God Causes Growth

Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
– 1 Corinthians 3:7 –

When Christian leaders compete with one another, or when their followers compare them against one another, disunity results. Proudly boasting of what God accomplishes through us is divisive, and it arrogantly diverts glory to us that belongs to God alone. He alone plants churches and causes them to grow. God only can cause a dead soul to be born again and then mature in Christ. God is the sole source of spiritual life and growth, so He alone should be honored and praised.

The apostle Paul—that most influential planter and grower of churches—well understood that all credit for ministry success belongs to God alone. As he wrote the proud, divisive Corinthians:

Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:3–9).

One building. One field. One God blessing the work of the planter and waterer, who also are one. If believers are to be unified, we must give credit where credit’s due—to God alone. No one else is anything other than those blessed to be used by God to accomplish His work for His glory. To stay united, stay humble.