1 Corinthians 3:9

New King James Version

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
We are workers together for God, and you are like a farm that belongs to God. And you are a house that belongs to God.

Revised Standard Version
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
We are goddis labourers ye are goddis husbandrye ye are goddis byldynge.

Hebrew Names Version
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building.

International Standard Version
For we are God's co-workers. You are God's farmland and God's building.Acts 15:4; 2 Corinthians 6:1; Ephesians 2:20; Colossians 2:7; Hebrews 3:3-4; 1 Peter 2:5;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

New Century Version
We are God's workers, working together; you are like God's farm, God's house.

Update Bible Version
For we are God's co-workers: you are God's husbandry, God's building.

Webster's Bible Translation
For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, [ye are] God's building.

English Standard Version
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

World English Bible
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For we are fellow-labourers of God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Weymouth's New Testament
Apollos and I are simply fellow workers for and with God, and you are *God's* field-- *God's* building.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For we ben the helperis of God; ye ben the erthetiliyng of God, ye ben the bildyng of God.

English Revised Version
For we are God’s fellow–workers: ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building.

Berean Standard Bible
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Contemporary English Version
Apollos and I work together for God, and you are God's garden and God's building.

Amplified Bible
For we are God's fellow workers [His servants working together]; you are God's cultivated field [His garden, His vineyard], God's building.

American Standard Version
For we are God's fellow-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building.

Bible in Basic English
For we are workers with God: you are God's planting, God's building.

Complete Jewish Bible
For we are God's co-workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Darby Translation
For we are God's fellow-workmen; ye are God's husbandry, God's building.

Etheridge Translation
For with Aloha we work; and the work of Aloha and the edifice of Aloha are you.

Murdock Translation
For we labor with God: and ye are God's husbandry, and God's edifice.

King James Version (1611)
For wee are labourers together with God, ye are Gods husbandry, yee are Gods building.

New Living Translation
For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field. You are God's building.

New Life Bible
For we work together with God. You are God's field. You are God's building also.

New Revised Standard
For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For we together are Gods labourers: yee are Gods husbandrie, and Gods building.

George Lamsa Translation
For we work together with God: you are God''s work and God''s building.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For we are, God's, fellow-workmen: ye are, God's, farm, God's building.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For we are God’s coadjutors. You are God’s husbandry: you are God’s building.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For we together are Gods labourers, ye are Gods husbandrie [ye are] Gods buyldyng.

Good News Translation
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.

Christian Standard Bible®
For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

King James Version
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Lexham English Bible
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Literal Translation
For of God we are fellow-workers, a field of God, and you are a building of God.

Young's Literal Translation
for of God we are fellow-workmen; God's tillage, God's building ye are.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For we are Gods labourers, ye are Gods hussbandry, ye are Gods buyldinge.

Mace New Testament (1729)
For we are fellow labourers employed by God: you are his field, and his mansion.

New English Translation
We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God's field, God's building.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Both of us are just cowboys in God's outfit. We are gatherin' his pastures and you are these pastures.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Legacy Standard Bible
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Contextual Overview

⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. ⁸ Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. ⁹ For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. ¹⁰ According 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

we: 1 Corinthians 3:6, Matthew 9:37, Mark 16:20, 2 Corinthians 6:1, 3 John 1:8

ye are God's: Psalms 65:9-13, Psalms 72:16, Psalms 80:8-11, Isaiah 5:1-7, Isaiah 27:2, Isaiah 27:3, Isaiah 28:24-29, Isaiah 32:20, Isaiah 61:3, Isaiah 61:5, Isaiah 61:11, Jeremiah 2:21, Matthew 13:3-9, Matthew 13:18-30, Matthew 13:36-42, Matthew 20:1-14, Matthew 21:23-44, Mark 4:26-29, John 4:35-38, John 15:1-8

husbandry: or, tillage

ye are God's building: 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Psalms 118:22, Amos 9:11, Amos 9:12, Zechariah 6:12, Zechariah 6:13, Matthew 16:18, Acts 4:11, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 2:20-22, Colossians 2:7, 1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 3:3, Hebrews 3:4, Hebrews 3:6, 1 Peter 2:5

