1 Corinthians 3:8, commentary and pictures

Planting is first preaching the gospel and gathering believers and watering is following after with further instruction to help the seed develop, as successive stages of one work that no single labor completes.
He that plants and he that waters are one in common work, object and purpose under God though their gifts and assignments differ, which forbids dividing into followers of men and glorying in Paul or Apollos or Cephas.
Neither planter nor waterer is anything in himself or the source of growth, for God alone gives the increase and makes human effort effectual.
Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, each being individually accountable and repaid in proportion to his own effort as God alone judges and apportions what is due.
That reward is eternal, the immortal inheritance and eternal life in the kingdom of glory, measured by persevering faithfulness, devotion and self-denial rather than by greater accomplishment, and shared by all who faithfully do their assigned part whether in direct labor or in willing support.

Words And Historical Setting

Planting is first preaching the gospel and gathering believers, as Paul did at Corinth by the work the Lord assigned him, and watering is following after with further instruction to help the sown seed develop, as Apollos was directed to do in his lot and place. All do not have the same work, for ministers are those through whom people believed, each as the Lord gave to him, and in that different work planter and waterer are united as one. Paul sowed the seed, and those who followed him were to water it and continue teaching as believers could receive it, so their different parts carried the same work forward.

Planting and watering stand for successive stages of one vineyard work that also includes tending and supporting plants, plowing, cultivating, laboring and praying, teaching others to help, reaping and gathering the harvest. In ministry planting and watering the seed mean laboring and praying with hope and cheerfulness, and sowing, reaping, and other forms of missionary work are different parts of one work done together with God. One workman may take the work only so far and another is called to advance it, and no single labor is the whole work, for the work continues even after workmen are buried. Those who care for the plants and help them grow cannot be spared, and in a field one may sow, another reap, and another gather while workers also teach and prepare people to help others.

The church is God's cultivated field tended by workers and God's building growing into a holy temple, and God is the master worker who appoints each person's task, equips the workers, directs their efforts, and gives success as they work under His supervision. Workers belong to God and labor together under Him as His helping hands and instruments in the hands of the unseen Master Worker, to work in harmony while respecting and encouraging one another without rivalry or disparagement. The chapter calls readers to consider how they are fulfilling their part in Christ. The verse was written against the Corinthian party cries of I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, when believers attempted to set Paul and Apollos against each other as heads of rival parties. Paul and Apollos were united in work for Christ with different gifts and roles, leaving no ground for envying, strife, divisions, and choosing one minister over another, for ministers are only servants by whom men believed and neither planter nor waterer is anything in himself.

Its planting-and-watering imagery shows that the good seed of truth needs careful tending, continual nourishment, and vigilance to live and flourish, unlike evil, which spreads without cultivation.

Oneness Forbids Division

He that planteth and he that watereth are one in common work and object and purpose under God, though they perform different tasks and have different gifts, duties and assignments as His servants and instruments. They serve together in one work while God alone gives the increase and success, and each receives an individual reward according to his own labor, which calls believers to work in unity with one another and with God without favoring or idolizing particular ministers but receiving the different servants God sends and working diligently for His glory without drawing attention to self.

This oneness forbids dividing into followers of the one man under whose labors light of present truth was received, glorying in men, and preferring Paul or Apollos or Cephas or standing at the head of a party. Ministers are only ministers by whom belief comes, each given his work by the Lord, and those who partake of the divine nature do not draw people to themselves but attract people to Christ and preach the truth that makes all one in Christ Jesus. All who place themselves on the side of the bringer of light and refuse to be in harmony with brethren are carnal, as babes in Christ, not sanctified through the truth, presenting division in place of unity to world and angels and men instead of love and unity and harmonious action with each strengthening the other. Such need meekness and humility and wholehearted kindness instead of independent atoms tied up in separate bundles, and those cemented to a man need a reconversion, else their claimed conversion is a stumbling block to sinners, yet they are not to be given up as irreclaimable but labored with to bring them to a better understanding of the spirit that should control believers, making straight paths for the feet lest the lame be turned out of the way.

