"Listen to another story. There was once an owner of an estate who planted a vineyard and built a fence around it, and hewed out a wine-vat in it, and built a tower, and rented it to tenant farmers, and then went abroad.

Then He began to speak to them in stories. "A man once planted a vineyard and fenced it in and hewed out a wine-vat and built a watchtower; then he rented it to tenant farmers, and went abroad.

Then He told them this story: "A man had a fig tree planted by his vineyard, and he kept going and looking for figs on it, but did not find any.

Then He went on to tell the people the following story: "Once upon a time a man planted a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers, and then went abroad for a long stay.

So neither the planter nor the waterer counts for much, but God is everything in keeping the plants growing.

The planter and the waterer are one in aim, and yet each of us will get his own pay in accordance with his own work,

with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude.