting own exertion, for progress of His work in each individual soul determines strength of the church and when believers are sanctified through truth and learn meekness and lowliness there is complete unity.
The same truth corrects carnality, division, and exaltation of men by calling a married man who gives first place in affections to another woman to repentance and conversion, to let Christ take charge of affections and center them on proper objects, to respect, cherish, and love his wife as mother of his children, to guard mind and heart from impurity and from dangerous sentimental and spiritualistic affection, and to be true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word, and deed.
The work begins at home cultivating the plot at one's own door, taking up duty among friends, helping friends in need, and standing at post to save fellow men, for everyone who accepts the plan of salvation begins to work for others. Even when prospect looks unflattering as when Christ came to earth, faithfulness in sowing is the business appointed while God takes care of seed sown, and one soul reached will reach out for others and the work is carried forward. No field is any man's exclusive territory since no special territory is appointed to any one man, and no methods or influence should become a fixed mold, for workers carry work only as far as appointed and then it continues through others; pioneer workers who prepare the field through self-sacrifice and unite with one another and with God receive blessing and success and precious experience, and those entering their labors join as companions not to supersede them, harmonizing different minds, gifts, plans, and methods through counseling and praying together with self kept out of sight in humility and wisdom, modest, kind, and courteous, refusing to set themselves up as judges of work done before them.
Those called and commissioned to important work where it will be appreciated must labor very hard because love of Christ constrains them and souls for whom Christ died are of inexpressible worth, forgetting self and making ease, pleasure, and even health secondary, yet working in humility trusting God to give increase. Waiting, watching, working is the only right and safe position, for God gives increase to all willing, heartfelt service under His divine administration and calls for workers not idlers. A missionary spirit is quickened by doing missionary work, and doing work for others drives workers to the throne of grace in felt dependence on the gracious agency of the Holy Spirit for all success, awakening earnest prayer that receives rich answers, with church members alive to individual obligations and finding privilege in speaking in missionary meetings.
Preaching the righteousness of Christ is seed sown that must be watered by the Lord to live and grow in hearers, since preachers only plant and water while all life and growth comes from God alone. Thirty embracing truth after months of difficult labor is reason to recognize what God has done, and those converted can work among families, relatives, and friends so seed already sown may bring further increase.
God will not convict and convert souls to bring them under a lethargic, faultfinding, dissenting influence where believers strive to be first and emit no light, because such souls would be demoralized rather than elevated, purified, and ennobled. Growth that gathers a harvest comes through consecrated workers who labor with steady, firm, persevering steadfastness and do not fail or become discouraged.
Planting is the first work of preaching the gospel and gathering believers, and watering is the later work of giving further instruction to help what was planted grow, while the growth itself comes from God alone.
Those who plant and those who water are nothing in themselves and have no power to change character or convert even one soul, but are only weak instruments commissioned to teach the truth.
God gives the increase by His Spirit working on hearts to quicken, convict of sin, and bring repentance and conversion, as the farmer cannot make the seed grow but depends on rain, sunshine, and unseen life-giving agencies.
He that plants and he that waters are one in object as laborers together with God, so taking sides over ministers and glorying in men reveals carnality and division instead of the unity God requires.
Human effort and divine power must be combined, for God will not do the worker's part, yet the worker can do nothing without God, so truth must be sown faithfully everywhere and results left with Him who alone can make it bear fruit.
Planting and Watering Defined
Planting is the first preaching of the gospel and gathering of believers, as Paul did at Corinth, and watering is the later work of giving further instruction to help the seed develop, as Apollos did. Different workers do not have the same work, but serve one mission as ministers by whom others believed, each as the Lord gave to him, with public preaching blended with personal teaching according to variety of gifts. Planting sows the first rudiments, the very alphabet of Christian faith and doctrine, feeding carnal babes in Christ with milk and not with meat because, however wise in worldly knowledge, they have no experience in spiritual life and cannot bear deeper truth. Watering carries the work forward from the point where planting left it, giving spiritual light and knowledge in due season as the people are able to bear it. Planting can be a doctrinal discourse presenting the evidences and sowing the seed, and watering can be a following exhortation of considerable length melting into the tenderest feelings of the congregation, with both parts important and the watering no less than the planting.
