Welcome back to Wilderness to Wisdom.
In the last episode,
I referenced 1 Timothy 5.
17 Paul writes that the elders who lead well are worthy of double honor,
Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
The very next verse ties that honor to wages,
So that's where we're picking up today.
You'll hear some of the same scriptures from recent episodes because some verses carry across more than one topic.
And this is not about whether pastors should be paid.
Scripture speaks plainly to that,
And the answer is yes.
It's not about condemning churches or people.
What we're examining is the contrast between what Scripture says and what many of us have seen,
Heard about,
Or experienced in the modern church.
We'll see what the Bible says about supporting those who teach,
What Paul did with that support,
Was supposed to look like,
How the system moved away from scripture,
What God said about it,
And what it could look like if the body functioned as scripture describes.
1 Corinthians 9 14 says,
In the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel,
Support for those who labor in the Word is legitimate.
The whole chapter builds toward it.
In verses 4 through 6,
Paul asks whether he has the right to eat and drink,
To travel with a wife,
And to be supported rather than working for his living.
He uses the word right in Greek exosia several times.
In verse 11 he asks,
Reap material things from you?
He grounds the right in scripture.
Verse 7 says,
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?
Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Verse 9 quotes Deuteronomy 25 4,
You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
Verse 13 says,
Those who serve at the temple share in the temple offerings and then he lands it in verse 14 where he says the Lord commanded it.
The other place it shows up,
As I mentioned earlier,
Is 1 Timothy 5,
17-18.
Verse 18 cites Deuteronomy 25-4 again,
Along with,
The laborer deserves his wages.
So scripture is clear,
There's a right and there's a command tied to it.
Support for those who labor in the word is biblical.
And then Paul chooses not to use it.
1 Corinthians 9.
12 says,
The gospel of Christ.
Then in verses 15 through 18,
Paul says preaching the gospel isn't optional for him.
It's a stewardship entrusted to him.
His reward is to preach it free of charge.
In 2 Corinthians 2 17,
He says he wasn't like the peddlers of God's word.
He was sincere,
Commissioned by God.
The gospel wasn't his to sell.
He also worked.
In Acts 18.
3,
Because he was of the same trade,
He stayed with Priscilla and Aquila,
Making tents with them.
In Acts 20,
33-35,
He tells the Ephesian elders,
I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.
You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.
He reminded them that Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
1 Thessalonians 2.
9 and 2 Thessalonians 3.
7-9 both say he worked so as to not be a burden.
2 Thessalonians chapter 3 adds that this was to give them a pattern to follow.
He also received gifts when they were freely given.
Philippians 4 15-18 says the Philippians partnered with him in giving and receiving.
And he calls their gift a fragrant offering acceptable and pleasing to God.
2nd Corinthians 11 7 through 9 He tells the Corinthians he preached the gospel to them free of charge and that when he was in need,
The churches in Macedonia supplied him rather than burdening them.
Paul had the right.
He chose not to use it for the sake of the gospel.
His refusal was his choice,
Not a rule that support is wrong,
And he still received what was freely given.
But support being allowed only tells half of it.
Paul defended the rite and also had a lot to say about how giving was supposed to work.
And this is where the modern system moved away from what scripture says.
2 Corinthians 9-7 says,
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart,
Not reluctantly or under compulsion,
For God loves a cheerful giver.
Giving was to be decided in the heart,
Not forced.
In Philippians 4-17,
Paul is thanking the Philippians for their gift,
And he says,
Credits.
He wasn't seeking the gift for himself.
He was seeking the fruit that increased to their credit.
Then in verse 18 he calls their gift a fragrant offering acceptable and pleasing to God.
That same framing from verse 17,
Not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit,
Reminds me of how Luke 6 38 gets used today as subtle manipulation to pressure people into giving.
The verse says,
Together,
Running over will be put into your lap.
For what the measure you use,
It will be measured back to you.
The difference is that Paul was sincere and he wasn't manipulating anyone.
His whole pattern of refusing support and working for his own living backs it up.
