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Hardworking Farmers


The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.  Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. (II Timothy 2:6-7) 

          Getting from what this says to what it really means is just a little tricky in a day when people are protesting for fifteen dollars per hour minimum wages. Paul isn’t setting forth a societal rule. In fact, the commentary in my study Bible suggests that it’s an entirely spiritual rule. Pastors are like farmers. Hardworking farmers plant lots of seeds, tend their crops diligently and reap the reward. Hardworking pastors will, too, entirely in the spiritual realm. 
           It seems to me that Paul raises a similar issue in II Corinthians 11:7-12. He points out that he received money from other churches so that he would not burden the Corinthian church by asking them to support him. He also worked as a tent-maker while doing his work as an apostle. In other words, he didn’t receive a share of the crops from his Corinthian field while he was working it. That was the example that Timothy would have seen. In this passage, however, I believe he told Timothy that it isn’t wrong for Timothy to receive the not only the results of the work he was doing in Ephesus, but also the financial support (pay) of the church.
          Sometimes it seems that we expect certain people to work for free. How dare anyone charge anyone else to religious material? How dare anyone charge that much for a handmade _______ when the materials cost a tenth of the price demanded? When I worked on my family history, I spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars doing research. I charged only a little more than the price of physically producing the books for copies. If I had charged enough to recoup the cost of my research, few could have afforded the book. If I had added to that the cost of my own upkeep while working on it, no one could have. Yes, I did it for love of the research, but none of the people or businesses I had to pay provided what I needed for love of retailing, service, or scholarship.
          Pastors are among those who seem to be expected to work for nothing. Some might say that they should let God provide. Well, God did. He provided a congregation and gave them the commandment to love their pastor (who is, after all, their neighbor and who does, after all, work on their behalf.) Granted, there are profiteers and charlatans, but don’t assume that because there are some, they all are. Hardworking pastors deserve their share of the crops.

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