Planting and watering cover varied shared labor in one field, with one fitted for one line of work and another for another, moving forward together harmoniously. Some plow the field and sow the seed, some plant, water, prune, support, tend, cultivate, and care for the growing plants, while others reap and gather the harvest, and sower and reaper rejoice together at harvest. No one is to feel cut off when the work progresses under others, but to keep interest in it and be thankful that others can carry it forward successfully, since every person from the lowliest worker to the most highly educated has a distinctive place. Truth is to be sown beside all waters among every kind of hearer, including outsiders, without knowing whether this or that effort shall prosper, and in new fields faithful laborers break up the soil and sow in trust for results.
At Corinth believers divided into parties crying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, revealing jealousy, strife, envy, prejudice, evil surmising, and division. One group claimed to follow Christ alone and refused due respect to His ambassadors and submission to the voice of the church, others claimed Paul as leader, others claimed Apollos far exceeded Paul in address and power of oratory, and others claimed Peter as leader because he had been most intimate with Christ on earth while Paul had been a persecutor of believers. Such taking sides showed a carnal spirit, walking as men, and the state of babes fed with milk rather than the mind and Spirit of Christ, threatening to ruin the church. Paul and Apollos were in perfect harmony, and Apollos was disappointed and grieved by the dissension, taking no advantage of the preference shown him and encouraging none of it. He hastily left the field of strife and declined to visit Corinth again until the church had reached a better spiritual state, returning to labor there only afterward.
The same pattern appears later, where Luther was the rough pioneer who had to break the road and fight, so his books are belligerent, while Melanchthon came along softly and gently and sowed and watered heartily, richly endowed with gifts for logical thought and polished writing. The Russian mission's truth was planted despite dangers and restrictions for God to make it grow and prosper. Planting means planting the standard of truth in new places, including the more distant parts of the vineyard and the regions beyond and the waste places of the earth, seeking the lost, and watering means enabling workers in every portion of the field to move forward without hindrance. Growth is God's increase in believers, seen as gradual growth from few poor workers meeting in private houses, large kitchens, barns, groves, and schoolhouses to building humble houses of worship, with no portion of the vineyard to be robbed to overdo the work in another portion.
Workers Are Only Instruments
Those who plant and those who water are nothing in themselves and have no power in themselves to produce spiritual growth, changed character, or conversion. Ministers are only men commissioned by God to teach the truth, appointed agents who serve together under Him and depend wholly on His power for fruitfulness, so honor for success belongs to God and not to the workers. This corrects pride and factional loyalty around human workers and rebukes envy, strife, and divisions over them, since each laborer is accountable and each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. The third chapter of First Corinthians that contains this teaching is full of sound, definite instruction to be studied, and none need err who follow its teachings.
They hold the treasure of the gospel as weak earthen vessels possessing no grace or holiness of their own. They are ordained by God to be a powerful means for the salvation of souls, but are effective only as God the eternal Spirit makes them so and makes them vessels of honor, with success coming only as they cooperate with heavenly intelligences and as His grace becomes a living reality transforming character to reflect God rather than self. They may cultivate the vineyard, with one planting as Paul did and another watering as Apollos did, yet only God brings the growth by His Spirit working on hearts. Because the ministry is wholly dependent in this way, Satan directs his special efforts against it. To refuse God's words because of the servant who brings them dishonors God who chose and sent him and grieves His Holy Spirit, cheating the hearer of great blessing and Christ of due glory, and causing confusion, falling away, and weakness.
Even apostolic authority cannot convert one soul, for Paul's deep learning united with zeal, earnestness, and restless energy, and Apollos's stirring eloquence, skillful logic, talent, and address are powerless in themselves to bring repentance and conversion. Human eloquence and power alone accomplish nothing, and reading, studying, knowledge, mere theory of truth, education, persistent effort, loving manner, flowery discourses, floods of empty words, sarcasm, and ridicule cannot produce effect, lodge truth in the heart, or make faith grow. Only God gives the increase and efficiency, changing the heart He created, touching and subduing it by the Holy Spirit, setting truth home as a sharp two-edged sword, and adding the heavenly endorsement that gives success. That divine efficiency comes behind the instrument and cooperates with the human agent, requiring living faith and godliness rather than much knowledge, with much praying, humbling of the soul, laying hold above, importunate wrestling, daily submission to the sanctification of the Spirit, and bringing all human methods, plans, and ideas to God for correction and endorsement in the meek spirit of a learner, lest self take control and even the most experienced judgment prove imperfect, faulty, and shaped by hereditary traits.