When he received,
It was freely given,
Not extorted.
This is why studying scripture in context matters.
Luke 6 38 isn't a verse about giving money.
In context,
Jesus is teaching about mercy and judgment.
Verse 36 says be merciful even as your father is merciful.
Verse 37 is about not judging,
Not condemning,
And forgiving.
Then verse 38 says give and it will be given to you which is about giving mercy not money.
When verses get pieced together without context,
Something can sound biblical when it isn't.
The same thing happens with,
It's more blessed to give than to receive.
I referenced that verse earlier when talking about Paul working with his own hands to help the weak.
Taken out of that context,
It gets used to compel people to give.
Giving according to scripture is worship,
Not a compulsory transaction.
In Luke 10 and Matthew 10,
When Jesus sends out the 72 and the 12,
He tells them,
The laborer deserves his wages,
And to eat what is sent before them.
They were traveling workers,
Being told to receive hospitality offered to them town to town as they spread the gospel.
Support is allowed.
Provision happens when believers meet needs as they come up,
And that giving is heart decided and spirit led.
There's a few things I've experienced that show what happens when worldly systems replace heart-decided giving.
These are my observations and conclusions based on my experience.
I'm not asking you to agree with everything I'm sharing.
One is pledge cards.
Years ago,
Right before I stepped away from organized religion,
I was in a church that wanted to relocate to a very large permanent building.
To fund it,
They ask people to sign pledge cards committing to give a certain amount over a period of time.
When a pledge card is collected after an emotional appeal with people committing to a set amount over months or years,
Consider whether that's still heart-decided giving.
The commitment is formalized on paper,
And in this case,
It wasn't even for a person's need.
It was for a building.
Some churches don't formally ask anymore.
They have donation boxes set out around the building and they don't need to say much because the formula does the work for them.
The emotional appeal is already in the room.
The give and it will be given to you verse has been said enough times that no one needs to hear it again.
Every person there has heard it.
The compulsion has moved from a card or envelope in people's hands to a script already running in their head.
The second thing is a pattern I've observed.
This is how I would explain it based on what I've seen.
It isn't about one person.
Imagine someone with a heart to serve God.
They begin sharing what they believe God has shown them.
They might start with a few others in their home.
Those people invite others,
And the group grows beyond what the home can hold.
Two things happen at once.
The one who leads is being looked to,
And the ones who were meant to be equipped become an audience.
The group needs more space,
So they get more space.
And somewhere along the way,
Growth stops meaning deeper and starts meaning bigger.
Hebrews 5,
12 through 14 speaks about people going from milk to solid food.
That's the growth scripture cares about.
But once there's a building and there are bills,
Numbers are what pay the bills.
And now growth is needed in the wrong direction.
Not people growing up in the word,
But more people showing up and giving money.
That changes what happens in many churches.
Properly equipped to feed themselves and others,
They're more likely to hear clearly that God may be calling them elsewhere.
That's what Ephesians 4 11-13 points to.
A model that runs on numbers and bills can't take that risk,
So they turn to entertaining,
Playing to emotions,
And drawing crowds instead of maturing those already there.
And people mistake milk for meat because they felt something.
Underneath this is something Christianity has perpetuated,
Passivity.
Believers are trained to sit and receive.
They may feed others,
But in ways that keep them tied to the modern church or ministry.
Part of this stems from a misunderstanding of what being called means.
Many of us were led to believe that being called meant becoming a pastor or that our call tied us to serving an specific church.
Scripture speaks of many different callings,
And ours is to serve God as He guides each of us using the talents He's placed in us to reach the people we were meant to reach.
That may include a season of serving in a specific church,
But if we keep walking with God and learning the truth of His Word,
He leads us,
And that may lead us away from the modern church.
The last example I'll share is something I hear often from those who leave organized religion and start to see the systems for what they are.
There's a tax benefit tied to giving to churches.
I don't know every nuance of how it works.
What I do know is that when I was still in church,
I benefited from it.
