1 Corinthians 3:6,7

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; 7. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” The asyndeton between 1 Corinthians 3:6 and the preceding one arises from the fact that the verse reaffirms in a new form the last proposition of 1 Corinthians 3:5, of which it is only the development. In the two functions of planting and watering, there reappears in specialized form the idea of distribution contained in the “ as the Lord gave to each. ” In respect of Corinth Paul had received the mission of planting, that is to say, of founding the Church; Apollos, that of watering, that is to say, of developing the Church already founded. And if the labour of the one and the other had had some true success, it was due solely to the concurrence of God. As Edwards says: “God is the source of life in the physical as in the moral world. Man can indeed put the seed in contact with the soil; but life alone makes it spring and grow; and this life is not only beyond the power but even beyond the knowledge of man.” The imperfect ηὔξανεν denotes a Divine operation, which was in process at the very time when Paul and Apollos were labouring.

The apostle wishes decidedly to take away all individual and independent worth from the labour of the two workers whom he has chosen as examples, in view of a Church which tends to falsify the position of its ministers. This choice then has a perfectly natural explanation: was it not by speaking of himself and his friend that he could, with least scruple, remind them of the humble position of Christ's ministers, by leaving it to the Church itself to make application of the truth to the other workers whom it exalted?