Luke 10:7, commentary and pictures

Christ's messengers sent to proclaim the kingdom are to remain in the house that receives them, accepting the food and drink provided and not moving from house to house. The laborer deserves fair payment for honest work. Those who give their time, thought and strength to ministry, including preaching, teaching Scripture, visiting and house-to-house labor, are entitled to honest support sufficient to provide food and clothing for themselves and their families. This right to wages belongs equally to women who devote full time to Bible teaching, soul-winning and training believers, and to a minister's wife who labors as fully as her husband, whose work is to be recognized and paid in proportion to her labor. Churches and conferences must not force workers onto inadequate pay or leave just debts unpaid, for withholding due wages is dishonesty and robbery before God.

Mission Setting and Context

The verse belongs to the account of the last journey from Galilee. It belongs to the instructions given to the seventy, who were sent under Jesus' direction to work as He did, announcing that God's kingdom had come near and presenting God's truth so that people could receive the message and its Messenger and enter the kingdom. That sending of the seventy to proclaim God's kingdom was not limited to the Jews; the world was their field, and the church is to continue this work until it reaches the whole world.

The verse was part of the first directions Christ gave to the twelve when He sent them out, which He then repeated to the seventy when He sent them out in the same manner two by two. It shows Christ's original plan that gospel work is not to be begun and carried forward entirely by one man laboring alone, but by workers cooperating together, where one man carries his part of the work as far as he can and then the Lord sends another workman to do another essential part that the first worker did not feel the necessity of doing. This sending shows Christ's way of placing men in responsibility: after the twelve, He sent seventy to go everywhere preaching the kingdom of God and the gospel of truth, with Himself to follow after in every place where they were sent. It sets the rule to bring in new men, to keep the best helpers connected with the work, to trust those who have received the Holy Spirit, and to educate a large number of workers under direction in how to do the work.

The verse belongs to Jesus sending out the twelve and the seventy to preach and to heal the sick and cast out devils in His name. Their ministry joined teaching and healing, and these are not to be separated in God's work. The verse is part of the pattern for workers laboring humbly in the places they are sent. It belongs to Jesus sending out the seventy to reap fields already white to harvest, and that same harvest work was taken up by Peter at Pentecost when three thousand souls were added.

The verse belongs to Christ's recipe for present necessities, to be read when convicted souls ask what they must do to inherit eternal life, correcting ministers who preach long discourses and put the crib too high. It shows a serious work lying before God's people requiring the whole being, heart, mind, soul, and strength enlisted in His service. Labor is not to be confined to believers but must seek acquaintance with unbelievers to place truth before those living up to all the light they have, including precious souls in the city of Melbourne. Loving God with all the heart requires loving those for whom He gave His only begotten Son, because Christ died to redeem human beings from sin and has set before His workers an open door through which to bring others into fellowship with the saints.

The appointment in the verse is the work Christ appointed His disciples to do, and it is the work to be done now by little companies of gospel medical missionaries. They are to go forth at once without spending years in preparation, because doors now open to the truth will soon be forever closed and delay lets the enemy take possession of fields now open. Their appointed labor is to work as evangelists scattering publications, talking of the truth to those they meet, praying for the sick, ministering to their necessities with nature's remedies and not with drugs, and teaching them how to regain health and avoid disease.

Staying and Receiving Hospitality

Christ's messengers and the seventy are instructed to remain in the same house that receives them, eating and drinking such things as are given, and not to move from house to house. The reason is that the laborer is worthy of his hire, so hospitality and support from those served is fitting provision for those doing the work.

Christ's workers may receive their support by staying in people's homes and eating at their tables as they share the word of life. This close contact helps bind those they serve to the one who speaks to them and brings them the word of life. Workers sent to serve should accept food offered by those they visit and remain with them rather than moving from house to house. Accepting such hospitality gives opportunity to share Scripture, sing, and pray with the household.

Christ's messengers were to stay in the homes that received them and depend on their hosts for food and rest. Their reception and provision helped them discern where to give time and instruction, serving worthy households as faithful stewards and not spending strength indiscriminately. Workers sent to labor for Christ are to receive support for their temporal needs while they serve, supplied through the same divine provision that sustained Christ's disciples.

Right to Fair Compensation

The laborer deserves fair payment for honest work. Every worker in God's institutions is to be fairly compensated according to the time given and the value of the work, and full-time service of mind, soul, and strength is to be paid accordingly. Difference in pay is allowed where heavy responsibility and great value justify higher wages than mere mechanical work, yet essential faithful work must not be paid very little while others receive much, exorbitant salaries are forbidden even for special capability, and God's work must never be put on a mercenary basis. Work appointed by God to a woman must be estimated according to its value and never exacted without pay, and service without compensation is not a proper arrangement.

