God’s Servants Series

Paul then discusses their distinctive work: 6 I planted, Apollos watered. He does a good job of capturing the nature of each man’s work. Paul is a pioneering church planter. His zeal is to take the gospel where it has not gone before. As he tells the Roman church in Romans 15:20: I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation. That is the work God has called him to do. Apollos, on the other hand, travels to churches and strengthens them through his teaching and apologetics. It is true that he began his ministry by going to new places, but that changes after his training from Priscilla and Aquila. Thus, Paul plants and Apollos waters.

But God gave the growth. Here is our third essential concept. The first is that ministers are no more than God’s servants. The second is that they only can do what they are assigned and equipped to do by the Lord. The third is that the fruit of their labor is the result of God causing the growth. Thus, though Paul can speak of the Corinthians as believing on Christ through his and Apollos’ ministries, he is mindful of what he said earlier in the letter – that the only reason their ministries bring spiritual fruit is that the Spirit of God is at work in the hearts of those whom God has chosen.

We can see where Paul is going with this. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Paul is not more important than Apollos because he is the church planter and Apollos merely waters what he started. For that matter, Apollos is not more important because he is the one who is really pumping life into the church. They are just doing their jobs, and without the real work of the Holy Spirit, they are nobodies capable of producing nothing. God, God is the power at work.

8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. It is somewhat unclear what Paul means by the planter and the waterer being one. It could be, as the NIV indicates, that the two servants have the same purpose in mind to glorify God. The other, and I think more likely, is that in the context of being servants of God they are one and the same; i.e. though they may be distinguished from one another by their specialties, they are nevertheless plain servants. God does not single one out as being more important or better than the other. Each will receive his wages from God according to the labor given him.

Paul then brings the teaching about him and Apollos to a conclusion: 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. Apollos and he are fellow workers, not competitors. They work together, not against one another. In this particular case, the Corinth Church is God’s church, or building, if you will, and they serve in it together as God’s servants.

With this perspective, look back again at the relationship between Paul and Apollos. The upstart preacher takes on a new light. Have you noticed that Paul never speaks ill of Apollos? It may be that he is trying to be gracious, but the more likely scenario is that Apollos is as troubled as he is about the situation and that the two men actually are fellow workers in the truest sense.