I Corinthians 3:7
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So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
neither is he that . . . anything . . . but God--namely, is all in all. "God" is emphatically last in the Greek, "He that giveth the increase (namely), GOD." Here follows a parenthesis, Co1 3:8-21, where "Let no man glory in men" stands in antithetic contrast to "God" here.
Open source ↗In this chapter the apostle, I. Blames the Corinthians for their carnality and divisions (Co1 3:1-4). II. He instructs them how what was amiss among them might be rectified, by remembering, 1. That their ministers were no more than ministers (Co1 3:5). 2. That they were unanimous, and carried on the same design (Co1 3:6-10). 3. That they built on one and the same foundation (Co1 3:11-15). III. He exhorts them to give due honour to their bodies, by keeping them pure (Co1 3:16, Co1 3:17), and to humility and self-diffidence (Co1 3:18-21). IV. And dehorts them from glorying in particular ministers, because of the equal interest they had in all (Co1 3:22 to the end).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your loving devotion, because of Your faithfulness.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.