What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (NASB)
Some Christians put their leaders on pedestals and then bemoan the fact that they have feet of clay. We see this happening in Corinth concerning Apollos and Paul. Paul had to remind the people that they were simply servants and that the focus must be on God.
Sunergos is the New Testament word literally meaning ‘a companion in work’, ‘fellow worker’ or ‘partner’. You find it in 1 Corinthians 3:9:
For we are labourers together with God… 1 Corinthians 3:9 (KJV)
The Amplified Bible says:
For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, labourers together) with and for God. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (AMPC)
What a privilege to share in God’s work. In the realm of sports today and even in the corporate world, we often hear the terms ‘team player’, ‘team effort’. What a joy it is to be a team player united in a common purpose concerning the Kingdom of God. The word sunergos is where we get our English word ‘synergy’. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘synergy’ as “the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects”. We are all servants, labourers together with God. That puts the supernatural with the sunergos. No wonder the verb sunergeo translated as “work with” appears in Mark 16:20:
And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. Mark 16:20 (NASB)
Keep planting, keep watering, keep working, keep praying, and as you do, know that the Lord is working with you.