Neither Is He That Planteth Any Thing, and Paul Includes Himself

He would tell you plainly that a man made him who he is, and he does not think there is anything wrong with saying that.

He has a specific person in mind. He can date the change. He was twenty-three and going nowhere in a particular direction and a man took an interest in him and spent about six years on him, and the man he is now is the result of that.

He says so at funerals. He said it at that man's funeral.

And it is true, in the way things are true, and the problem with it is not accuracy. The problem is what it produced, which is a man who believes, at the level where things operate, that everything good in him came in through one channel and that the channel is now closed.

So the growth stopped when the man died. Not because it had to. Because he thinks it had to, and a man does not water something he believes cannot grow anymore.

There is a short passage where Paul takes apart exactly this, and he does it about himself.

Who they are, in his own words

Here it is, in the King James Version:

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (1 Corinthians 3:5)

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos.

He asks it about himself first. That matters, because the whole passage would read differently if he were describing somebody else's followers.

But ministers by whom ye believed. Minister there is the ordinary word for a servant, somebody who carries something from one place to another. It is not a diminishment. It is a job description, and it is an honorable one, and it does not include the growing.

Even as the Lord gave to every man. Even the capacity they served with is assigned by somebody else in that clause.

You have a teacher who was a servant carrying something and you were never wrong to be grateful for him. 1 Corinthians 3:5 has Paul call himself and Apollos ministers by whom people believed, and it is the Holy Spirit rather than a lower opinion of a good man who puts the roles in the right order.

The three verbs

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6)

Three verbs. Two of them are done by men and both of those are real work.

Planting is real. Somebody put the seed in the ground and it would not be there otherwise. Watering is real and it is the less glamorous of the two and it goes on for years.

But God gave the increase.

Increase is the growing. It is the only one of the three that actually produces anything, and it belongs to somebody who was not in the field.

And then the sentence that goes further than most people are comfortable with:

So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:7)

Neither is he that planteth any thing.

That is a strong sentence and Paul is the planter in it. He is saying it about himself, in a letter, to a church that had a camp named after him.

He is not saying the planting did not happen. He is saying that in the accounting of who grew the thing, the planter is not a factor, and he puts his own name in the position of the one who is not a factor.

You have growth that came from God rather than through a man and you were never dependent on a channel that could close. 1 Corinthians 3:7 says neither is he that planteth any thing, said by the planter, and it is His Spirit who is the one at work in a man rather than a person who is now gone.

What this does to a man who has lost the channel

Here is why this matters practically and not just doctrinally.

A man who believes his growth came through a person has a supply line, and supply lines end. The man dies, or moves, or turns out to be less than he seemed, or simply gets old and tired, and when that happens the growth is assumed to be over.

That assumption is not stated. It operates.

And it produces exactly what it looks like in this man: somebody who speaks warmly about a season that ended, who has not expected anything new in eleven years, and who would say if pressed that he had his time.

Paul's sentence removes the supply line and puts the growing in the hands of somebody who is not subject to any of that.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. The end date given is not the death of a teacher.

You have a work that continues past the man who started it and you were never on a supply line. Philippians 1:6 puts the performing on the one who began it and gives an end date that is not a person's funeral, and it is the Holy Spirit who does the continuing that verse describes.

The picture Jesus uses for the same thing

And the plainest version of it, in a different image.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5)

I am the vine, ye are the branches.

There is no third party in that picture. There is a vine and there are branches, and the connection between them is direct, and the growing happens through it.

That is not a picture that has no room for other people. The same chapter is full of instructions about loving one another. It is a picture about where the sap comes from, and it does not come through another branch.

Which means the man who thinks his supply was through a person has the botany wrong in a way that would be obvious if it were an actual plant.

You are attached to the vine and you were never a branch drawing through another branch. John 15:5 puts the connection directly between the vine and each branch, and it is His Spirit who is the sap in that picture rather than a man's continued presence.