1 Corinthians 3:9

“For we are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry, God's building.” It is not without reason that in the original the word θεοῦ, God's, heads the three propositions of this verse. God alone is Judge, for He is the proprietor in whose service all this work is done. It is therefore a mistake in Holsten and others to refer the for to the idea of the unity of the workers (1 Corinthians 3:8 a). It bears on what immediately precedes (1 Corinthians 3:8 b). The worker's responsibility in this labour is presented in two aspects; and first from the standpoint of the servant's own position: συνεργοὶ θεοῦ, labourers together with God. It is grammatically inexact to apply the preposition σύν, in the word συνεργοί, to the community of labour existing among the workers themselves: “fellow-labourers in God's service” (Bengel, Olshausen, Heinrici). This sense is connected with the false explanation which regards for as a confirmation of the unity of the workers among themselves (1 Corinthians 3:8 a). According to Greek usage, the regimen of σύν, in the composite συνεργός, is expressed by the following complement: comp. Romans 16:3, and Philippians 1:24, συνεργὸς ἡμῶν (the fellow-worker with us). The meaning therefore is: “We are at work with God Himself.” Some have shrunk from this bold idea of making Christ's minister in the Church the fellow-labourer of God. And yet what else is said by 1 Corinthians 3:6 ? In every sermon, in every instance of religious instruction, in every pastoral visit, is not the pastor the agent by means of whom God works in souls? But, perhaps, with a complement like θεοῦ, of God, there must be added to the idea of joint labour that of dependence. The meaning would then be: “ God's day-labourers, working with Him.” Consequently it is His to pay the workmen, and to value their labour! Is it not His goods that are in question? To Him belongs the Church, His field, His house. The word γεώργιον is not fully rendered by the term field; this would rather be expressed by ἀγρός (Matthew 13:24; Luke 14:18). The term γεώργιον embraces the idea of cultivation along with that of the field; and therefore we translate “God's husbandry. ” It is nearly the same with the term οἰκοδομή, which is unknown to classic Greek down to Aristotle (Edwards). It is taken here rather in the sense of a building in course of construction (οἰκοδόμησις) than in the sense of a building finished (οἰκοδόμημα); for, according to the context, the workmen are still at work. It is therefore to a Divine possession that the workers put their hand! We feel that the apostle has passed to a new idea, that of the responsibility of the workers. What gravity attaches to such labour! To cultivate a field the harvest of which is God's! To build the house which God Himself is to inhabit! God alone can estimate such labour, and He will not fail to do so. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 describe this responsibility and the inevitable judgment which will hallow it. It is less to the Church than to preachers themselves that the immediate sequel is addressed. For several of them at Corinth were certainly not innocent of what had happened. The use of a second figure, that of building after that of a field (used in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8), is due to the feeling of the apostle that the latter does not suffice to depict what he is about to express. He needs one which lends itself better to the dramatic exposition of the two opposite results which human labour may have.

But before indicating this difference between the two kinds of building, the apostle thinks good to put his own work out of the question. For it is ended, and as the result has proved well ended.