1st Corinthians Chapter 3 verse 9 Holy Bible
For we are God's fellow-workers: ye are God's husbandry, God's building.
read chapter 3 in ASV
For we are workers with God: you are God's planting, God's building.
read chapter 3 in BBE
For we are God's fellow-workmen; ye are God's husbandry, God's building.
read chapter 3 in DARBY
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
read chapter 3 in KJV
read chapter 3 in WBT
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's farming, God's building.
read chapter 3 in WEB
for of God we are fellow-workmen; God's tillage, God's building ye are.
read chapter 3 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - God's fellow workers. Throughout the Bible we are taught that God requires the work of man, and that he will not help those who will do nothing for themselves or for him. The world was to be evangelized, not by sudden miracle, but by faithful human labour (Mark 16:20). God's husbandry; rather. God's field, or tilled land. The thought which he desires again and again to enforce is that they belong to God, not to the parties of human teachers. The word" husbandry" may also mean vineyard, and the metaphor is the same as in Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 27:2; John 15:1; Matthew 13:3-30; Luke 13:6-9; Romans 11:16-24. God's building. This is one of St. Paul's favourite metaphors, as in vers. 16, 17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:20 - 22; Romans 15:20; 2 Timothy 2:19 (comp. 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 21:14).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) Thrice in this verse the Apostle repeats the name of God with emphasis, to explain and to impress the assertion of the previous verse, that men are to recognise the unity, and God alone the diversity, in the ministerial work and office. "We are GOD'S fellow-labourers; you are GOD'S field--GOD'S house." The image is thus suddenly altered from agriculture to architecture, as the latter can be more amplified, and will better illustrate the great variety of work of which the Apostle proceeds subsequently to speak. This sudden change of metaphor is a characteristic of St. Paul's style; a similar instance is to be found in 2Corinthians 10:4-8, where the illustration given from architecture is used instead of the military metaphor which is employed in the earlier verses of that passage. See also 1Corinthians 9:7, and Ephesians 3:17, and Colossians 2:6-7, where there is the introduction of three distinct images in rapid succession in so many sentences. It has been suggested that possibly the use of the word "field," in the Greek "Georgion," was the cause of the Christian name "George" becoming so popular in the Church.
