📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 3:6
What does 1 Corinthians 3:6 mean?
"I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase."
— 1 Corinthians 3:6 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?
For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly?
Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?
I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.
So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
Explanation
In this verse, Paul is describing the different roles that he and Apollos played in the spiritual life of the Corinthian church. In plain terms, Paul is saying: I was the one who first shared the gospel with you and helped establish your faith, like a farmer sowing seed. Apollos came after me and continued teaching and encouraging you, like someone watering a planted seed. But neither of us caused you to actually grow spiritually — that growth came from God alone, who is the one who gives life and increase, just as only God (through sun, rain, and soil) causes a planted seed to actually sprout and flourish.
To understand the context, it helps to know what was happening in Corinth. Paul had founded the church there (Acts 18), and later the eloquent teacher Apollos came and taught there as well (Acts 18:24-28). Rather than uniting around Christ, the Corinthian believers began forming rival factions — some saying "I follow Paul," others "I follow Apollos," others "I follow Cephas (Peter)" (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4). This was a form of prideful division, treating human teachers like celebrities or philosophical schools competing for followers. Paul writes this section of his letter (1 Corinthians 3:1-9) to correct that thinking. He wants the Corinthians to stop seeing him and Apollos as rivals and instead recognize that they were both simply servants doing different tasks in the same mission — and that God alone deserves credit for any real spiritual result.
Theologically, this verse teaches that all true spiritual grow
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