I took the deduction.
Who wouldn't want to reduce taxable income?
So I'm not judging anyone on this.
Making a legal deduction isn't the issue.
The point is that the system quietly layers a return on giving that has nothing to do with the heart or the Holy Spirit.
Essentially,
It's a payback from Caesar,
And when there's a payback attached,
The motive to give could get tangled.
It's the same transactional distortion we looked at in the tithe episode,
With the give and it will be given to you verse being used to promise financial return,
Except here the return comes through the tax code.
These are traps many people fall into.
It's how the system can pull,
Not an accusation that every pastor is doing this on purpose,
But it's what happens when God's call gets entangled with the world's template.
That conditioning isn't just a church thing,
It's all around us.
Think about tip culture.
We used to tip privately after a service at an amount we decided.
The norm went from 10% to 15 to 20 and now some checkout screens default to 22%.
We're prompted to tip before we've even received the service.
Commercials and ads pair sad music with images of suffering and the pull on the heart is immediate.
I'm not saying giving is wrong.
I'm saying we're surrounded by emotional appeals designed to make us feel bad if we don't give.
When the same pattern spills over into a church,
It feels normal.
We don't recognize it as the manipulation it is.
This is why Heart Decided Giving isn't the clean test it sounds like anymore.
When the heart has been shaped by years of worldly appeals,
We may mistake an internalized emotional prompt for a decision coming freely from the heart.
What feels like free will giving may actually be a response to conditioning we don't recognize.
Each of these examples builds a subtle compulsion or a quiet motive on top of what scripture said was supposed to be heart decided.
And it all works because the conditioning runs deeper than church.
Again,
These are my observations and experiences.
I would encourage you to reflect on what you've experienced.
None of what we just looked at is something God missed.
He named it.
1 Peter 5.
2 tells shepherds to shepherd the flock,
Not for shameful gain,
But eagerly.
1 Timothy 3.
3 says an overseer must not be a lover of money.
Verse 8 says the same of deacons,
That they not be greedy for dishonest gain.
1 Timothy 6,
3-10 talks about people who imagine that godliness is a means of gain,
And verse 10 says the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
That whole passage is worth reading for yourself.
Titus 1-7 says an overseer must not be greedy for gain,
And verses 10 and 11 go further.
Silenced.
In John 10,
11-13,
Jesus contrasts the good shepherd with the hired hand.
The hired hand sees the wolf coming and runs because the sheep are not his own.
He doesn't care about them.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The issue isn't whether the hired hand received pay,
It's that he didn't take responsibility by caring for the sheep.
2 Peter 2 1-3 warns about false teachers who,
In their greed,
Will exploit you with false words.
This isn't only a New Testament problem,
It goes further back.
Numbers 18 21-24 says the tithe under the Old Covenant was given to provide for the Levites who had no land inheritance,
In return for their service.
That was for their support,
But it wasn't structured like a modern paycheck and as we covered in the tithe episode it was not money.
In Ezekiel 34 1-10,
God speaks to the shepherds of Israel and says,
The shepherds have been feeding themselves.
Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
He described shepherds who ate the fat and clothed themselves with the wool but did not feed the flock.
The sheep scattered.
They became food for the wild beasts.
God says he is against those shepherds and will hold them responsible for what happened to the flock.
Then he says he himself will shepherd them.
Micah 3.
11 names it exactly.
Its prophets practice divination for money,
Yet they lean on the Lord and say,
Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.
That's the same thing happening today.
People doing it while still leaning on God's name.
Support is biblical.
Shameful gain is not.
Neither is feeding yourself while the flock scatters or teaching for a price and calling it ministry.
If the body of Christ functioned the way scripture describes,
And people in the room actually knew each other,
Needs would be visible,
The community would know,
Not because anyone stood up front and asked,
Not because an envelope or an offering plate got passed around.
People would talk about what they were going through,
Because that's what happens when you actually know each other.
Needs would be made known,
And each person would respond as the Holy Spirit led them,
Not under compulsion.