When means are scarce and self-denial is required, the burden must be shared by all in united sacrifice rather than resting wholly on a few. Those entrusted with God's goods must deal with kindness and liberality rather than with niggardliness and exacting every cent. Publishing-house labor is to be kept on the same level as other lines with no higher claim than the faithful minister. Ministers as a rule make greater sacrifices, go where sent, move at any moment, and live separated from families, while publishing workers generally have a permanent home with their families and great saving of expense, which must be weighed in relative compensation.

A worker's hire can be the souls won through faithful labor, given as reward through the Holy Spirit's working. The declaration that the laborer is worthy of his hire supports the right to receive payment from those who employ him and from willing supporters, but it does not authorize compelling people to support or maintain religious worship against their consent. Those who labor in ministry should receive a set wage rather than be urged to trust in God while left uncertain about pay. Pay is due to those who work for God, and those who determine each worker's pay must carefully follow God's will and settle workers' accounts with scrupulous care.

Workers Entitled to Support

Those who labor in ministry are entitled to fair and honest support for their work, enough to have bread to live and to provide food and clothing for themselves and their families, and their wages are not to be begrudged. Ministers who give their time, thought, and labor to the service of God are entitled to fair wages sufficient for these necessities, enough to live comfortably and to contribute to God's work. Shortage of money in the treasury is no reason to make them accept less than their just dues, and to withhold their wages or pay some workers meager wages is robbery and criminal in God's sight. Their support is to be guarded for that purpose, since traveling, supporting families, giving to the work, and serving in poor fields can leave them in financial hardship.

This includes colored ministers, who are to be treated with consideration and encouraged to obtain a thorough knowledge of the truth and to learn how to teach it efficiently to others, and when they work faithfully they should receive their wages so they can have bread to live. A minister who faithfully gives his time to his work is entitled to be paid for it just as a carpenter, blacksmith, or teacher is paid. If his work as a shepherd is unsatisfactory, those responsible should explain their concerns to him, but while he continues to serve as an accepted minister they must pay what is due and are accountable to God if they withhold it.

The rule applies to visiting and meeting work as fully as to ministers, including a man without finished education whose heart is in the work and whose praying and speaking advance the truth, whom God recognizes and works with. The committee and conference are to employ such men and pay wages and living expenses, not leave them to beg, to pay their own board, to be forced into canvassing when called to other work, or to be dropped and lost to the cause. Believers of the same faith should entertain workers without charging board, and charging a worker three dollars per week for board is strange and not after God's plans. Churches are to be raised up so means increase to pay workers, and ministering brethren are to live economically and dress plainly so there is equality in paying the workers God will use in destitute fields and cities.

The work is not limited to preaching sermons: building a school for the Lord and serving in difficult places are also worthy labor deserving pay. Brother Shireman's pay should reflect his work and service, not merely the number of sermons reported, for he takes responsibility and recognizes the value of souls. His service in difficult places, willingness to take responsibility, and concern for souls show the value of his labor and support paying him accordingly. One who teaches the Scriptures in a school deserves to be paid from the tithe, because his labor is in every way as essential as that of the minister.

Women who devote their full time and strength to Bible teaching, prayer, and personal work to win souls, and to training new believers, do essential ministry and should receive wages proportionate to those of ministers. Their husbands' wages do not make their own labor unpaid, and their essential work and burden for souls must not go unpaid for that reason. Their work should be compensated in proportion to the time and labor they give, independently of their husbands' wages. The same principle supports paying women who devote themselves to gospel work, just as other workers are paid.

A wife who devotes her time and strength to visiting families and teaching Scripture does real labor that should not be counted as nothing when compensation is considered. This holds even when she is not ordained, and her work is not to be treated as covered by her husband's pay. When a minister's wife works as fully in ministry as he does, her labor should be recognized and paid in addition to his salary, in proportion to her work, and she should not be left to depend on donations. A woman who continues the work after her husband's death is likewise entitled to wages, for denying pay to women whose ministry is essential defrauds them and may discourage them from preparing for the work God has given them.

The rule applies equally to women and men who do house-to-house ministry, canvassing, Bible readings, or explaining the Word in private or public, and their work should be remunerated fairly. Women doing house-to-house work to help save others are entitled to payment just as men are, and ministers who labor in preaching and teaching should receive proper support, whether they are men or women. It includes women who labor to teach souls to seek the new birth, who by consecrating themselves to God become laborers for God just as truly as their husbands and are therefore worthy of support. That labor includes entering families to which ministers could gain no access, listening to the sorrows of the depressed and oppressed, shedding rays of light into discouraged souls, praying with them, and opening the Scriptures to enlighten them with divine authority.

