Doing Right

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

DOING RIGHT

1 Cor 9:3-12

3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don't we have the right to food and drink? 5 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? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?

7 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? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? 9 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? 10 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. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more?

NIV

It is true there are some pastors of churches that still have to work an outside job because either the church congregation is so small or they are not all givers so that the church budget cannot afford to pay a full-time pastor. This is bringing this truth up to date for our time in history. Paul was making that point about himself and Barnabas. They had the right to be paid as full-time pastors as the other apostles were as well as have their families along with them in their various missionary trips or as they stayed in Jerusalem as the pillars of the church. We know that Peter and James and John, the sons of Zebedee were all fishermen, and it would seem they were not fishing while serving as the pillars or pastors of the church. Somehow they were still able to live, pay their bills, so to speak, and buy food and drink. Paul is making the point that anyone who serves in the role of the pastor should be able to make his living from that role, that calling God has on their life. Paul makes it clear that those who sow spiritual seeds should have the harvest or the right of support from the church. Today, it would seem some churches do not consider this truth and expect some pastors to work outside the church to support themselves. It would seem voluntarism would be considered more spiritual in some cases, even among the laypeople. We have been among churches that held that belief and took advantage of its people in order to store up wealth for itself. Could it be possible in the case of those small churches that cannot afford to pay their pastor enough to support them, that either the pastor should not be there or has not been called by God to pastor, or the church is simply not behaving as the church, or should not be a church at all? Although we have been told by one of our pastors of long ago, that the size of a congregation is related to how many people a pastor can effectively shepherd. Yet, how can that be true when we see some of these high-profile preachers with congregations in the thousands and living like kings. How can they actually shepherd that many people? It would seem what Paul is saying the size is not the issue, but rather the condition of the church and the right of those called to be pastors of the church deserve their wages. He will go on later to say that he does not claim that right that he put up with anything in order to not hinder the gospel. However, his point is that he has the right of support for his ministry, as do all who are called. The church should do what is right.