1 Corinthians 3:8

“Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.”

The δέ is here a particle of transition, but with a shade of contrast: “ Now, despite this difference of functions (pointed out, 1 Corinthians 3:5-7), these ministers are one.” This unity is not that of their common nothingness (Bengel: “Neuter aeque quidquam est”), nor that of the part of simple servants (de Wette, Meyer, Heinrici, etc.); it is that of the work on which they labour together. To understand what Paul means by this unity, it is enough to consider the foregoing figures (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). Between two gardeners, one of whom plants and the other waters one and the same garden, who would think of setting up any rivalry? Would not the labour of the one become useless without that of the other? What folly, then, to disparage the one and exalt the other!

But yet there will one day be the second δέ is adversative a difference established between them: the difference of the reward they will receive, which will depend on the degree of their fidelity in their respective labours. This idea, expressed in the second part of the verse, is that which Paul proceeds to develop in the passage, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Of course it is the Master who will pass this estimate; it will take place at the day of judgment. And so what folly it is to anticipate it by comparisons made beforehand! The terms ἴδιος μισθός, his own reward, and ἴδιος κόπος, his own labour, recall the saying, Galatians 6:5: “Every man will bear his own burden.” The estimate of the fidelity of each servant will not rest on the comparison of it with another's, but on the labour of each compared with his own task and his own gift. Now who else than God could pronounce such a sentence? And not only has He alone the power, but He alone has the right. This is what is brought out in 1 Corinthians 3:9.