What does "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" mean?

Whosoever Will, Sheep Beget Sheep: Paul is writing to a church that has split into fan clubs, team Paul, team Apollos, and he stops them cold with a sentence that should be printed over the door of every ministry on earth. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7). Read that again, because Paul says something here that would get you fired from most church-growth conferences. Neither is he that planteth any thing. The apostle Paul, the greatest church planter who ever lived, says the planter is nothing. The waterer is nothing. The Greek word for increase is auxanō, to cause to grow, and Paul assigns it to exactly one Person. God gives the increase. Not the strategy. Not the outreach. Not the launch. God. This is the fault line. There are two jobs available to a human being in the work of God: you may plant, and you may water. That is the entire menu. What you may not do, what you cannot do, is give the increase, because that job is occupied. The moment a ministry model starts taking credit for growth, measuring itself by growth, engineering growth, it has quietly reached for a job that was never on offer to it. It has stepped into the one role Scripture reserves for God alone. Scripture, King James Version: 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.".

Verified. Every scripture quotation on this page has been checked word-for-word against the King James text. Last reviewed 2026-10-18.