“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #91
“Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?” (1 Cor. 9:3-6).
Paul then turns to answer a particular charge, one that has been common since the first century (v. 3). That charge is that the ministry is—for the one being criticized—an indoor job with no heavy lifting. In short, it is a cushy job and those who hold that job down are in fat city, and those providing financial support to them have a right and responsibility to look at them sideways.
Certain people had gotten out the magnifying glass in order to go over Paul’s expense account, calling it (of course) responsible stewardship. Paul begins by stating his financial rights, bottom line, and in the verses that follow he will provide the argument for it. Ministers do not run on air. They have the authority to expect food and drink in return for their labors (v. 4). Moreover they have a right to support a family on the strength of what they bring in from the ministry (v. 5). The other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Peter, were all accompanied by “sisters,” by their wives. Paul asks the rhetorical question why the tight-fisted approach to ministry budgets applies only to him and to Barnabas (v. 6).
A glance at the North American landscape will reveal that ministers are both overpaid and underpaid. There are ludicrous examples at both ends of that bell curve, but money being the kind of thing it is, there are more who are underpaid than there are those swanking around in television studios. As we resist temptation, our starting point ought to be to guard ourselves in the places where Scripture warns us to guard ourselves. And the consistent warning of Scripture is (overwhelmingly) to make sure you are paying ministers of Christ enough. This is particularly the case the more faithful a minister is—this is because a faithful man makes enemies, and enemies frequently arrange for themselves a seat on the budget committee, or they find other ways of attaching costs to his faithfulness. And, everything else being equal, that faithful minister won’t talk about it readily. Like the apostle Paul, he would rather have a gun to his head than talk about money.