This summer we started a small garden in our backyard. We have tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, and carrots. Almost daily there are noticeable changes in the plants: new branches, new flowers, and even some itsy-bitsy zucchinis forming. There is a certain sense of mystery and wonder in the simple act of growing a garden. It is a fairly predictable process—put seeds/seedlings in soil, water regularly, weed, wait for harvest—but at the same time it is anything but ordinary. We actually have zero control over the amazing processes going on in those plants. All we can do is manipulate some of the conditions. We plant and water and tend, but that is only a partial explanation of the results. We provide the right conditions and seemingly magically, the little seeds that looked so lifeless become a living, growing thing. They take carbon from the air, and water and nutrients from the soil and produce delicious and nutritious things for us to eat. The plant life that God has created is nothing short of a miracle.

Paul used plant growth as an analogy for understanding spiritual growth of Christians. When he wrote to the Corinthians, he rebuked them for the way they were dividing into groups based on a preference for certain Christian leaders. They were saying things like, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas” (1 Cor. 1:12). He told them that their behavior in this regard indicated that they were immature in their faith (1 Cor. 3:1). What they needed was to realize that it doesn’t make you more special than other people if a great Christian evangelist or teacher was the one who taught you the gospel. “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:5-7).

While we can and should honor Christian leaders for their work and faithfulness (1 Thess. 5:12), we must remember that it is God who ultimately gives the growth. The power is not in humans, it is in God and in his word. When you help others grow spiritually, remember that we just plant and water. God gives the increase. As a church, let us plant the seed of the word—deep in our own hearts and in the hearts of children and grandchildren, coworkers and neighbors, the mailman, the cashier, the barber, the hair stylist, and everyone else we know. Let us water it with prayer, meditation on the word, fasting, and worship. And let us trust that God will give the growth.