Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church amid factional disputes over which apostle they follow; he is repositioning both himself and the recipients within God's ownership.
The words — συνεργοί (sunergoi), "fellow workers," is a present participle implying ongoing, cooperative labor rather than a title of rank; οἰκοδομή (oikodomē), "building," is the same word used for the temple structure in Ephesians 2:20, identifying the church as an architectural project under construction.
The thread — The "fellow workers" language recurs in 2 Corinthians 6:1, where the same term carries an urgent appeal not to receive grace in vain; the "building" image connects to Ephesians 2:20 (Christ as cornerstone) and 1 Peter 2:5 (living stones built into a spiritual house).
Why it lands — The verse removes the reader from the role of agent and places them in the role of object: they are the field and the building, not the farmer or the architect. It asks the reader to stop auditing whose labor produced them and instead account for how they are being built.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- 2 Corinthians 6:1 As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
- 1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
- Mark 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.
- Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
- Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
- Matthew 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
- John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.
- John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.