Ministers have distinctive work amid diversity of gifts, with the Lord giving to every man as Paul planted and Apollos watered, yet all belong to the same work given by their Heavenly Father, are one as laborers together with God, and are wholly dependent on Him for success. They must blend harmoniously in carrying forward salvation as only instruments of divine grace and power, working with energy and diligence with an eye single to the Master's glory, staying near the cross, preaching Christ, and studiously avoiding calling attention to self lest sacred truth be encumbered and its saving power hindered. Therefore no one is to glory in men or be puffed up for one minister against another by preferring and comparing one with another to the detriment of another, drawing apart over misconceived opinions, building in self-confidence after his own plans without reference to brethren, deceiving self with worldly wisdom, or judging brethren for lack of perfection in word, spirit, and action. Every gift is received from God so there is no ground for self-exaltation or for exaltation through success, on pain of having light removed, and ministers are to be accounted only as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God required to be found faithful, with hearts humbled, judgment left until the Lord comes to bring hidden things to light, and every man's building on the only foundation Jesus Christ — whether gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble — made manifest, revealed and tried by fire, abiding unto reward or else consumed.
Success in God's work does not depend on human business ability and experience. Men given to worldly pursuits with cultivated sharp business traits do not come into the truth in large numbers because they are too worldly-wise and the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them, so not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Christ is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so he that glories must glory in the Lord.
God Alone Gives Increase
God alone gives the increase, producing spiritual growth, transformation of character, conversion, and success, for those who plant and those who water are only human workers and appointed agents who do not themselves produce such results. All good accomplished and all efficiency come from divine power, and the honor and glory for successful work belong to God and not to the workers. The human and the divine agencies stand in comparative value as inferior instruments and the great efficient Agent, for man in himself is nothing and can accomplish nothing without God, yet God has chosen human agencies to cooperate with His divine power as laborers together with Him. Human instruments are therefore to labor to win souls to Christ while the change of character and spiritual transformation come through divine power. God has made His church the depository of sacred trusts and His people the channels through which spiritual light flows to the world, requiring each worker to understand his individual relation to the work, his personal responsibility, and his own weakness and inefficiency.
God gives the increase by His Spirit and power working on hearts, for as farmers can plant and sow but cannot make a seed grow, so people depend on God to cause growth in grace. The Holy Spirit waters the seed sown, makes the impression, quickens the soul, reveals sin, touches and subdues the heart, and impresses minds with the need for repentance and conversion. Even when the word appears to have little effect on the minds and hearts of many students, work wrought in God does not fail, for some lessons of divine truth linger in the memory even of the most careless and after many days spring up and bear fruit to the glory of God. When a wonderful work is done in bringing truth to a city like New York and its suburbs, with Paul planting and Apollos watering in their different roles, only God produces the growth through the Holy Spirit working with willing men, so all the glory belongs to God.
God makes the application of all religious labor and testimony, being present with His angels in every meeting and wherever people are, watching every action and hearing every word, testimony, and prayer. Angels surround people to make the impression that gives continual enlightenment and spiritual understanding to know the truth when it is proclaimed, in proportion to each person's interest in religious things, individual course, untiring effort, earnest prayer, and devotion in seeking God, so each one must know for himself where he stands in order to glorify God. No worker can convert anyone, for only the Lord God of Israel converts and makes the effort effective, working in the worker both to will and to do and sending angels to move on the hearts of hearers. Angels stand right beside consecrated workers who press truth into the cities, establish meetings, speak the message, give means, open the Bible, share the light given them, make sacrifices for Christ's sake, and exert themselves with intense desire for the salvation of the perishing.
