Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
What then? (ti oun). He does not say tiv (who), but ti (what), neuter singular interrogative pronoun.
Ministers (diakonoi). Not leaders of parties or sects, but merely servants through whom ye believed. The etymology of the word Thayer gives as dia and koniv "raising dust by hastening." In the Gospels it is the servant (Matthew 20:26) or waiter (John 2:5). Paul so describes himself as a minister (Colossians 1:23, Colossians 1:25). The technical sense of deacon comes later (Philippians 1:1; I Timothy 3:8, I Timothy 3:12).
As the Lord gave to him (wv o Kuriov edwken). Hence no minister of the Lord like Apollos and Paul has any basis for pride or conceit nor should be made the occasion for faction and strife. This idea Paul enlarges upon through chapters 3 and 4 and it is made plain in chapter 1Co. 12.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing 1 Corinthians 3:5:
Matthew 20:26
Acts 18:28
Romans 12:3
1 Corinthians 3:4
1 Corinthians 3:7
1 Corinthians 4:1
Philippians 1:1
1 Thessalonians 1:1
1 Timothy 1:12
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