1 Corinthians 3:4-6

3:4 For whenever someone says, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” are you not merely human? ¹ 

3:5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. ²  3:6 I planted, ³  Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow.

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

3:21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! ⁴  For everything belongs to you, 3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

1 Corinthians 4:6

4:6 I have applied these things to myself and Apollos because of you, brothers and sisters, ⁵  so that through us you may learn “not to go beyond what is written,” so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of the one against the other.

¹ tn Grk “are you not men,” i.e., (fallen) humanity without the Spirit’s influence. Here Paul does not say “walking in accordance with” as in the previous verse; he actually states the Corinthians are this. However, this is almost certainly rhetorical hyperbole.

² tn Grk “and to each as the Lord gave.”

³ sn The expression I planted is generally taken to mean that Paul founded the church at Corinth. Later Apollos had a significant ministry there (watered). See also v. 10.

⁴ tn Grk “so then, let no one boast in men.”

⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.