As farmers plant and sow but cannot make seed grow, spiritual growth depends on unseen divine agencies, for God gives rain, dew, and sunshine from heaven to refresh flowers and make vegetation spring up and flourish. God creates even the electricity that gives life to the seed and vitality to the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear, and He alone can be depended on to give the due proportion required of all the agencies to perfect the harvest of fruits and grains. He holds to Himself by wonderful links of His own wonderful power beyond human agency just what is needed for the harvest, and without these unseen agencies seed apparently thrown away yet made into living plants would be valueless. Planting and caring for crops and the careful culture of the soil with a view to the harvest are necessary work, and saving souls calls for such intelligent human work under God, with practical lessons belonging in a proper education and Christian motives leading to right actions and to moving forward with firm, steady, ever-increasing trust till the end of life. Yet God will not give a harvest if man folds his arms, takes his ease, and does nothing, for man must prepare the soil, use the plow and other implements at the right time, sow the seed in its season, and act his part, with the harvest reaped proportionate to the energy expended and carelessness testifying against him.
Christ alone gives life to the seed and rest to souls, for the physician's or worker's words are only seed while Christ waters them and causes them to bear fruit unto eternal life. When a physician prays with a patient after the crisis has passed and speaks timely words of wisdom to lead the sick to Christ, he only plants the seed, but Christ waters the seed sown and gives the increase as Christ is accepted and confessed on the sick-bed. Though words of gratitude may flow to the physician through whom God has bound this life up with his own, praise and thanksgiving for life spared and for spiritual results belong to God who is present though invisible and upon whom all are dependent for life. Words and works of compassion and love are good seeds dropped into the soil of the heart, and love produces love and good fruit because the Lord Jesus alone can give the increase, since all spiritual life is the life of God in the soul and everything that works in the human agent to perfect Christian character is divine. A Paul may plant and an Apollos may water, but the work of giving rest, assurance, and confidence to all who receive Him by faith is one none of the wisest of the human family can do, so believers are not to conjure up a variety of things they must enter into in order to find rest but to do just what Christ told them to do, leave that divine work to Him, put trust in the One who promised rest to the soul, and be assured that God will do all that He has engaged to do.
Unity Instead of Division
He who plants and he who waters are one, laborers together with God with one object though their work may differ, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. They are only ministers by whom people believed, even as the Lord gave to every man, one planting and another watering while God alone gives the increase, so in themselves they are nothing. The church is God's husbandry and God's building, laid on the only foundation that can be laid, which is Jesus Christ. The third chapter containing this teaching is full of sound, definite instruction to be studied, for none need err who follow its teachings. If workers become exalted because of success and lift up their souls unto vanity, God will remove their light from them.
Taking sides over Paul, Apollos, or Cephas with cries of I am of Paul or I am of Apollos shows jealousy, strife, envy, prejudice, evil surmising, and division. Such partisanship reveals a carnal spirit, walking as men, rather than the mind and Spirit of Christ. It is the state of babes in Christ fed with milk, showing lack of growth in grace, narrow comprehension, and defective experience. One who partakes of the divine nature does not seek to stand at the head of a party. True workers do not draw men to themselves but to Christ, preaching the truth that makes all men one in Christ Jesus.
No one is to glory in men or be puffed up for one minister against another by preferring and comparing one with another to the detriment of another. Believers must not attach themselves to the one man under whose labors they received the light of present truth, draw apart from brethren over misconceived opinions, or build in self-confidence after their own plans and desires without reference to brethren, for that lays suppositions and rubbish on the foundation. Converts who consider themselves independent atoms and tie up in separate bundles cemented to the man who brought them truth and refuse harmony with brethren prove they are not being sanctified through the truth. They need reconversion as soon as possible, or their claimed conversion becomes a stumbling block to sinners, and all who receive the truth in love must make straight paths for their feet in love and unity. Every gift is received from God, so there is no ground for self-exaltation, deceiving self with worldly wisdom, or judging brethren because they do not see perfection in words and spirit and actions. Hearts are to be humbled before God, ministers accounted only as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God required to be found faithful, with judgment waited for until the Lord comes to bring hidden things to light, when every man's building of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble on the foundation will be made manifest, revealed and tried by fire in the day, and if his work abides he will receive a reward.
