So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
Parallel translations
- WEB So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
- KJV So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
- NKJV So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
- NASB So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
- NLT It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything; only God who gives the growth matters. All glory for spiritual fruit belongs to God alone.
Overview
Paul presses his point: human laborers are 'nothing' in comparison to God, who alone produces growth. This is not to deny their usefulness but to deny them any glory that belongs to God. For a church idolizing leaders, the lesson is to look past the servants to the God who works through them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- John 15:5I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
- Gal 6:3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Ps 115:1Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your loving devotion, because of Your faithfulness.
- 2 Cor 12:9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
- 1 Cor 13:2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
- Isa 40:17All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Isa 41:29See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 3:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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