Reciprocal: Judges 5:23 - to the help 1 Samuel 14:45 - he hath Psalms 127:1 - build Proverbs 9:1 - builded Proverbs 24:3 - wisdom Isaiah 28:28 - Bread Jeremiah 12:16 - built Luke 8:11 - The seed Acts 7:25 - God Acts 9:31 - were edified Acts 20:32 - to build Romans 15:20 - build 1 Corinthians 1:1 - an 1 Corinthians 3:8 - he that planteth 1 Corinthians 9:10 - that ploweth 1 Corinthians 16:16 - laboureth 2 Corinthians 5:1 - a building 2 Corinthians 12:6 - I would Ephesians 2:21 - all Philippians 2:25 - companion 1 Thessalonians 5:12 - labour 1 Timothy 5:17 - labour 2 Timothy 2:20 - in a Philemon 1:1 - Philemon Hebrews 10:21 - the house 1 Peter 5:3 - as

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

Genesis 3:13
And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Genesis 3:17
Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

Genesis 3:20
And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Genesis 3:21
Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Genesis 4:9
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

Genesis 11:5
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

Genesis 16:8
And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For we are labourers together with God,.... The ministers of the Gospel are labourers in the Lord's vineyard, and not loiterers; their work is a laborious work, both to body and mind; which lies in close study and meditation, in diligent reading and constant prayer, in frequent ministration of the word, and administration of ordinances; besides reproofs, admonitions, and exhortations, counsels, and instructions, which are often necessary: it is a work, which no man is sufficient for of himself; what requires diligence, industry, and faithfulness; is honourable, and, when rightly performed, deserves respect: nor do they labour alone, but with God; not as co-ordinate, but as subordinate workers; for though they labour in planting and watering, yet they bear no part with him in giving the increase; he is the husbandman, the chief master builder, they are labourers under him; however, he works with them; hence their labours are not in vain, and they have great encouragement to go on in their work; and they are God's labourers with one another, which is a sense of the phrase not to be overlooked. The apostle often, in his epistles, speaks of his fellow workmen, and fellow labourers, who wrought together with him under God:

ye are God's husbandry; or tillage; he is the proprietor of the field, the occupier of it, the husbandman who breaks up the fallow ground of the hearts of his people; he casts in the seed of grace, he makes the ground good, and causes it to bring forth fruit; the churches of Christ are his property, land of his fertilizing, and all the fruit belongs unto him; they are gardens of his planting, and vineyards of his watering, and which he keeps night and day, lest any hurt:

ye are God's building; as the former metaphor is taken from agriculture, this is from architecture: believers in a church state are God's house, in which he dwells, and which he himself has built; he has laid the foundation, which is Jesus Christ; he makes his people lively stones, and lays them on it; he raises up the superstructure, and will complete the building, and ought to bear all the glory, and in all which he makes use of his ministers as instruments.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For we are labourers together with God - Θεοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν συνεργοί Theou gar esmen sunergoi. We 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 joint-effort among people. So many interpreters have understood this. If this is the sense of the passage, then it means that as a farmer may be said to be a co-worker with God when he plants and tills his field, or does that without which God would not work in that case, or without which a harvest would not be produced, so the Christian minister cooperates with God in producing the same result. He is engaged in performing that which is indispensable to the end; and God also, by His Spirit, cooperates with the same design. If this is the idea, it gives a special sacredness to the work of the ministry, and indeed to the work of the farmer and the vinedresser. There is no higher honor than for a man to be engaged in doing the same things which God does, and participating with him in accomplishing his glorious plans. But doubts have been suggested in regard to this interpretation:

(1) The Greek does not of necessity imply this. It is literally, not we are his co-partners, but we are his fellow-laborers, that is, fellow-laborers in his employ, under his direction - as we say of servants of the same rank they are fellow-laborers of the same master, not meaning that the master was engaged in working with them, but that they were fellow-laborers one with another in his employment.