Those laboring in ministry or in medical missionary work must put away jealousy and party cries of Paul or Apollos or Cephas, wear the yoke of Christ and walk in humility of mind before God, use their varied gifts to bless humanity, and then God will use them as His helping hand, all united in one body under Christ with every part of the work controlled and guided by the wisdom God gives, in harmony in every action, drawing in even cords without friction. Human workers are only instruments who cannot produce spiritual growth or claim credit for it, so attention and honor belong to God, the source of the work's success, and exalting religious leaders or trusting in them is warned against. Erecting national barriers is presenting a human invention God can never endorse, and it is carnality, with envying and strife and divisions. Those truly converted to the proclamation of the third angel's message must present unity and not division to the world, to angels, and to men, sanctified by truth to be channels and representatives of His grace who glorify God in love and harmonious action, each strengthening the other and taking diligent heed to his own course in the solemn work of presenting sanctifying truth to souls ready to die.
Different talents, gifts, tasks, and presentations are God's plan, with a variety of gifts brought into exercise together, blending public preaching of truth with personal teaching effort. One may emphasize one phase of truth and another present it differently, so a minister who does not dwell upon the very same things as his brethren but emphasizes some other phase or presents the Word in a different way is not to be condemned, nor need he fear that his brethren do not regard him and his exposition as of consequence. Workers must give room to fellow laborers, blend talents, work faithfully and unselfishly under one Head feeling their need of one another, and use their gifts to uplift Christ and do good to all. One person's rejection of a worker's approach does not mean another worker's efforts are wasted, because God can use both to bring people to the truth. The Lord uses some to plow the field and sow the seed and others to reap, and He causes sower and reaper to rejoice together in the time of harvest, giving every person from the lowliest worker to the most highly educated a distinctive place in soul-saving, each to do his best while the work is prospered if the Lord is present. Gospel workers are given different appointments and gifts to reach different classes and let light shine amid moral darkness in a city wicked and dead in trespasses and sins, with one doing the work of Paul in planting and another the work of Apollos in watering, while God alone produces the result and arranges matters according to the purpose of His will, so workers must submit will and ideas, give God room to work through whom He chooses, stop worrying, complaining, losing courage and blocking His way, and rest in sweet, hopeful, trustful faith. The increase God gives is the progress of His work in each individual soul, and that progress determines the strength of the church, coming when believers are sanctified through the truth and learn meekness and lowliness so self-exaltation is overcome and there is complete and perfect unity.
However great and good the work a human agent does in converting souls to the truth, he gains no ownership over them. The one who plants and the one who waters are nothing to control those converted through their instrumentality, and converts are not to place themselves under the control of the minister. Ministry is to bring souls directly to Christ, because they are Christ's property and must ever be answerable to Him alone, each person possessing an individuality that no other person can claim. Every minister of the gospel must take a humble position, drawing people to Christ instead of to himself. To become filled with the idea that he is able of himself to gain success, and to bind those who accept the truth under his labors to himself as if they were his property, is contrary to the Word and greatly dishonors God.
Divine Human Cooperation Needed
The verse sets the comparative value of the human and the divine agencies in the work for the salvation of souls and in the conversion of a soul. Those who plant and water are only inferior instruments and are nothing in themselves, teaching human weakness and inefficiency, while God is the great efficient Agent who gives the increase and the efficiency. All good accomplished is the result of divine power combined with human effort, for man can accomplish nothing without God and no human eloquence and power alone can accomplish anything, yet God has chosen human agencies to cooperate with His divine power as laborers together with Him. Even apostolic authority, Paul's deep learning united with zeal and earnest energy, and Apollos's stirring eloquence and skillful logic could not convert one soul, for conversion comes because grace and power are behind the instrument giving divine efficiency, so every work in God's service is a cooperation of divine energy and human endeavor. God honors human workers by taking them into partnership, and talents increase by using them to win souls, with a devoted church called to dedicate soul, body, and spirit to saving souls as proof of real belief.