When the church pays for a workman it should expect him to work and to show fruit from his labor. The church has a responsibility to sustain thorough and skillful workmen liberally and not to leave men who are skillful in handling the Word to serve tables, while money from the treasury is not to be taken to support men who are not skilled workmen and whose labor can be dispensed with. Ministers are Christ's ambassadors, and their labor, trials, and sacrifices are known to God; people and conferences have a duty to respect and support them. Ministers may also share their wages with needy missions through self-denial and sacrifice.

Gospel workers in needy fields may have particular need of adequate, even large, wages, and should not be left without means for food and clothing. Those who labor in preaching and opening the Scriptures deserve to receive pay and material support from those they teach, including wages sufficient to support their families, and the ministry of the Word must not be devalued or put in second place to medical missionary work. Conferences should therefore encourage and employ talented young workers, both men and women who labor in the gospel, and send them to unentered places for house-to-house labor rather than leaving them unsupported or settling them over established churches.

Paying Justly and Serving

Churches and conferences must not force ministers to accept inadequate pay because treasuries are short or bring the work down to a low figure, and they must not leave honest debts unpaid or let conferences stand still for lack of means. Withholding just wages in this way is dishonest and robbery, as criminal before God as keeping back wages in any other regular business, and God is displeased wherever it is done. Faithful support helps make more workers available and advances missionary work with fruit from their labors.

It is the duty of ministers and presidents to bring minds to understand this, impressing churches to give to the cause of God and not rob God of tithes and offerings. They are to teach members to give of substance as prospered and, if they have the missionary spirit, to economize in every way to help missionaries, so there is a full treasury to pay honest debts, men of ability take courage to give themselves to the ministry, and missionary effort advances. Churches and conference leaders must teach members to provide for workers and settle their just wages, and adequate support enables workers to serve. Church members are responsible to provide ministers with enough to support themselves and their families, because withholding that support weakens their work and can cause hardship.

An increase in ministers calls for an increase in money to support them. Believers must meet this need by self-sacrifice shared by all classes rather than left to one class, giving steadily rather than by spasmodic efforts, spending responsibly without prodigality, and giving to the poor and wretched only in ways that truly help rather than hurt them. Giving ministers and gospel workers wages far below what farm and business labor receives belittles and degrades the work to low human ideas and estimates, exalts the worldly and temporal far above high, solemn, immortal interests, robs the workers of their due, and displeases the Lord. Withholding just compensation reveals limited ideas and a small compass of thought and faith, producing only that limited class of workers, while respecting and honoring His cause with just and equitable pay honors God, and God will honor those who so honor Him.

Using money needed in God's cause to buy lands and follow worldly-mindedness leaves God's servants without support and denies what is due them, and obeying the verse requires dying to the world, separating from the world, and acting out faith instead of only talking the message. Treating preaching as common and withholding material care is selfish and covetous, caring more for farm and cattle and money than for God's servants. Such neglect exhausts their strength, embitters life with scarcely a well day, and leaves them to spend and be spent while the church is asleep to it, yet God knows these works, and every privation, tear, pang of agony, act of help, and act of selfish withholding is written in the book, with all deeds passing in review before Him. Believers of the same faith should entertain workers without charging board, and charging a worker three dollars per week for board is strange and not after God's plans. Churches should be raised up so means increase to pay workers, and ministering brethren should live economically and dress plainly so there is equality in paying the workers God will use in destitute fields and cities.

Ministers' support should be guarded for that purpose, since traveling, supporting families, giving to the work, and serving in poor fields can leave them in financial hardship. Workers should be asked to do a reasonable amount of work and receive a reasonable wage without being overworked, and they need rest to preserve strength and do work well. Support does not mean demanding the highest wages, for ministers and physicians are called to serve with self-denial and to accept less when the needs of God's work require it. Paul recognized the right to support but chose not to depend on it among people whose sharp and dishonest trading could lead them to suspect selfish motives and discredit the gospel, so he worked with his hands instead that his conduct would not damage the gospel's influence. His tentmaking while preaching did not deny the principle but showed he could support himself and teach by words and labor, a right raised as a reason he need not make tents though he chose hand work, and this does not prevent a minister from earning a living by manual labor, as Paul made tents while helping others and honoring God through skilled diligent work.