To Pay Or Not To Pay

Alba 6-22-2025

TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY

I Corinthians 9:1-18

Today's subject is “To Pay or Not to Pay”, that is the question. There was a preacher who had just finished his sermon for the day and went to the back of the church for his usual greetings and handshaking.

After shaking a few hands he was greeted by the seven year old son of one of the Deacons. “Good morning, young man,” the preacher said as he reached out to shake his hand.

As he was doing so he felt something in the palm of his hand. “What’s this?” the preacher asked. “Money,” said the boy with a big smile on his face, “it’s for you.” “I don’t want your money”, the preacher answered.

But the boy answered “I want you to have it.” After a short pause the boy continued, “My daddy says you’re the poorest preacher we ever had, and I want to help you.”

In chapter nine of First Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks to the issue of paying the preacher. He says it is the right thing to do. On the other hand, he reminds the Corinthians that when he was with them, he did not accept a salary. He even seems rather proud of that. Instead he did his work as a tent maker to earn his money. But he also makes it clear that if he had charged the church for his work, he would have been justified in doing so.

Lets look at what Paul writes in I Corinthians 9:1-18 (NKJV). “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Do we have no right to eat and drink? 5 Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?

“7 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

“8 Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.' Is it oxen God is concerned about? 10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. 11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? 12 If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.

13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? 14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.

15 But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.

In these verses Paul makes it clear that as an apostle, he had as much right to expect payment for his ministry as anyone else, including the other apostles, Peter and the brothers of Jesus. To illustrate that the one who ministers has a right to receive support from those served, Paul uses three vocations as an example: the soldier, the farmer, and the shepherd.

Soldiers risk their lives to protect and to serve their government. They are not expected to serve at their own expense. Farmers do not work for free either. They put in long hours to plant and harvest their fruit. They eat the fruits from their labor and sell excess produce for a profit so they can survive.