God Gives The Increase (An article by Christian Henry)

MAY 4, 2023

 “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” (I Corinthians 3:5-7)

When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter, much division was occurring at the church of Corinth. Much of the congregation thought that the words of one pastor were more crucial than the words of another, namely between the Apostle Paul and Apollos.

Paul addresses this succinctly when he asks, “Who are these people if not ministers given by the Lord?” He posits that if God had not intervened in the lives of His ministers, they wouldn’t be ministers at all.

Only through God’s help and guidance do they gain what makes them unique in the first place. He writes, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”

Without God, it would be as if Paul had planted a button in the ground. Paul could have been the best gardener of all time, having farmed in the right spot, where it gets the perfect amount of sunlight. Apollos could then give it the ideal amount of water at the correct daily intervals, not ever under-watering. But without God, there is no growth.

His point here is that teachers and preachers, by themselves, are nothing. All the glory is due to God, Who works through us. The rewards are not due to our gifts, but our faithfulness and trust in God. These are small jobs, of course, but God is the one that makes them worth doing.

Later in the chapter, Paul pivots the analogy from gardening to building, in which work he sees himself and others as “laborers together with God.” He declares that he, as an Apostle, was under God a “wise master builder,” and had “laid the foundation” upon which others that followed were to build. Of course, the one true foundation which Paul had laid is Jesus Christ. This he had done in the planting of the Gospel at Corinth. Now, says the Apostle, we are all “laborers together with God” in the work of the Gospel. As we build upon this sure foundation it doesn’t matter who does what so long as we are working together with God. We must realize that without God working with us and by us our roles lose all meaning. Paul writes in the Roman Epistle, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…” (Rom. 12:3) All good things we have come from God, and unless He is our co-laborer in the employment of His gifts, nothing enduring will be built.

Paul, or any other pastor, could only build upon the foundation (the person and work of Jesus Christ) because of the things God gave. His stance here is simple: the Corinthians are fools for fighting between two of God’s subordinates. God is the one that does the critical work. He’s the one that gives the increase.