A Pay Check

1 Corinthians 9:1-14

¹Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? ² If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. ³ This is my defense to those who would examine me. ⁴ Do we not have the right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? ⁷ 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? ⁸ Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? ⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰ Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹² If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. ¹³ Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? ¹⁴ In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

I’ve been the wife of a pastor for almost 40 years and a called church worker in my own right for over 20. We’ve only served two churches, one rural and one suburban. And we have been treated fairly at both places. I am grateful to God every day that we haven’t had to struggle, most of the time, over compensation. But having spent so many years in ministry, we know a great many other pastors and not all of them have been treated the same way. The field is ripe with horror stories.

I’ve heard some bizarre excuses for not paying the pastor a living wage.

• “We don’t pay our pastor much, because poverty keeps you humble.”
• “We don’t pay a high salary to the pastor because that keeps his taxes low. Not paying taxes is income to the pastor.”
• “He only works 1 hour a week. Why would we pay him a full-time salary?”
• “If the budget isn’t balanced, cut the pastor’s pay to make up the deficit.”

After reading the passage for today, apparently Paul faced the same type of comments. So, there’s nothing new under the sun after 2,000 years. There aren’t many huge theological implications in these verses. This is about the heart of those who sit in the pew every Sunday and don’t give a thought to how the guy up in front might be paying his bills. The grocery store doesn’t give away free food to pastors, nor does the department store hand out free clothes to clergy. It’s just common sense. We are one of the few jobs where dissatisfaction with the sermon on Sunday morning might be reflected in your paycheck. And Paul acknowledges that this simply isn’t right.

I will also acknowledge that there are some pastors out there who are not doing a great job. I’ve known a few of those too. But those issues cannot be dealt with using cash. That just isn’t the Biblical way. Conversation, further training, loving-care; all of these might help a situation change much more effectively than cutting the pay of a pastor.