There is therefore no place for envying, strife, jealousy, evil surmising, prejudice, discord, divisions and national barriers in God's work. Erecting such barriers is carnal and presents a plan of human invention that God can never indorse, for believers of every nationality are God's husbandry and God's building, made one in Christ Jesus for united service to the Master as laborers together with God. Gifts and talents for planting and watering or cultivating are to be used faithfully and unselfishly, not to glorify the possessor or to build self up to another's injury, but to uplift Christ and do good by helping one another, feeling need of one another, for the progress of His work in each individual soul determines the strength of the church. When believers are sanctified through the truth and learn Christ's meekness and lowliness, putting away self-exaltation, they reach God's higher standard of complete and perfect unity.

One of God's ministers may not dwell upon the very same things as his brother ministers, but may emphasize some other phase of truth or present the Word in a different way, and he should not be condemned for this nor be afraid that brethren do not regard him and his exposition as of highest consequence. Like workers sowing seed in the same fields with one aim to win souls to Christ, they can labor together despite differences in doctrine when meekness, mutual forbearance, charity and humility preserve friendship and shared work. Cherishing envy, jealousy, prejudice, evil surmisings and discord against brethren, withdrawing from some and binding up with others, violates this oneness, repeats the carnal course of the Corinthians, separates from brethren and thus from God, and hinders the manifestation of the Spirit of God.

Oneness requires laboring together in harmony in union of effort and union of faith, counseling together and not trusting in human ability or wisdom since no one alone is sufficient to lead, feeling need of one another, respecting and encouraging one another, and using different talents faithfully and unselfishly to uplift Christ. One laborer is adapted to one line of work and another to another, as some plow and sow and others reap, from the lowliest to the most educated each with a distinctive place, all to move forward together harmoniously in soul-saving without feeling divorced from the work when others carry it forward successfully, so that sowers and reapers rejoice together at harvest under Christ's direction. This forbids pursuing separate plans, criticizing one another, competing for authority, quarreling, measuring fellow laborers by one's own ideas, following human devising, fastening the soul to a human leader, and building self up to another's injury, calling instead to follow Christ as Leader and act in His name as faithful stewards who die to self and live to Christ, with ministry and medical missionary work standing as one body under Christ with every part controlled by God's wisdom and every action in harmony. Each worker remains an individual and receives reward according to his own labor, not wages from men but the eternal reward Jesus will give to faithful workers whose faculties are cultivated for eternity unto better and still better work.

It also forbids building in self-confidence after one's own notions, plans and desires without reference to brethren, which lays only a mass of human supposition that is rubbish on the foundation which is Jesus Christ, for every man must take heed how he builds thereupon. No ruling power should compel men to obey dictates of the finite mind, for faith and practice must be energized by the Holy Spirit, and turning minds to lean on human wisdom places a veil between God and man so that Him who is invisible is not seen. God, and not man, is judge of man's work and will apportion each his just reward according to his own labor, so no human being may set himself up as judge to judge between God's different servants or belittle another servant's work. Those who enter into other men's labors are companions in labor, not superseders, and must be very modest, kind and courteous toward pioneer workers who prepared the field, giving themselves without reserve in self-sacrifice united with one another and with God without selfishness or self-exaltation, which God blesses with success even when the work goes hard. Success gives no ground for exaltation and vanity, for neither planter nor waterer is anything in himself, and those who lift up their souls will have their light removed.

God Alone Gives Increase

Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything in himself, for neither is the source of growth, and God alone gives the increase and gives success to the laborers' efforts. In that same giving of increase is included growing light, for in proportion to the interest taken in religious things a person is continually enlightened. Workers are only men commissioned to teach the truth, mere human instrumentality and earthen vessels possessing no grace or holiness of their own. Their work as ordained agents for salvation is efficacious only as God, the eternal Spirit, makes it so, and it succeeds only through cooperation with heavenly intelligences, which is why special efforts are directed against the ministry.

Even apostolic authority cannot convert one soul, for all human efforts united cannot do it. Paul's deep learning, zeal, and earnest energy, and Apollos's stirring eloquence, skillful logic, and talent cannot bring a soul to repentance without the Lord's help. Human energy and agencies without the Holy Spirit are weak, of no value in conversion, and only puff up self and lead to false positions and false professions. Every work in God's service is a cooperation of divine energy and human endeavor in which man works out what the Holy Spirit works in. God works through prepared human channels to communicate truth when the whole self is prepared to cooperate with divine power, for conversion comes because the grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ is behind the instrument, cooperating with the human agent and giving divine efficiency.

