<p>3:6 <i>I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase- </i>The &quot;increase&quot; in the context is their faith; hence Paul later writes of &quot;when your faith is increased&quot; (2 Cor. 10:15). Faith is a gift from God. This metaphor would have stopped at the planting and watering if the Gospel alone was enough to provoke faith. Paul later explains how that in his preaching he laid the foundation of the Gospel of Christ, but other brethren were building on it, as here in this earlier parable he speaks of his planting the seed of the Gospel and Apollos watering it. He warned these 'builder' brethren to &quot;take heed how he buildeth thereupon&quot;, because &quot;every man's work (cp. &quot;ye are my work in the Lord&quot;, 1 Cor. 9:1) shall be made manifest: for the day (of judgment) shall declare it... the fire of judgment shall try every man's work, of what sort it is... gold, silver... wood, hay, stubble... if any man's work abide which he hath built... he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire&quot; (1 Cor. 3:6-15). This clearly teaches that successful building up of brethren will have its specific reward at the judgment; and that to some degree their rejection will be a result of our lack of zeal, and we will thus lose the extra reward which we could have had for the work of upbuilding. No doubt if the brethren we have laboured hard with to help, are with us in the Kingdom, this will greatly increase our joy- as compared to the brother who has not had such intense fellowship with his brethren during this life, and whose close friends in the ecclesia have been rejected, he himself only barely passing through the fire of judgment himself (&quot;Yet so as by fire&quot;).</p>