New English Translation
1 Corinthians 3:6
6I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow.
1 Corinthians 3:6 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
- New International Version (NIV)I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
- English Standard Version (ESV)I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
- New King James Version (NKJV)I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
Context of 1 Corinthians 3:6
4For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? 5What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. 7So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work.
Read all of 1 Corinthians 31 Corinthians 3:6 word by word
ἐγὼ ἐφύτευσα, Ἀπολλῶς ἐπότισεν, ἀλλ᾽ ὁ θεὸς ηὔξανεν·Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Corinthians 3:6
- 1 Corinthians 3:9We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God’s field, God’s building.
- 1 Corinthians 4:14I am not writing these things to shame you, but to correct you as my dear children.
- 1 Corinthians 9:1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
- 1 Corinthians 15:1Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,
- Acts 18:4He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them.
- 2 Corinthians 10:14For we were not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach as far as you, because we were the first to reach as far as you with the gospel about Christ.
- Proverbs 11:25A generous person will be enriched, and the one who provides water for others will himself be satisfied.
- Acts 18:24Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker, well-versed in the scriptures.
- Acts 19:1While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul went through the inland regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples there
- 1 Corinthians 1:30He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
- 1 Corinthians 15:10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
- Psalms 62:9Men are nothing but a mere breath; human beings are unreliable. When they are weighed in the scales, all of them together are lighter than air.
- Psalms 92:13Planted in the Lord’s house, they grow in the courts of our God.
- Psalms 127:1If the Lord does not build a house, then those who build it work in vain. If the Lord does not guard a city, then the watchman stands guard in vain.
- Isaiah 55:10The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
- Isaiah 61:11For just as the ground produces its crops and a garden yields its produce, so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance to grow, and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations.
Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 3:6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 6I have planted - I first sowed the seed of the Gospel at Corinth, and in the region of Achaia. Apollos watered - Apollos came after me, and, by his preachings and exhortations, watered the seed which I had sowed; but God gave the increase. The seed has taken root, has sprung up, and borne much fruit; but this was by the especial blessing of God. As in the natural so in the spiritual world; it is by the especial blessing of God that the grain which is sown…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 6I have planted - The apostle here compares the establishment of the church at Corinth to the planting of a vine, a tree, or of grain. The figure is taken from agriculture, and the meaning is obvious. Paul established the church. He was the first preacher in Corinth; and if any distinction was due to anyone, it was rather to him than to the teachers who had labored there subsequently; but he regarded himself as worthy of no such honor as to be the head of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 5-9Verses 5-9 The ministers about whom the Corinthians contended, were only instruments used by God. We should not put ministers into the place of God. He that planteth and he that watereth are one, employed by one Master, trusted with the same revelation, busied in one work, and engaged in one design. They have their different gifts from one and the same Spirit, for the very same purposes; and should carry on the same design heartily. Those who work hardest…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 6I planted the seed: See Acts 18:1–11. Apollos watered it: See Acts 18:27–19:1.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 66. I ... planted, Apollos watered--(Ac 18:1; 19:1). Apollos at his own desire (Ac 18:27) was sent by the brethren to Corinth, and there followed up the work which Paul had begun. God gave the increase--that is, the growth (1Co 3:10; Ac 18:27). "Believed through grace." Though ministers are nothing, and God all in all, yet God works by instruments, and promises the Holy Spirit in the faithful use of means. This is the dispensation of the Spirit, and ours…Read the comment
Topics related to 1 Corinthians 3:6
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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