The progress of His work in each individual soul determines the strength of the church, and the church advances only as God gives the increase. In the spiritual harvest human work prepares and sows, but God must continually work in the heart for growth and fruit. In this cooperation the teacher sows the seed of truth and the Holy Spirit and Christ water it to bring a harvest. Even when teaching appears to have little effect, lessons may remain in memory and later bear fruit to God's glory, for words and patient effort joined with Christ's imputed righteousness cooperate with God in restoring the moral image. This includes the physician sowing spiritual seed by speaking words of life which Christ waters and brings to fruit unto eternal life, so each opportunity should be used lest a valuable talent be left unproductive, and it includes the seed sown in meetings which is hoped the Lord will water to produce precious fruit.

Success therefore gives no ground for exaltation and vanity, for neither worker amounts to anything in himself because God alone produces growth. If ministers become exalted over success and lift up their souls to vanity, the Lord will take their light from them and their light will be removed. Knowing himself to be God's servant inspires the minister with energy and diligence to perseveringly discharge his duty with an eye single to the glory of his Master. The teacher of truth must himself stay near the cross in order to bring sinners to it, preaching Christ and studiously avoiding calling attention to himself lest he encumber the sacred truth and hinder its saving power, attracting people to Christ rather than to himself or to Paul or Apollos. His aim is to convert people to the pure truth of the Word and establish them on Christ rather than attaching men to themselves, preaching the truth that makes all one in Christ Jesus, with labor known by its fruits, for a good tree brings forth good fruit and a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.

Individual Reward For Labor

Every worker receives his own reward according to his own labor, for all do not have the same work and each is individually accountable and repaid in proportion to his own effort. For ministers this labor is more than preaching, for after speaking publicly they must follow up personally with visiting, appealing to souls and living out their teaching, and each will be rewarded for that continued responsibility beyond the pulpit. Disappointment in the work is no reason for discouragement, but workers are to labor patiently and hopefully with God, giving themselves fully to His cause, with toil and hardship now followed by glorious reward.

Reward comes only as work endures God's testing on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and every man must take heed how he builds thereupon. Work built with gold, silver and precious stones will abide, while wood, hay and stubble will not, for the day shall declare every man's work because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, and if any man's work abide he shall receive a reward. To build in self-confidence after one's own notions, plans and desires without reference to brethren is to lay only rubbish of human supposition on the foundation, for no other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ. Neither planter nor waterer is anything in himself, for God alone gives the increase, so success gives no ground for exaltation and vanity, and those who lift up their souls will have their light removed.

God alone judges and apportions just reward, so no one is to glory in men by preferring Paul or Apollos or Cephas, to judge brethren before the time, to belittle another's work, or to measure reward against one another. No human being may judge between the different servants of God, for the Lord alone is judge and rewarder of every good work, working through servants of different gifts under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives each worker what is due according to the spirit and principles guiding the work, so a worker with pure motives and earnest desire to glorify God receives the same reward as one who accomplishes more. At His coming He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God, which calls for humbling the heart, becoming a fool in worldly wisdom that one may be wise, and serving as a faithful minister and steward of Christ.

The reward is eternal and not merely wages from men: the immortal inheritance of heaven, eternal life, the kingdom of glory, and the coronation when Christ as Advocate and Redeemer becomes King of His redeemed. Each life-work is examined at the judgment and day of rewards, with each receiving in proportion to his efforts, and faithful united effort is blessed even when the work goes hard. The labor so repaid includes personal efforts to help others seek peace, which makes even the greatest hardships for truth seem small. For ministers it requires not counting work finished when preaching ends but following public preaching with private personal effort, living out what is preached, guarding example, visiting and pleading with individuals to be reconciled to God, denying ease and sharing Christ's sufferings before earthly work soon closes. It requires putting talents out to the exchangers now, adding to the Master's gift and blessing others, and those who have unselfishly used their powers to promote God's work will then receive a reward astonishing by its greatness, while faithfully bearing the strain of daily duties in true, honest work rather than manufacturing ills or worrying about tomorrow prepares without crushing out life.