God does not do the workers' task for them, for they must make opportunities for truth to be planted, especially in cities and new fields where it has not been heard, and must press truth into cities, establish meetings, speak, give means, circulate reading matter, preach, hold camp meetings, and act their part. As in farming, God gives rain, dew, and sunshine to refresh and make vegetation flourish, yet He requires man to prepare the soil and put seed in the ground, and He will not give a harvest if man folds his arms, takes his ease, and does nothing. The harvest reaped is proportionate to energy expended with plow and implements in season, and growth and progress follow when man acts his part and God waters the seed and brings the result. Waiting, watching, working is the only right and safe position, for church members are to be alive to individual obligation and not be idlers, and those who do something will take interest in missionary meetings and count it a privilege to speak. Doing missionary work quickens a missionary spirit and drives workers to the throne of grace in felt dependence on the Holy Spirit for all success, awakening earnest prayer that receives rich answers, and God will water the worker's own soul just as far and as long as the worker in Christ waters others. This requires giving self to the Lord, working by His will, making His Word the rule of daily life, putting away selfishness, doing all possible without failing or discouragement, avoiding strife, and contending for the faith in meekness, assurance, and love, while humbling self before God, doing without complaint what little can be done, and trusting Jesus to make it fruitful even amid insult, abuse, and opposition.
Through connection with the Source of all power by living faith in Christ, without which it is impossible to please God, the frail human instrument becomes a laborer together with God and is placed in the divine channel where the Holy Spirit acts through and uses him. That faith in Christ is essential in every plan and movement, even in temporal business on the farm and in every line of work, requiring the closest connection with Christ. Reading, studying, knowledge, and mere theory of truth are powerless to produce effect, and only God can add the heavenly endorsement that gives success, lodges prayer in heaven with precious returns, sets truth home to hearts, and makes it like a sharp two-edged sword cutting every way. That increase requires living faith and godliness rather than much knowledge, with much praying, humbling the soul before God, laying hold above, and importunate earnest wrestling that God will empower preaching, so ministers depend more on the Spirit and His power than on knowledge from books. Human ministers can only sow and water but cannot make growth or reach people by themselves, for God alone prepares the way, works with human efforts, and gives the increase, so success comes only by clinging by faith to infinite power and by prayer for the harvest field. Dependence must therefore be placed far less on the wisdom of finite men and far more on the wisdom of God, praying with faith that will not be denied, coming to the Father as a child to a parent, and laying hold of the arm of infinite power without letting go, for the Lord goes before as strength, fortress, and righteousness and His glory guards behind.
God has made His church the depository of sacred trusts and His people the channels through which spiritual light flows to the world, giving every person from lowliest to most educated a distinctive place and requiring each worker to understand his individual relation to the work, his personal responsibility, and his own weakness and inefficiency. Human beings can accomplish much when the Holy Spirit works through them, because God communicates truth through human beings as valuable channels cooperating with divine power. No one is to work independent of the only power that can work successfully, but is to receive orders from God and cooperate with heavenly agencies, trusting Jesus instead of fretting or hurrying, so that the Infinite gives efficiency, finite workers are not left to do impossible things nor to expect impossible things of others, are not discouraged by limits, and labor so that physical, mental, and moral powers are preserved and the soul kept in love. The same grace that distinguished Paul and Apollos is given to devoted missionaries today, so their abilities and service depend on God for spiritual excellence.
To bear much fruit all need to feel daily the converting power of the Holy Spirit, for efficiency that makes preaching successful is provided by God as the Unseen Worker standing behind the minister to bring conviction and conversion, though all do not have the same gifts or disposition. When ministers yield to sin and are separated from God while teaching truth or God's law, their message is not blessed, the seed is not watered, and the increase is not realized. Faith and practice must therefore be energized by the Holy Spirit rather than compelled by finite minds, with no ruling power compelling obedience to dictates of the finite mind. Men must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and must not lean on human wisdom, for turning minds to lean on human wisdom places a veil between God and man so that men do not see Him who is invisible, while dependence rests on God rather than human wisdom or power.
