Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
The duty of ministerial support
It is one of the tricks of Satan to defraud godly ministers of support, that the Church may be deprived of their services. Paul’s recommendation arose from a desire to preserve a gospel ministry. (Calvin.)
I do not love to expound such sentences which speak for us that are ministers of the Word; moreover, it may look, if one is zealous to treat such texts before the people, as if he did it on account of avarice. But one must nevertheless instruct the people thereabout, that they may know what degree of honour and support they owe to their teachers. This is also good for us, that are in the ministry, to know that we may not take our deserved recompense with uneasy conscience, as if we had no right to it. (Luther.)
A fair exchange
Between teachers and hearers there should be a lovely exchange and joyful barter. A hearer needs not to complain as though he suffered disadvantage in this exchange. Whoever will not give our Lord God a penny, gets his due when he is forced to give the devil a dollar. (Starke.)
The support of the ministry
I. A children are bound to maintain their parents (1 Timothy 5:4), so believers their spiritual parents (Galatians 4:19; 1 Corinthians 4:15).
II. The Old Testament enjoins this (Deuteronomy 12:19), much more the New.
III. Every calling maintains those who live therein: the highest calling should do no less.
IV. Ministers are God’s soldiers, and should not go a warfare at their own cost; the Lord’s labourers, and therefore worthy of their hire; the Lord’s shepherds, and thereforeworthy the milk of the flock (see also Deuteronomy 25:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9-10; 1 Timothy 5:17).
V. Ministers are to give themselves wholly to their work (2 Timothy 4:13-16), and therefore must not be entangled in the affairs of this life (2 Timothy 2:4).
VI. It is the ordinance of God that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14). (R. Cudworth.)
Material aids needful
Some people give as though they only half believed that Christ has ordained the money power as one of the powers of His cause; as if in travelling from place to place the missionary cost no more than the flight of an angel; as if the Philip of to-day might be “caught away by the Spirit,” and then suddenly be “found at Azotus “; as if bills could be paid by devout emotions or declaratory words; as if lives could be sustained on mere air; as if ravens might be expected to bring food to fainting prophets; as if miracles of providence would provide for ministers of grace. But this is not God’s method of working now. You must furnish material supplies for material apparatus. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Paying the minister
In 1662, the town of Eastham agreed that a part of every whale cast on shore be appropriated for the support of the ministry. The ministers must have sat on the cliffs in every storm, and watched the shore with anxiety. And for my part, if I were a minister, I would rather trust to the bowels of the billows to cast up a whale for me than to the generosity of many a country parish that I know. (Thoreau.)
Liberality to ministers
The people of one of the out parishes of Virginia wrote to Dr. Rice, then at the Theological Seminary in Prince Edward, for a minister. They wanted a man of first-rate talents, for they had run down considerably, and needed building up. They wanted one who could write well, for some of the young people were nice about that matter. They wanted one who could visit a good deal, for their former minister had neglected that, and they wanted to bring that up. They wanted a man of very gentlemanly depoitment, for some thought a great deal of that, and so they went on describing a perfect minister. The last thing mentioned was that they gave their last minister £70, but if the Doctor would send them such a man as they described, they would raise another £10, making it £80. The Doctor sat down and wrote them a reply, telling them they had better, forthwith make out a call for old Doctor Dwight in heaven, for he did not know of any one in this world who answered the description; and as Dr. Dwight had been living so long on spiritual food, he might not need so much for the body, and possibly he might live on £80. (Dr. Haven.)
It is my intention to expound and to defend this financial law of the Christian Church: “Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.”
I. Let us expound this financial law of the Christian Church. The phrase “in all good things” may be connected either with the words “him that teacheth;” or with the words “him that communicateth.” It may mean either, first, “Let him who is instructed in all good things communicate to him who thus instructs him;” or, secondly, “Let him who is instructed communicate all good things to him who instructs him.” The necessity of a distinct order of men for the purpose of Christian instruction might be easily rested on rational principles. But I choose rather now to appeal to the will of the great Legislator” I appeal to that passage contained in Ephesians 4:1-32.: “When He ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men;” and among these gifts he gave “pastors and teachers.” It is plain, from Scripture, that there ought to be an order of men devoted to this work. It is evident, also, that they should devote their whole time and attention to its duties: this might be grounded on rational principles, arising from the nature and number of the subjects which must necessarily be included in such instructions; but here, again, I shall refer to the will of the great Lawgiver. His determination is, that those who minister should “wait on their ministering, and he that teacheth, on teaching;” that such should “give attendance to reading and exhortation;” that they should “meditate upon these things,” and “give themselves wholly to them.” We are not to look at this subject as we look at our Missionary Societies, and Bible and Educational Societies: these are human institutions, and we may support them by human plans; but the Christian ministry is a divinely appointed means for a divinely appointed end; and the means of its support are divinely appointed too. We may as much err by using means different from those which Christ has instituted, as if we lost sight of the end itself.
II. Let us defend this financial law of the Christian Church. Like all the other laws of Christ it is “holy, just, and good.” It is an arrangement which is alike just, generous, and useful.
1. It is a just arrangement.
2. This is a generous as well as a just principle. Men who thus believe are brought under the influence of the love of Christ; and on this principle Christ secures the maintenance of His ministers in Christian Churches to the end of time.
3. This is a useful arrangement also. But objections have been made. First, it is said, “Such an arrangement has a great tendency to degrade the Christian ministry.” In one sense we may ask, Do such persons expect the Christian minister to be altogether independent? We are all dependent, and must necessarily be so. And who applies this mode of reasoning to other professions? Who would think of saying of a lawyer, or of a medical man, that they are low-spirited, time-serving, dependent men, because the one is dependent on his clients, and the other on his patients, for subsistence. Are they degraded by such dependence as this? Is the minister of Christ to be degraded, because he is supported by the same means by which Christ his Master was supported? It may seem strange that those who are to be accounted “worthy of double honour,” should be dependent for their support on the bounty of others. But when it is founded on such a principle as Christian love, I know not of a more honourable way than to be dependent on the will and love of others. Secondly, as to the objection that “this arrangement throws difficulties in the way of the minister, by making it necessary for him to submit to much in order to cultivate the good-will of those to whom he preaches.” But let them continue a Christian people, and then tell me how such a man should please such a people but by doing his duty towards them as a Christian minister. Thirdly, it is objected that “it makes the subsistence of Christian ministers uncertain; and that it endangers the existence of the Christian ministry, and by this means, Christianity itself.” I might say here, that all below is insecure; but I would say also, it does not appear that the subsistence of the Christian minister is more uncertain than that of other men. (J. Brown, M. A.)