The Fair Exchange: Supporting Those Who Teach God's Word

Paul's instruction in Galatians 6:6 rests upon a principle Calvin emphasized: Satan's primary trick is to defraud godly ministers of support, thereby depriving the Church of their services. Luther hesitated to expound such texts before congregations, fearing appearance of avarice, yet acknowledged the duty remains: believers must understand what honor and support they owe their teachers.

Between teachers and hearers exists a lovely exchange—no hearer suffers disadvantage. As children maintain parents (1 Timothy 5:4), so believers support their spiritual parents (Galatians 4:19; 1 Corinthians 4:15). The Old Testament enjoins this (Deuteronomy 12:19); the New Testament strengthens the obligation.

Minsters are God's soldiers—they should not wage warfare at personal expense. They are the Lord's laborers, worthy of hire; the Lord's shepherds, entitled to the flock's provision (1 Corinthians 9:14). They must give themselves wholly to their work (2 Timothy 4:13-16), undistracted by worldly entanglement (2 Timothy 2:4).

Yet some donors half-believe Christ ordained material resources as power for His cause. They imagine missionaries travel like angels, that bills dissolve through devout emotion, that lives sustain on mere air. Material aids are needful. When congregations fail this exchange, they impoverish not ministers alone, but the gospel's advance.