John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 3:8

"Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." — 1 Corinthians 3:8 (ASV)

He that planteth, and he that watereth are one. He shows further, from another consideration, that the Corinthians are greatly to blame for abusing the names of their teachers for the purpose of maintaining their own sects and parties. These teachers, in the meantime, are aiming with united efforts at one and the same thing and can by no means be separated or torn apart without at the same time abandoning the duties of their office.

They are one, he says; in other words, they are so linked together that their connection does not allow for any separation, because all ought to have one end in view, and they serve one Lord, and are engaged in the same work. Therefore, if they employ themselves faithfully in cultivating the Lord’s field, they will maintain unity and, by mutual communication, will help each other—far from their names serving as standards to stir up contentions.

Here we have a beautiful passage for exhorting ministers to concord. Meanwhile, however, he indirectly reproves those ambitious teachers who, by giving occasion for contentions, thereby revealed that they were not the servants of Christ but slaves of vainglory—that they did not employ themselves in planting and watering, but in rooting up and burning.

Every man will receive his own reward. Here he shows the goal that all ministers should have in view—not to catch the applause of the multitude, but to please the Lord.

This, too, he does with the purpose of calling to the judgment seat of God those ambitious teachers who were intoxicated with the glory of the world and thought of nothing else. He is also, at the same time, admonishing the Corinthians about the worthlessness of that empty applause which is elicited by elegance of expression and vain ostentation.

In these words, he also reveals the fearlessness of his own conscience, since he ventures to look forward to the judgment of God without dismay.

For the reason ambitious men commend themselves to the esteem of the world is that they have not learned to devote themselves to God, and that they do not set Christ’s heavenly kingdom before their eyes. Accordingly, as soon as God comes to be seen, that foolish desire of gaining human favor disappears.