What Does 1 Corinthians 3:8 Mean?
The one who plants and the one who gives to drink are one, and each one will take his own wage according to his own toil.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.THE KEY
Shared work is one, but the cost of each person’s labor is still counted.
THE MEANING
Different contributions belong to one shared work. That unity does not flatten the labor: each person’s own toil is seen, and each receives a return according to it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that serving a common purpose makes your individual effort invisible or interchangeable.
THE ROOT
ἓν
hen
GROWS FROM
ἑν-
hen-
One; a single unity.
The Greek keeps the workers plural while calling them one. Their unity does not make them the same person or erase their distinct work.
ALSO GROWS
henotēs: Unity
ἑνότης
This related word names the shared unity that can hold distinct contributors together.
henōsis: Union; joining into one
ἕνωσις
It makes the joining explicit: oneness can be a shared whole made up of different people.
μισθόν
misthon
GROWS FROM
μισθ-
misth-
Wages, pay, or recompense for work.
“wage” in this verse is misthon. The word translated “reward” also means wages or pay, giving the return a concrete connection to the work. Each person’s contribution has its own account within the shared labor.
ALSO GROWS
misthoō: To hire or pay wages
μισθόω
This verb keeps the word family tied to compensation for work.
misthios: A hired worker or hireling
μίσθιος
The related noun shows the word’s connection to labor and its return.
κόπον
kopon
GROWS FROM
κοπ-
kop-
Toil and wearisome exertion.
This word carries the sense of toil that wears a person down, more than a neutral unit of effort. The verse honors the particular cost of each person’s work even as that work belongs to a shared whole.
ALSO GROWS
kopiaō: To toil, work hard, or grow weary
κοπιάω
The verb makes clear that this labor involves exertion and its effects on the worker.
kopōdēs: Laborious or wearisome
κοπώδης
This related word makes the wearing quality of the labor explicit.
THE PATTERN
Distinct contributions join one shared work, while each person’s labor remains particular.
Two are better than one, because they have good wages for their toil.For in this the word is true, one sows, and another reaps.I planted, Apollos gave to drink, but God made it grow.THE THREAD
Remembering without a gap your work of trust, your toil of love, and your remaining under of hope in our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, before the face of God and our Father.The word translated “labour” here is the same Greek word used for “labour” in 1 Corinthians 3:8. Here it names love’s costly exertion, showing that each person’s particular toil can serve a shared work without losing its own character.
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