Quote:
Originally Posted by good samaritan
1 Corinthians 9:11-16
If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
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I’d like to parse this post a little. If you read a little earlier in the ninth chapter of 1Corinthians, you read this verse.
Have we not power to eat and to drink?
Paul was talking about the church feeding them. The reference to the altar was referring to the priests eating the sacrifices. Money didn’t go on the altar.
Carnal things that he referred to are food and drink as well. Money is not carnal. I know that may be a surprise to most on here, but carnal has to do with the body and it’s appetites.
Overall, in this book of the NT we are being taught by Paul. Paul was a Pharisee. He was an expert in the law. He learned from Gamaliel, the “Harvard professor” of the day in respect to the law. So we know he understood the law of tithing.
Why didn’t Paul just come out and say “pay us the tithes, and by the way, we don’t want food, we like money “? Was it because he was timid? Maybe he was afraid?
Maybe, it was because he understood that the tithe had another purpose. And it wasn’t to support pastors.
Paul and Peter cautioned against being taken advantage of by those that were greedy of filthy lucre. Filthy lucre is money. But we tend to ignore their warnings.
[3] Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
[8] Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
Tit.1
[7] For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
[11] Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
1Pet.5
[2] Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
Peter and Paul, who didn’t agree on some things, (Paul withstood Peter to his face) agreed that church leadership must be watched carefully when it came to filthy lucre.
When it comes to giving, which is not necessarily tithes, we have excellent teaching from the lips of Jesus in Matthew. It is pretty comprehensive. Little children, those in prison, the hungry, the cold, He covers a lot of territory. But did you know what didn’t make the list?
1. The church.
2. The pastor.
Surely you have to wonder why.
And you surely must wonder why preachers don’t use the words about giving to teach giving. It almost never happens.
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