1 Corinthians 9:10-14 - A worker is worth his keep

9:10-12

So it is perfectly right and proper that God’s workers are paid for their work. Another interesting point here is that Paul draws links between the spiritual and the material. We like to separate them, this is often not a very Biblical approach to take. So here, Paul says if they have sown a spiritual harvest then it is fine to reap a material harvest. Indeed, other workers and apostles were paid for their efforts.

Then, having put all this effort into demonstrating that it was fine for God’s workers to be paid, Paul points out that he did not actually make use of this right! Paul did not demand any money of them.

So what are we to learn from all this? The first thing is that God’s workers deserve a decent wage, and the church (which means you and me) should expect to pay them. We can sometimes have the attitude that “they are doing it for God, therefore they should not expect to be paid for it”, this is an unbiblical attitude! Conversely, if we are doing something for God we do not have to take payment. Now this most definitely does not mean we must not take payment. I means that sometimes we may decide not to take payment.

9:13,14

Paul then goes back to emphasising how right it is that those who are servants of the gospel get their living from the gospel, though he is only doing this in order to say that he has not availed himself of any of these rights.

We have a linking here of the Old Testament laws and the ministry of Jesus. Under the Law the priests, the Levites, received their “income” from the offerings made at the temple. Indeed, they were denied the usual allocation of land etc (Deut 18:1,2). Then Paul refers to the Lord’s command that “those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel”. This is probably a reference to Luke 10:7 when Jesus sent out the seventy two.