New International Version
1 Corinthians 3:9
9For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:9 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
- New Living Translation (NLT)For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Context of 1 Corinthians 3:9
7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Read all of 1 Corinthians 31 Corinthians 3:9 word by word
θεοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν συνεργοί· θεοῦ γεώργιον, θεοῦ οἰκοδομή ἐστε.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Corinthians 3:9
- 1 Corinthians 3:6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
- Matthew 9:37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
- Mark 16:20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
- 2 Corinthians 6:1As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
- 3 John 1:8We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
- Psalms 65:9You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.
- Psalms 72:16May grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. May the crops flourish like Lebanon and thrive like the grass of the field.
- Psalms 80:8You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
- Isaiah 5:1I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
- Isaiah 27:2In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
- Isaiah 28:24When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
- Isaiah 32:20how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
- Isaiah 61:3and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
- Jeremiah 2:21I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?
- Matthew 13:3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
- Matthew 20:1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 3:9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 9For we are laborers together with God - We do nothing of ourselves, nor in reference to ourselves; we labor together in that work which God has given us to do, expect all our success from him, and refer the whole to his glory. It would perhaps be more correct to translate , we are fellow laborers of God; for, as the preposition may express the joint labor of the teachers one with another, and not with God, I had rather, with Bishop Pearce, translate as…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 9For we are labourers together with God - ͂ ́ ̓ ́ Theou gar esmen sunergoiWe are God‘s co-workers. A similar expression occurs in 2 Corinthians 6:1, “We then as workers together with him,” etc. This passage is capable of two significations: first, as in our translation, that they were co-workers with God; engaged with him in his work, that he and they cooperated in the production of the effect; or that it was a joint-work; as we speak of a partnercy, or 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. 5-9It is wrong to proudly identify as a follower of a human teacher because God does the real work of redemption. He deserves the honor. They are servants: See 2 Corinthians 4:5.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 99. Translate, as the Greek collocation of words, and the emphasis on "God" thrice repeated, requires, "For (in proof that "each shall receive reward according to his own labor," namely, from God) it is of God that we are the fellow workers (laboring with, but under, and belonging to Him as His servants, 2Co 5:20; 6:1; compare Ac 15:4; see on 1Th 3:2) of God that ye are the field (or tillage), of God that ye are the building" [Alford]. "Building" is a new…Read the comment
Topics related to 1 Corinthians 3:9
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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