John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 3:5

"What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? Ministers through whom ye believed; and each as the Lord gave to him." — 1 Corinthians 3:5 (ASV)

Who then is Paul? Here he begins to address the regard in which ministers should be held, and the purpose for which they have been set apart by the Lord. He names himself and Apollos rather than others, to avoid any appearance of envy. “What else,” he says, “are all ministers appointed for, but to bring you to faith through their preaching?” From this Paul infers that no human being should be an object of glorying, for faith allows no glorying except in Christ alone.

Hence, those who extol people excessively strip them of their true dignity. For their chief distinction is that they are ministers of faith, or, in other words, that they gain disciples for Christ, not for themselves. Now, although he appears in this way to depreciate the dignity of ministers, he does not assign it a lower place than it should hold.

For he says a great deal when he states that we receive faith through their ministry. Moreover, the efficacy of external doctrine receives extraordinary praise here when it is described as the instrument of the Holy Spirit; and pastors are honored with a significant title of distinction when God is said to use them as His ministers for dispensing the inestimable treasure of faith.

As the Lord has given to every man. In the Greek words used by Paul, the particle of comparison ὡς (as) is placed after ἑκάστῳ (to every man); but the order is inverted. Therefore, to make the meaning more apparent, I have translated it “Sicut unicuique” (“as to every man”), rather than “Unicuique sicut” (“to every man as”). In some manuscripts, however, the particle καί (and) is missing, and it forms one continuous phrase: Ministers by whom you believed as the Lord gave to every man. If we read it this way, the latter clause will be added to explain the former, so that Paul explains what he meant by the term minister: “Those are ministers whose services God uses, not as if they could do anything by their own efforts, but insofar as they are guided by his hand, as instruments.”

The translation I have provided, however, is, in my opinion, the more correct one. If we adopt it, the statement will be more complete, for it will consist of two clauses. In the first place, those are ministers who have devoted their services to Christ, so that you might believe in Him. Furthermore, they have nothing of their own to be proud of, since they do nothing of themselves and have no power to do anything except by the gift of God, and every man according to his own measure—which shows that whatever each individual has is derived from another. In short, he unites them all by a mutual bond, since they require each other’s assistance.