Those who labored in the Word,
The ones spending their time teaching and shepherding,
Would naturally be honored more,
Which is what 1 Timothy 5.
17 already says,
And Galatians 6.
6 says,
The one who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.
They're part of the body too.
Their needs would be met because the body would honor them as led,
Not under compulsion.
In a gathering that functions as scripture describes,
The body would care for each other's needs,
Including the needs of those who teach.
We were created for relationship and many of us have a heart for giving.
The worldly systems have twisted that by appealing to our emotions.
But imagine if the word were taught properly by a faithful shepherd.
I would want to honor them for what they're pouring into me,
Equipping me to go out and equip others.
And there would be equality.
In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9,
Paul is coordinating a collection for believers in Jerusalem who were suffering from famine.
In 2 Corinthians 8,
13-15,
He says the goal isn't for some to be eased and others burdened,
But for there to be fairness so that the abundance of one meets the needs of another.
He goes back to Exodus 16 where the one who gathered much manna had nothing left over and the one who gathered little had no lack.
Even in coordinating this,
Paul sent brothers ahead to arrange the gift in advance.
He wanted it to be a willing gift,
Not something extracted under pressure.
That's 2 Corinthians 9 5.
Scripture does show a kind of organized giving across the body,
But it was for a specific need in that moment,
Not for keeping an institution going.
People had to communicate about the gift to gather and send it.
I'm not saying the body of Christ never talks about money.
Compulsion is the problem.
Some in the body of Christ travel and others don't.
Paul and others traveled.
The way the body functions doesn't change.
Those who become equipped and feel led to go somewhere else should go.
They're still part of the body.
The believers at home where they left may feel led to give to them.
The believers they meet and equip in the places they travel to may also feel led to give to them.
3 John 5-8 commends believers who supported traveling workers as fellow workers for the truth.
The posture is hospitality,
Not demand.
That's what it could look like.
Everyone cared for.
Those who labor honored.
Giving that comes from the heart.
A shepherd who doesn't have to worry about being a burden or build a system to guarantee a paycheck because the body is functioning as scripture describes.
And because they trust the body,
They can fully equip others to go and do the same.
They don't have to control outcomes to protect a paycheck.
To be clear,
This picture of how the body would function isn't a specific command spelled out in scripture.
It's consistent with what scripture does say about the body in Acts 2 and 4 and Galatians 6 and throughout the letters.
It's the shape the pieces make when you put them together.
And it's what was lost when the organic body became an institution.
And each of us doing our part as led by the Holy Spirit,
Not according to any template the world has handed us.
We are kingdom citizens and ambassadors here to do the work of our home government.
None of this is unreal.
We've moved so far that it can seem impossible to get back to what scripture actually describes,
But it isn't.
We have to be willing to be set apart.
Walkthrough.
Scripture allows and even commands support for those who labor in teaching.
1 Corinthians 9.
14 says the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
1 Timothy 5.
17 says the elders who lead well are worthy of double honor,
Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
Paul had that right and chose not to use it for the sake of the gospel.
He worked and he received gifts when they were freely given.
His refusal was his choice,
Not a rule.
Giving was decided in the heart,
Not compelled.
Provision came from a body that knew each other's needs.
The modern system moved away from that in ways that layer compulsion or a competing motive on top of what scripture said.
A shift toward growth in numbers because the bills have to be paid.
A return on giving that has nothing to do with the heart or the Holy Spirit.
God named it long before the modern church did anything with it.
Not for shameful gain.
Not greedy for gain.
Silence those who teach for shameful gain.
The hired hand runs.
The shepherds feed themselves.
The priests teach for a price.
Scripture permits support for those who labor,
But scripture does not create a system that turns ministry into a way to generate income,
Maintain an institution,
Or compel people to give.
As always,
Don't take my word for any of this.
I've referenced several scriptures today.
Take the time to study each one,
Then let the Holy Spirit show you what's there.
Thank you for joining me for this episode.
Of Wilderness to Wisdom.