Sow Faithfully Trust God
Sow the seed of truth beside all waters among all people and classes, poor and educated and influential, improving every opportunity without knowing which effort shall prosper, this or that, or whether both shall be alike fruitful, leaving results to God who waters it and brings fruit and growth and progress. Ministers and laymen alike must do earnest, persevering work for the salvation of souls and not leave responsibility to ministers alone, using every connection to reach every nation. Human workers must make opportunities for the truth to be planted, especially in cities and fields where it has not been heard, working to the uttermost of ability even when prejudice stands like a granite wall and past opposition and conviction make people afraid to hear for fear their peace will be disturbed and the ground may prove unfruitful. Jesus expects believers to give the messages of God's Word as healing leaves from the tree of life for soul and body to patients in medical institutions, and this spiritual ministry is the purpose that justifies spending money to erect sanitariums instead of using institutions only to heal bodily disease or putting the money into missions.
Keep laboring faithfully through uncertainty, discouragement, disappointed hopes, hard hearts, opposition, storm, sunshine, and much trembling, trusting God to work with efforts and to quicken the seed, weeping as precious seed is sown and joining full effort with entire dependence. Do not choose only the easiest places but work wherever possible, work earnestly and unselfishly as when equally hard hearts and discouragements were met, pray and believe, meet obstacles and in faith surmount them, labor in opposition and discouragement and in hope and fear lest labor be in vain, and set the light of truth on a candlestick to give light to all even where hearts are hard, teachers block mercy and truth, and forms and customs and tradition resist a better way. Keep laboring in faith even when immediate results cannot be seen or it cannot be known which effort will prosper, trusting God to bring the harvest, for the seed may lie dormant until God's grace convicts the heart, awakens it to life, and brings it to bear fruit for God's glory.
Work wrought in God does not fail even when the word appears to have little effect on the minds and hearts of many students. Some lessons of divine truth linger in the memory even of the most careless, and the Holy Spirit waters the seed sown, and often after many days it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. The precious seed may lie dormant for some time until the grace of God convicts the heart and awakens the sown seed to life, calling for unselfish, earnest, persevering labor with care, anxiety, and self-denial in continued sacrifice for others' good as co-workers with Christ and the heavenly angels, without becoming weary in well-doing. Effects spread widely beyond workers' reach and full results are seen only in the hereafter.
God is not confined to large assemblies, so speaking to a small number in a house can bring blessing and tears and hope of good. When good seed is dropped into souls of many through public preaching in a large, crowded, and attentive meeting, the fruit depends on God alone to make truth take effect in hearts. Human labor only plants and waters and never produces the result by itself, whether through eleven discourses to a full hall with solemn feeling and weeping while taxed by speaking through a translator, through preaching the Word in a simple style easy to comprehend that brings people directly to Jesus Christ in whom hopes of eternal life are centered including emigrants and people of intelligence with religious experience, or through tent work and camp meetings with able, God-fearing men and suitable helpers, children's meetings and revival meetings and earnest effort to bring people to a decision. After that sowing, propagation of the seed is divine work and Jesus does the rest, so the seed grows and after a time gives a harvest, yet workers cannot tell what results will be where prejudice is breaking down because increase belongs to God.
Planting and watering include working to the uttermost of ability, spending means, advertising thoroughly, circulating notices, tracts, leaflets, and silent printed messengers, going from house to house, and holding meetings to create interest. Everyone who knows the truth and has received light and knowledge of grace is accountable to impart it by using God-given talents, going out into highways and hedges without waiting for license, watching and praying, searching the Scriptures, and holding forth Christ as crucified and risen Saviour, and as they give to others God will be with them and they will gain precious experience. Printed papers sow seed in hearts of scattered believers in highways and byways, and God Himself waters it so that when they come to holy convocation and hear the living preacher for the first time their hungry souls feast with delight on the rich banquet heaven has prepared.
Teachers sow divine truth with students, and ministers, physicians, and evangelists as planting and watering workers educate people to understand the Word, help every soul build on a sure foundation with the Word as counsellor, and shepherd the flock, while increase and fruit come from God working with faithful workers who teach what Christ commanded. Physicians and medical missionaries minister to soul as well as body with timely words of wisdom and promises and prayer leading the sick to Christ, for their words are seed but Christ gives life and makes them bear fruit unto eternal life, and doors closed to preaching alone are opened through relief of physical suffering as a seed of truth dropped into the mind is watered by God, though much patience may be required before signs of life appear. Parents as planters and waterers diligently sow good character like a gardener raising a pink or rose or lily by little attentions oft repeated, moistening soil and protecting from fierce blasts and scorching sun with no rude touch or violent effort and no continual criticism of every little defect, but correcting wrong traits by strengthening opposite traits and turning the mind into a different channel, while God by miraculous power causes character to flourish and blossom in symmetry and loveliness after the divine model until the divine image is seen, and because grace makes fathers and mothers wise to train, parents give God all glory for success.
