New King James Version
1 Corinthians 3:9
9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are 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.
- New International Version (NIV)For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- English Standard Version (ESV)For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, 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 then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is 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, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
- Matthew 9:37Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
- Mark 16:20And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
- 2 Corinthians 6:1We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
- 3 John 1:8We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
- Psalms 65:9You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it.
- Psalms 72:16There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; Its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; And those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
- Psalms 80:8You have brought a vine out of Egypt; You have cast out the nations, and planted it.
- Isaiah 5:1Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
- Isaiah 27:2In that day sing to her, “A vineyard of red wine!
- Isaiah 28:24Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
- Isaiah 32:20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
- Isaiah 61:3To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
- Jeremiah 2:21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
- Matthew 13:3Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow.
- Matthew 20:1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers 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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries