We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed – God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.
As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:2-12)
If Paul is indeed answering slander in this passage, then at least some (not necessarily all) of the statements would correspond to the accusations leveled against him. And we can infer that these accusations allege the opposite of the statements that he makes here. However, contrary to a common hermeneutical error, even if we assume that Paul is answering slander (an assumption that cannot be established), we have no right to assume that every item that he mentions is said in reply to a corresponding accusation made against him. Therefore, there is no way to know the exact content of the slander. And if he is not answering slander, then the passage is simply something that Paul wishes to say. All of this has no effect on the meaning of the passage.
The text highlights several characteristics of a genuine gospel ministry. Preaching the same message in place after place even in the face of persecution makes it more credible that the apostle has a sincere belief in the veracity and urgency of his doctrine, and that he speaks out of obedience to God and compassion for his hearers. He is not after comfort or popularity, since he does not flatter his audience, and almost everywhere he goes he has to suffer mistreatment and endure insults. He is not after some financial reward, since he worked to earn his own living. I will say more about this last point in a moment.
He makes a number of denials as well as several claims. His preaching, he says, does not spring from error, does not spring from impure motives, and does not spring from trickery. He is not trying to please men or seek the praise of men. He does not use flattery or put on a mask as if to cover up evil intentions. Perhaps these items correspond to accusations made against him, but we cannot be sure, and he could make these denials whether or not he is answering slander. On the contrary, he adds, he speaks as one approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so that both his character and his message have received the divine seal of authenticity. He makes these claims with the awareness that God “tests our hearts” and that he is “our witness.” In addition, while he was with the Thessalonians, he treated them with the care of a mother and the comfort of a father.
Here is where consistent doctrine and lifestyle can pay off: Paul appeals to what the Thessalonians have learned about him from the time that he stayed with them. In order to answer slander or to reinforce his credibility, he only has to remind them of what they already know about him, and so he writes, “You know” (v. 5), “Surely you remember” (v. 9), “You are witnesses” (v. 10), and “For you know” (v. 11). This is a powerful method for defending one’s integrity, but needless to say, it is effective only if one has displayed exemplary conduct before his audience. This observation impresses us with Paul’s holiness and dedication, but it becomes even more beneficial if we will follow his pattern.
As for the matter of financial support, Paul writes that while he and his companions were preaching the gospel to the Thessalonians, they “worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone” (v. 9). It is essential to truth, justice, and the health of the church and its people to know what Paul is saying, what he has done, and his reason for doing it. Some have concluded that ministers of the gospel should never accept payment for their work as preachers, but should always earn their livelihood by laboring in something other than the work of the ministry. This position represents not only a misunderstanding and even a rejection of Scripture, but it is abusive, unjust, and wicked, and it will incur the Lord’s punishment if not righted.
There is the matter of motive. Christians often complain that preachers only want to take their money. But not many preachers are wealthy, and with stingy and rebellious Christians like these, it is unlikely that many of them will become wealthy. Preachers enter into the ministry knowing this, and those who do not are probably not very intelligent. The fact is that most professing believers who complain about greedy preachers do so to hide their own covetousness. It is not that preachers only want to take their money, but that these so-called believers only want to keep their money. The issue of stingy believers is a much greater problem than greedy preachers.
Then, although 1 Thessalonians 2:6-9 includes all the information that we need to grasp the basics of Paul’s view on the matter, he offers more details in 1 Corinthians 9:3-14:
This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?
But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
Paul’s thinking spills into verses 15-18, but there he is already proceeding to the next point in his argument, and so we will stop at verse 14. As we consider this topic, we will keep both the 1 Thessalonians and the 1 Corinthians passages in mind.
In both places, Paul insists that he has the right to obtain financial support from his hearers. He uses various expressions and analogies to describe this right. He says that he has the right “to be a burden” (1 Thessalonians 2:6, 9). The context is that he “worked night and day,” so the burden refers to the financial support that the Thessalonians would have had to provide for Paul if he had not worked to provide for himself. He says that he has “the right to food and drink” (1 Corinthians 9:4). He mentions that Peter, the Lord’s brothers, and the other apostles would take their wives along with them (v. 5). This is mentioned together with “the right to food and drink,” implying that the provision must also extend to the companions of the apostles. Then, he asks the rhetorical question, “Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?” (v. 6). This implies that Paul and Barnabas have the same right as the other apostles, and that this right entails not having to “work for a living” – work that is something other than the work of the ministry.
He drives his point across in verses 7-14 with many analogies, one after another: “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk?…Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.’ …when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest….If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?…Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?”
The principle common in all these analogies is that the worker should benefit from and should live on his work. So the soldier should receive payment for being a soldier – it would be an injustice to require him to serve as a soldier and at the same time to labor in something else to earn his livelihood. No, if he works as a solider, then that is where his livelihood should come from. The farmer eats of his own produce. The temple worker gets his food from the temple. How much more should one who sows “spiritual seed” receive a “material harvest” from those that he serves (v. 11)?
Both the analogies and the explicit statements insist that this right belongs to every preacher of the gospel, and not only to the apostles. The universal principle applies to he who serves as a solider, he who plants, he who tends a flock, the plowman, the thresher, and even an ox. And it is directly applied to those who sow “spiritual seed” (v. 11) and “those who preach the gospel” (v. 14). The principle applies to all workers, even animals, and no less to those who preach the gospel. He concludes, “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel” (v. 14).
This is the Lord’s ordinance, and places a moral obligation on every person. Therefore, those who hear the gospel are expected to render payments to the preachers, and those who preach the gospel are to exercise this right and accept their payments, to make their living by preaching the gospel. In fact, Paul himself accepted financial support from the Philippians (see Philippians 4:15-19). He refers to the transaction as a “matter of giving and receiving” (v. 15), and that which was received as “aid” (v. 16), “a gift” (v. 17), and by implication a “payment” (v. 18). And he says that the Philippians sent gifts to him “again and again” (v. 16).
Thus it is not true that Paul never accepted payment for his preaching and ministry work. But he did not demand payment from the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. So although he had the right, he did not exercise his right to demand payment for his spiritual labor in these instances. He says as much in 1 Corinthians 9:12 and 15: “We did not use this right…I have not used any of these rights.” Again, the fact that he did not use his right means that he had it to use. He made himself an exception, and this means that in all other situations, preachers may exercise the right to receive payment for their work of preaching.
Why did Paul make himself an exception? Why did he not exercise his right? He explains, “We put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ” (v. 12). He would earn his own living while he preaches the gospel in situations where this would prevent or remove hindrances to the gospel. In these instances, he is approaching unbelievers with the gospel as a missionary, and he distinguishes himself in this manner from the itinerant charlatans who swindle people by their fanciful philosophies. Even then, notice that whereas the right of preachers to receive payment from their hearers remains a universal principle, his decision to not accept payment from unbelievers (for when he first preached to them, they were still unbelievers) stands as a personal policy that Scripture never made into a universal principle. That is, preachers might follow his example at times, but they are never required to do so, as there is no indication that even the other apostles gave up their rights in this manner.
As he defends his ministry in his second letter to the Corinthians (see 2 Corinthians 11:5-23), he again mentions the fact that he preached the gospel to them “free of charge” (v. 7). He brings this up to make a contrast between himself and the “false apostles” (v. 13) that were exploiting them, and that apparently have deceived some of the Corinthians, turning them against Paul and his teachings. As with the Thessalonians, he reminds them of what they ought to know already, that unlike those with dubious doctrines and motives, he preached to them as an ambassador of Christ, under authority and under command, and instead of exercising his right to receive payment from them, he earned his own living while he preached to them.
But it was not that Paul earned all of his income by himself, or that he never accepted financial support, since in this same passage he writes, “I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so” (v. 8-9). So it was not that he always refused payment, but that he refused payment from them. Did Paul do that because they were special? Yes, as it turned out, they were especially fickle.
So why did Paul make himself an exception? Why did he not exercise his right? Because he was preaching to people who were either unfamiliar with the gospel, unstable in the faith, or not known to be established. Sometimes, as with the Philippians, Christian virtues quickly take root and bear fruit, and the believers soon become partners in the gospel (Philippians 1:5), so that they send aid again and again (Philippians 4:16). Sometimes, as with the Corinthians, they remain suspicious, disloyal, covetous, gullible, and always teetering on the edge of apostasy. This is when a preacher rejoices that he has not accepted anything from them.
For a preacher to exercise his right to accept payment implies nothing negative about the preacher, since it is a right. But for a preacher to not exercise his right to accept payment is, in fact, very unflattering to those who hear him. He probably regards the audience as unbelievers, as false believers, as immature believers, or no matter what they are, he perceives some deficiency in them or even hostility in them against the gospel, or he foresees some danger on the horizon that he could address from a superior position if he would refuse payment from the people at this time. He, in any case, does not consider the audience a group of genuine and mature Christians who are able and eager to become his partners in the gospel.
When a preacher accepts or even requests financial support from a group of people, he honors them by indicating that he trusts them as genuine and mature believers who are secure in the faith, and who would not stumble over this command of Christ in the matter of giving and receiving. Accordingly, those professing believers who complain about preachers who exercise their right in accepting payment for their service condemn themselves before the Lord. And those who even insist that all sincere preachers should earn their own living apart from preaching the gospel proclaim themselves to be unbelievers or immature believers who might stumble over the smallest sacrifice or act of obedience.
Concerning the matter of payment toward church elders, Paul writes, “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages'” (1 Timothy 5:17-18). He does not say, “Do not pay the elders anything! They must work outside of the church to provide for themselves and their families.”
That they are “worthy of double honor” refers to the nature and amount of their compensation, as indicated by the context. Verse 18 first mentions again the ox that grazes while it treads the field, that is, the principle that the worker should receive payment from the work that he does. Then, it makes the statement, “The worker deserves his wages,” which echoes the Lord’s own words (see Luke 10:7) – they are worthy of “double.” In other words, Paul’s instruction is to pay the church elders, and pay them well. Nevertheless, he refers to those who do well, and especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Any board or church that disregards this principle operates in opposition against God’s command. The Lord will judge.
The preacher’s power to receive payment is called a “right” (1 Corinthians 9:12, 15), and the money rendered to him is called a “wage” (1 Timothy 5:18, Luke 10:7). This means that the payment toward the preacher is owed to him. And this in turn means that when believers provide proper financial compensation to a preacher, this is considered a salary, and not an act of charity or compassion. But if they fail to pay, they are rightly considered cheaters and robbers.
When you withhold money from a preacher, you are withholding money that belongs to him, that he has a right to receive. The Bible calls the money that he deserves his “wages” or salary. So those who fail to pay fall under the curse of James, who writes, “Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty” (James 5:4).
The money that you withhold from preachers who proclaim the word of God to you, who teach you sound doctrine, who defend you against assaults and deceptions, and who pray for you, so that your faith would not fail, now testifies against you before the Lord. It will stand as a witness against you in the day of judgment, as evidence of your injustice and cruelty. God will hold you responsible for every lack that they endure. He will charge to your account every occasion that their wives worry about the future. He will punish you for every night that their children go to sleep hungry. And what about those who have to do without the ministry of preachers who lack the resources to reach them? Surely their blood is on your hands.
We reap what we sow. Elsewhere, Paul writes, “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:6-8). To say this another way, our investments will produce the corresponding returns. The things that we put our time, effort, and money in, are the kinds of things that we will receive.
Consider a military illustration. Suppose a nation neglects to finance its military because it chooses to invest in other more interesting agendas. Its defense will not fall overnight, but it will begin to weaken, corrode, and become outdated. It will be unable to recruit, train, and maintain its troops, or to research and invest in new technologies. In fact, it will become increasingly difficult to keep up a continual supply of the basic equipment that every unit requires. And thus the nation becomes vulnerable to threats.
Likewise, a poorly financed police force becomes ineffective in recruiting, training, and maintaining its officers, or to supply them with the latest equipment and technologies. As a result, crimes increase and citizens are endangered. On the other hand, if the state or nation invests in its police force, its officers become well-trained and well-equipped, contributing to the general welfare and ordered operation of the society.
We are familiar with the effects of investments in many other fields: medicine, education, computer science, architecture, music, environmental preservation, and so on. Indeed, the same argument can be made concerning every area of human life and culture. People acknowledge the problems that can occur when we underpay doctors, teachers, soldiers, and police officers, but they consider God so irrelevant to society that they think nothing of underpaying or even not paying the preachers of the gospel.
We reap what we sow. If you have refused to sow to the spirit but have sown instead to the indulgence of the flesh – that is, if you have invested in the pleasures of your flesh instead of the things of God – then, you will reap a whirlwind of sin and carnality, violence and destruction, unbelief and defiance. Christians often complain that they live in a country characterized by such things, but the fact is that many of them have contributed to the current condition by investing in the things of the flesh, spurning the things of God and withholding funds from his ministers. What if we invest everything we have in preachers and theologians who are faithful to communicate the Christian faith with clarity and courage? The church will be strengthened, God’s name will be honored, and the nation as a whole will become prosperous. In the face of an ever worsening crisis, even Christians are accustomed to take away their support from the things of God and to invest in unspiritual solutions. But this only adds to the harvest of destruction.
So the question to Christians is, are you willing to, often without sacrificing any comfort at all, part with some of your surplus so that you will exhibit at least a pretense of respect for God and for those whom he has called and sent to preach for the salvation of your very souls? Invest your time, effort, and money in spiritual things – in preachers, churches, and ministries that publish sound doctrine and enforce church discipline – and you will reap a harvest of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Finally, a word to the preachers. The biblical principle and standard is that “those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). We must preach it to the people because this is what God commands, even if they might regard such a message as self-serving when coming from us. We must not be embarrassed by it, but as with other biblical doctrines, we must preach it with boldness and shamelessness, so that those who desire to obey the truth will know and comply, and to remove any excuse from those who disobey out of ignorance and rebellion, so that they may be judged. We can tell them that they should invest in ministers – in us! – but we cannot force them, and they will not comply unless the Holy Spirit regenerates them and stimulates them to joyful obedience.
Love does not always insist on rights. Even if we suffer because of the people’s callousness, we must still perform the work that God has called us to do, looking to him for our deliverance and sustenance, instead of to those whom we call brothers and sisters. So the question to preachers is, are you willing, if necessary, to sacrifice personal comfort and security to minister to an often covetous, selfish, ungrateful, unbelieving, demanding, and critical people?