The reward is measured by persevering effort and faithful earnestness in carrying out one's part in the Christian contest, by devotion and self-denial for the Lord, which determines the place occupied in the heavenly courts. Every ministering brother will receive his own reward according to his works in proportion to his successful labors. Neglect to move at all times in the counsel of God and excusing oneself from God-laid responsibilities is great loss that lessens reward, and if errors and lack are not seen and corrected eternal interest is endangered, with every such failure giving Satan advantage by placing the soul on his ground and opening it to temptation. Unequal bearing of burdens and neglect of brethren are therefore to be left in God's hands rather than dwelt upon until confidence is shaken and health, courage and hope are injured, and duty instead is to have and talk faith, hope and courage.

The reward is shared, for those who work directly in the field and those who give willing, unselfish support share the reward of faithful service and the joy of the redeemed. A wife who supports her husband through cheerful words and actions and prayer will share his reward, women who give up their husbands to labor for Christ are not forgotten, and every kind act prompted by unselfish motives will receive its just recompense. Those who keep on without giving up in doing good, with faithful, patient effort, entreaty and earnest persuasion for souls in their own neighborhood to flee to safety, are working with God and will be repaid for their own work when the redeemed stand before God and precious souls answer to their names because they are there through those efforts. The reward may be lost through selfishness and neglect of duty, while giving means to God's work and making wise personal efforts to save others help secure it. Shunning responsibility and failing to make oneself useful gives no ground to expect a reward, and the lack is remedied only by acting and working earnestly. Neglecting opportunities to do good brings accountability, for faithful efforts to help others and win souls are precious opportunities to serve Christ which God rewards when done for His glory, and neglecting the work of bringing salvation to cities brings a heavy account to answer to God.

Every man's own labor weaves his own destiny, molding intellect and character and deciding future interest, efficiency and fitness for eternal life, so nothing is left to blind chance, and the season and manner of sowing determine the harvest. This includes growing light, for in proportion to interest taken in religious things a person is enlightened continually, because the Lord and His angels are present in every meeting and place, seeing every action and hearing every word, testimony and prayer to make impression on the heart. Individual course, untiring effort, earnest prayer and devotion in seeking God give spiritual understanding to know truth when proclaimed, so no one needs to go to a neighbor to learn it but each must know for himself where he stands, for all labor together as laborers with God. When the heart is set in tune to the work and leans wholly on God, God works through the worker to seek and save lost sheep, and persevering effort from pure, high motives becomes true education that endures unto eternal life. Even the humblest person who does the assigned work and every humble believer who labors in faith and love will receive a share in the reward for his own labor by faithfully bearing daily duties in true, honest work rather than manufacturing ills or worrying about tomorrow.

Faithful Working Together

Faithful work is patient, hopeful labor with God without failing or becoming discouraged, sowing the seed of truth with care, anxiety, self-denial and continued sacrifice for others after the example of the divine Teacher. Having the mind of Christ, workers do not become weary in well-doing but give themselves fully to advancing His cause with steady, firm, persevering effort, leaving self out of the question because much remains to do and little time is left to work. They trust God to quicken seed that lies dormant for a time until grace convicts the heart and awakens it to spring up and bear fruit to His glory, laboring unselfishly, earnestly and perseveringly as co-workers with Christ and heavenly angels. Disappointment is no reason for discouragement, for toil and hardship now will be followed by a glorious reward and faithful labor gathers a harvest of souls.

Unselfish sowing may seem fruitless in this life and its full amount of good remain unknown in this world, yet its influence can continue and multiply after the worker has died. One workman may take the work only so far and another is called to advance it, for no single labor is the whole work and the work continues even after workmen are buried. Results and the good others reap will be made clear in the hereafter.

For ministers labor is more than preaching, and reward is measured by that fuller labor in saving souls. After speaking publicly they must follow up personally whenever opportunity offers, visiting, appealing to souls, living out what they preach, guarding example, pleading with individuals to be reconciled to God, denying ease and comfort and sharing Christ's sufferings. Their earthly work and responsibility continue beyond the pulpit and will soon close, and then comes repayment in the saints' immortal inheritance and eternal life after the last trial, so rich that past suffering will seem cheap beside the glory revealed.

God gives each servant a distinct work and freedom to develop gifts and win souls, and no one man is the complete whole. Each is to seek God's instruction and do the work entrusted rather than expect others to do it, taking up the cross in self-denial, while men of varied capabilities shoulder the load together each doing the assigned part instead of one breaking down under too many burdens. No ruling power should compel obedience to finite minds or dictate another's duties, for leaning on human wisdom and ceasing from God veils Him who is invisible from sight, and faith and practice must be energized by the Holy Spirit.