The third chapter containing the verse is full of sound, definite instruction for ministers of the gospel and for all churches wherever located, so that none need err who follow its teachings. It is to be read carefully, studied, searched for truth for the soul's sake, and read in every church with humbled heart before God, with warning that without such humility names will not be placed in the book of life. It is essential for instruction in righteousness, emphasizing that God gives each person a work and His servants are to be free to seek His guidance and use gifts to win souls rather than be controlled by fallible people.
There is no room for envy, jealousy, evil surmising, evil speaking, self-exaltation, building self up to another's injury, glorifying one's own gift, pomposity, or masterly effort to gain supremacy, because planters and waterers are nothing beside God who gives increase and workers are only little children and instruments in His hands who cannot accomplish any good without Him. All good done is divine power combined with human effort, and God honors workers by taking them into partnership, calling each to see personal responsibility to labor for salvation of his own soul and of souls perishing without Christ. Workers are laborers together with God with different talents, gifts, and tasks, one planting and another watering or cultivating, and are to work faithfully and unselfishly under one Head, feeling need of one another, using gifts to uplift Christ and do good to all, with humility, patience, modesty, kindness, and unity, giving thanks to God for blessing rather than crediting own exertion, for progress of His work in each individual soul determines strength of the church and when believers are sanctified through truth and learn meekness and lowliness there is complete unity.
The same truth corrects carnality, division, and exaltation of men by calling a married man who gives first place in affections to another woman to repentance and conversion, to let Christ take charge of affections and center them on proper objects, to respect, cherish, and love his wife as mother of his children, to guard mind and heart from impurity and from dangerous sentimental and spiritualistic affection, and to be true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word, and deed.
The work begins at home cultivating the plot at one's own door, taking up duty among friends, helping friends in need, and standing at post to save fellow men, for everyone who accepts the plan of salvation begins to work for others. Even when prospect looks unflattering as when Christ came to earth, faithfulness in sowing is the business appointed while God takes care of seed sown, and one soul reached will reach out for others and the work is carried forward. No field is any man's exclusive territory since no special territory is appointed to any one man, and no methods or influence should become a fixed mold, for workers carry work only as far as appointed and then it continues through others; pioneer workers who prepare the field through self-sacrifice and unite with one another and with God receive blessing and success and precious experience, and those entering their labors join as companions not to supersede them, harmonizing different minds, gifts, plans, and methods through counseling and praying together with self kept out of sight in humility and wisdom, modest, kind, and courteous, refusing to set themselves up as judges of work done before them.
Those called and commissioned to important work where it will be appreciated must labor very hard because love of Christ constrains them and souls for whom Christ died are of inexpressible worth, forgetting self and making ease, pleasure, and even health secondary, yet working in humility trusting God to give increase. Waiting, watching, working is the only right and safe position, for God gives increase to all willing, heartfelt service under His divine administration and calls for workers not idlers. A missionary spirit is quickened by doing missionary work, and doing work for others drives workers to the throne of grace in felt dependence on the gracious agency of the Holy Spirit for all success, awakening earnest prayer that receives rich answers, with church members alive to individual obligations and finding privilege in speaking in missionary meetings.
Preaching the righteousness of Christ is seed sown that must be watered by the Lord to live and grow in hearers, since preachers only plant and water while all life and growth comes from God alone. Thirty embracing truth after months of difficult labor is reason to recognize what God has done, and those converted can work among families, relatives, and friends so seed already sown may bring further increase.
God will not convict and convert souls to bring them under a lethargic, faultfinding, dissenting influence where believers strive to be first and emit no light, because such souls would be demoralized rather than elevated, purified, and ennobled. Growth that gathers a harvest comes through consecrated workers who labor with steady, firm, persevering steadfastness and do not fail or become discouraged.