Planting and Watering

1 Corinthians 3:6-8

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."


I have never considered myself a "planter," or an evangelist of any kind. I don't think that I'm relieved of an obligation to declare the gospel; it's just that it's not a natural gift of mine. Some people are incredibly gifted in evangelism, and we tend to think of the evangelist as the ones with the glamorous side of the equation. At least I tend to think so.

The image of a missionary in a foreign country proclaiming the Good News and winning dozens of souls is highly romantic indeed. And there are people who literally do that. I'm just not one of them. But note in the verses above, that watering is an important job, too. That's what my passion is--watering, as in nurturing, encouraging, learning and teaching with other Christians.

We see that God is the one who is responsible for the outcome-Paul is the one who planted, Apollos is the one who watered, but God was divinely in charge of any growth that occurred. What a privilege it is that God even uses us at all. He could just make it happen, but He has chosen us as His divine instruments to accomplish His plan. And above and beyond the privilege of just being of use to God, there is more in store at the end, but we will get to that in a minute.

As I read these verses, another scripture immediately sprung to mind.

Isaiah 55: 10-11

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But is shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Notice that again we have the "watering" analogy, only this time God is the actual waterer. And the tool He uses to accomplish what He pleases is: His word. That is exactly what He still uses to accomplish what He pleases in the hearts of men. And sometimes, He uses one of His servants (that would be you and me) to proclaim His word and bring forth the increase/bud. (I say sometimes He uses us because, certainly, God could drive someone to pick up Scripture and read it without the influence of another person.)

But here is the amazing part for each of us, whether we are called to plant or to water.

Just to make the point fine, let me add here that God's word for us is the Bible, and the Bible alone. I don't want to cause any confusion on that score.

OK, did you notice the last part of the passage from 1 Corinthians? "And each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor" The part that I found so encouraging is that our reward is based on our labor, not on the outcome of our labor. See the difference?

One Christian may work diligently and be blessed to see massive fruit from the work he or she does. She may write books that get published, and receive dozens of letters thanking her for her godly influence every week. Or, he may see entire communities or families come to Christ and be thanked by them in this life.

On the other hand, another Christian may toil away without seeing much progress, without enjoying any outwardly apparent success.

But it doesn't matter what each of their outcomes are, because God takes responsibility for the outcomes. We are to do the work regardless of the outcomes. And in the end, it is not the results that get rewarded, it is the labor.

We can see this principle again in Matthew 25:23, when Jesus says during the telling of a parable, "well done, good and faithful servant." He doesn't say, well done good and successful servant. Nope, He says, well done good and faithful servant.

What a relief! And what an amazing twist. God is responsible for the outcome, and we get to receive a reward just for doing the labor.