The Corinthians were treating Paul and Apollos like heads of rival schools. Paul asks the question to bring both men down to their true size. Barnes paraphrases the thought: what eminence does either man have that anyone should be named after him? All of them "are but ministers, or servants, and have no claim to the honor of giving names to sects and parties." Gill adds that they were "servants to Christ and to his churches, and not lords." The question carries its own answer inside it: they are only ministers, and even their part was given by the Lord.

The answer is built into the question: they are "ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man" (1 Corinthians 3:5). Paul then fills it out: "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). Planter and waterer "are one," and each will be rewarded "according to his own labour" (1 Corinthians 3:8). They are "labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9), and Paul asks to be counted "as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Corinthians 4:1).

"Ministers" translates the Greek diakonoi. Barnes notes that the word "denotes, properly, servants, in contradistinction from masters," and he points to Jesus' words, "whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister" (Matthew 20:26). Paul had planted the church at Corinth (Acts 18:1-11; 1 Corinthians 3:6), and Apollos had come after him and "helped them much which had believed through grace" (Acts 18:27). The KJV follows the Textus Receptus, which reads "Who... Paul... Apollos"; later critical editions read "What... Apollos... Paul," which is why the ESV order differs.

This question moves the spotlight from the servants to the Master. Barnes says it plainly: "God is the original source of faith; and it is by his influence that anyone is brought to believe." Matthew Henry calls Paul and Apollos "mere instruments used by the God of all grace." Even the different gifts they had were assigned: "even as the Lord gave to every man."

That does not make the servants unimportant. God really did use Paul's planting and Apollos's watering, and He will reward each one's labor (1 Corinthians 3:8). But the growth is His alone (1 Corinthians 3:7). Barnes adds that if this idea had been kept before Christians' hearts, "it would have prevented no small part of the contentions in the church."