As with the farmer, each receives according to sowing and work, and at harvest in proportion to labor. God provides seed, soil, sun and rain and gives land to cultivate, but man must do his part by using the plow and implements at the right time and sowing in season with steady, firm effort in harmonious action between divine and human agencies. Neglecting appointed means leaves fields barren with no grain to reap and no sheaves to gather, and God does not miraculously supply what diligent work would have produced, for spiritual things follow the same certain law as nature that means must be used to attain the end. Carelessness and negligence testify against the unfaithful worker.

The world is the Lord's vineyard, God is not partial, and those who plant and water in different parts are one, with one adapted to one line and another to another yet all moving forward harmoniously without feeling divorced when others succeed. Every part of the field must be worked without robbing one portion to spend freely on another, for overdoing work and absorbing money in some places hinders advancing truth in more distant places where workers should plant the standard in new places. Workers are to carry the work beyond established communities into new regions and large cities, planting new centers among those who have not heard and reaching souls outside the faith, called and prepared and aided by one agency from one great Source in love and harmonious action each strengthening the other. In this united mission some plow and sow and others reap and gather, as in the Southern field where one sows, another reaps, another gathers while teaching others to help, and God causes sowers and reapers from the lowliest to the most educated each in a distinctive place to rejoice together at harvest, prospering those who do their best with the Lord with them.

Ministry and medical missionary work with sanitariums, schools and Sabbath schools must stand as one body under Christ with every part controlled by God's wisdom, wearing His yoke in humility and using varied gifts to bless humanity and restore God's moral image. There is to be harmony in every action with no friction, jealousy, quarreling, party division over Paul or Apollos or Cephas, measuring of fellow laborers by one's own ideas, following human devising, or fastening the soul to a human leader, but following Christ as Leader in even cords for God's glory as faithful stewards who die to self. This calls for consecrated, intelligent, thorough culture of the soil with harvest in view and right example till life's end, for teachers sow seed in young hearts depending on the Lord to water it in cooperation with God, the physician sows by speaking words of life which Christ waters to fruit unto eternal life, and every talent must now be put out to the exchangers to add to the Master's gift. At judgment each lifework is investigated and each receives proportionate to efforts, so life's solemn accountability should be plainly revealed in word and action.

Those who enter into other men's labors are companions, not superseders or judges of pioneer workers who prepared the field. They must be very modest, kind and courteous toward those pioneers, giving themselves without reserve in self-sacrifice united with one another and with God, with not one vestige of selfishness or self-exaltation. God blesses such faithful united effort with success and precious experience, rewarding each for faithful work even when the work goes hard, means are difficult, and earnings are sacrificed to add new territory to His kingdom.

Ministers who go into waste places to sow truth are precious in God's sight as they seek the lost with a solicitude none but Christ can measure and look forward to the harvest. Christ imparts His Spirit to them so souls turn from sin to righteousness. God regards faithful burden-bearing laborers who built up His work with each accountable for his own labor, and young workers should treat the experienced with humility rather than murmur against or reproach them.

The first three chapters of First Corinthians, full of instruction, are to be read with much prayer, studied, copied and read in every church as reproof to ministers and churches wherever located, to be received for the soul's sake. Unless hearts are humbled before God names will not be in the book of life. They show why few worldly-wise, mighty and noble with business ability believe, for those given to worldly pursuits and sharp business traits count the cross foolishness, while God chooses the foolish, weak, base and despised to confound the wise and mighty so no flesh should glory and planters and waterers stand as one.

Each reader is called to consider how he fulfills his part in Christ as God's field and building laboring together and belonging to God. Every church member under Christ has entered covenant to do the Saviour's work for perishing souls in his own neighborhood, keeping on without giving up in faithful, patient effort, entreaty and earnest persuasion to flee to safety, working with God until precious souls answer to their names through those efforts. Each has work to do in the strength Christ gives following His example, doing his best unto overcoming and an abundant entrance with immortal inheritance, cultivating physical and mental powers to the utmost to gain intelligence and knowledge so God's glory is revealed with clearness and power wherever providence calls. The same united yet individually accountable labor rebukes impurity, calling the married to remain bound by God's law, refuse impurity in thought, word or deed, stop giving first affection to another, and be as true as steel to marriage vows.