(2) There is no expression that is parallel to this. There is none that speaks of God’s operating jointly with his creatures in producing the same result. They may be engaged in regard to the same end; but the sphere of God’s operations and of their operations is distinct. God does one thing; and they do another, though they may contribute to the same result. The sphere of God’s operations in the growth of a tree is totally distinct from that of the man who plants it. The man who planted it has no agency in causing the juices to circulate; in expanding the bud or the leaf; that is, in the proper work of God - In 3 John 1:8, Christians are indeed said to he “fellow-helpers to the truth” συνεργοὶ τῆ ἀληθεία sunergoi tē alētheia; that is, they operate with the truth, and contribute by their labors and influence to that effect. In Mark also Mark 16:20, it is said that the apostles “went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them” (τοῦ κυρίου συνεργοῖντος tou kuriou sunergointos), where the phrase means that the Lord cooperated with them by miracles, etc. The Lord, by his own proper energy, and in his own sphere, contributed to the success of the work in which they were engaged.

(3) The main design and scope of this whole passage is to show that God is all - that the apostles are nothing; to represent the apostles not as joint-workers with God, but as working by themselves, and God as alone giving efficiency to all that was done. The idea is, that of depressing or humbling the apostles, and of exalting God; and this idea would not be consistent with the interpretation that they were joint-laborers with him. While, therefore, the Greek would hear the interpretation conveyed in our translation, the sense may perhaps be, that the apostles were joint-laborers with each other in God’s service; that they were united in their work, and that God was all in all; that they were like servants employed in the service of a master, without saying that the master participated with them in their work. This idea is conveyed in the translation of Doddridge, “we are the fellow-laborers of God.” So Rosenmuller, Calvin, however, Grotius, Whitby, and Bloomfield, coincide with our version in the interpretation. The Syriac renders it “We work with God.” The Vulgate, “We are the aids of God.”

Ye are God’s husbandry - (γεώργιον geōrgion); margin, “tillage.” This word occurs no where else in the New Testament. It properly denotes a “tilled” or “cultivated field;” and the idea is, that the church at Corinth was the field on which God had bestowed the labor of tillage, or culture, to produce fruit. The word is used by the Septuagint in Genesis 26:14, as the translation of צבדה ‛^abudaah; “For he had ‘possession’ of flocks,” etc.; in Jeremiah 51:23, as the translation of צמד tsemed “a yoke;” and in Proverbs 24:30; Proverbs 31:16, as the translation of שׂדי saadeh, “a field;” “I went by the ‘field’ of the slothful,” etc. The sense here is, that all their culture was of God; that as a church they were under his care; and that all that had been produced in them was to be traced to his cultivation.

God’s building - This is another metaphor. The object of Paul was to show that all that had been done for them had been really accomplished by God. For this purpose he first says that they were God’s cultivated field; then he changes the figure; draws his illustration from architecture, and says, that they had been built by him as an architect rears a house. It does not rear itself; but it is reared by another. So he says of the Corinthians, “Ye are the building which God erects.” The same figure is used in 2 Corinthians 6:16, and Ephesians 2:21; see also Hebrews 3:6; 1 Peter 2:5. The idea is, that God is the supreme agent in the founding and establishing of the church, in all its gifts and graces.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 3:9. For we are labourers together with God — We do nothing of ourselves, nor in reference to ourselves; we labour 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 θεου γαρ εσμεν συνεργαι, we are fellow labourers of God; for, as the preposition συν may express the joint labour of the teachers one with another, and not with God, I had rather, with Bishop Pearce, translate as above: i.e. we labour together in the work of God. Far from being divided among ourselves, we jointly labour, as oxen in the same yoke, to promote the honour of our Master.

Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. — θεου γεωργιον θεου οικοδομη εστε. The word γεωργιον, which we translate husbandry, signifies properly an arable field; so Proverbs 24:30: I went by the FIELD, γεωργιον, of the slothful; and Proverbs 31:16: The wise woman considereth a FIELD, γεωργιον, and buyeth it. It would be more literal to translate it, Ye are God's farm: γεωργιον in Greek answers to שדה sadeh in Hebrew, which signifies properly a sown field.

Ye are God's building.-Ye are not only the field which God cultivates, but ye are the house which God builds, and in which he intends to dwell. As no man in viewing a fine building extols the quarryman that dug up the stones, the hewer that cut and squared them, the mason that placed them in the wall, the woodman that hewed down the timber, the carpenter that squared and jointed it, c., but the architect who planned it, and under whose direction the whole work was accomplished so no man should consider Paul, or Apollos, or Kephas, any thing, but as persons employed by the great Architect to form a building which is to become a habitation of himself through the Spirit, and the design of which is entirely his own.