Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Conley Owens
Read between
February 14 - March 10, 2024
Our methods matter. In other words, the tactics we employ to increase the kingdom of God must arise from sound theology.
The dorean principle characterizes godly financial activity in the name of the gospel as acts of colabor in contradistinction to acts of reciprocity. Ministry should be supported, not sold.
I recognized that if the apostles and prophets were authoritative messengers sent by God, then the black letters carry all the same weight as the red.
The Greek word used here, dorean, indicates the giving of something apart from any remuneration. In a context explicitly concerning money, this is the same word Paul uses to describe his gratuitous (freely offered) preaching (2 Cor. 11:7).
The primary concern of Matthew 10:8–10 is not what is received or how it is received but from whom it is received. The disciples are not to receive from those to whom they minister. They are to receive from God. The key to all this is found in the word “laborer.”
The employer of the laborers pays their wages. In this metaphor, the employer is “the Lord of the harvest,” not the grain. Translating this image to reality, God is the employer, not the recipients of the gospel message.
Ministerial colabor Support (material or otherwise) given by man to a minister out of a sense of obligation to God, to honor or aid in the proclamation of the gospel.
In the context of gospel proclamation, accepting support as anything other than an act of colabor compromises the sincerity of ministry.
Before, the disciples were told that they should take no moneybag because a laborer is worthy of his wages. Now, they are told that they should take a moneybag. Certainly, the laborer has not become less worthy. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus modifies his earlier command in order to prepare the disciples for their imminent journey into a hostile environment. Previously, the disciples could venture into new territories and expect to find fellow servants of God ready to colabor with them by providing material support for their mission. From now on, this expectation would be abandoned and
...more
In settings absent of the converted, they found lands potentially ripe for reciprocity but barren for colabor. It seems reasonable to suspect Christ instructed his disciples to carry moneybags not merely because they could not predictively expect support but because they could not even ethically receive it.
D. A. Carson notes a similar scheme in Matthew 10:8–10, remarking that while “the service rendered must not be bought or sold,” a church has the duty to provide for its ministers.
The most prolific among the apostles, Paul incurred sizable financial needs. One scholar has estimated that even the production of an epistle like Romans would cost $2,275 in present-day dollars.1 Naturally, Paul must have frequently contemplated the flow of money in gospel labors.
Despite his commitments, the apostle Paul does not reject financial support altogether, even in the context of his gospel preaching.
Paul does not reject all money but only that which would constitute payment and compromise his free-of-charge proclamation of the gospel.
Acts of giving and hospitality are colabor in the fullest sense. For a minister’s needs to be met, either he or other believers must engage in some profit-generating enterprise to fund his ministry. Regardless of who performs the work, that secular labor supports the same spiritual ministry.
Paul’s policy follows the command of Christ. In refusing ministerial reciprocity while accepting—and encouraging—ministerial colabor, Paul does precisely what Jesus commanded of his disciples.
Duty to God must triumph over a sensed debt to any minister since God mediates all obligation to his servants as ministers.
both Jesus and Paul forbid receiving ministerial support out of a direct obligation (reciprocity) but encourage support that arises out of a mediated obligation (colabor).
While the tithes and offerings are given to the Lord, the book of Numbers also says they are given by the Lord (Num. 18:8, 12, 19, 21, 24). These two primary directions of flow must control our understanding of the secondary direction of flow.
Jesus forbids payment for ministry (reciprocity) but insists that workers are to receive from other members of the kingdom as wages from God (colabor).
But why does it matter that circumstances of initial ministry correlate to Paul’s concern? Quite simply, new converts are likely to offer money in exchange for the gospel. Thus, Paul tells the Corinthians that if he were to accept their offer, his preaching would no longer be free of charge.7 One who pays for ministry incurs burden because the whole notion of payment presumes some sort of debt, something that is owed.
The maturity of the church matters
he willingly receives from the first Philippian he evangelizes (Acts 16:15; cf. Phil. 1:5), and he indefinitely continues to reject the Corinthians’ gift (1 Cor. 9:15; 2 Cor. 11:12). He rejects support most frequently in the context of initial visits, but that is because reciprocity is most frequently offered in the context of an initial visit. The apostle only receives support as colabor, and when he arrives in an unevangelized area, there are rarely colaborers to be found.
Just as Old Testament Israel sacrificed to God by giving to his priests, the New Testament church often sacrifices to God by giving to his ministers.
As a servant of God, Paul has stewardship over his converts to receive money from them but would abuse that stewardship by receiving payment for a gospel that is not his to sell.
Paul’s activity and reward are identical: to preach the gospel free of charge.
The one who receives reciprocity does not operate as a sincere servant of Christ but as a free agent after his own reward. On the other hand, the one who receives colabor enjoys financial benefits within the auspices of stewardship, a greater reward than mere money.
While he indeed speaks of gospel reach and other motivations, he primarily emphasizes the importance of sincerity.
waives his right to support in order to maintain his status as a servant. It naturally follows that he must abide by the dorean principle in order to serve sincerely.
Paul chooses rejection of payment as a marker of delineation between himself and others who claim to have a similar apostolic ministry—and his choice of this particular distinctive is not arbitrary.
Paul's rejection of payment is not to make him different but to stand to what is true
This metaphor of paternity provides an illustration of why it would be particularly inappropriate for Paul to engage in ministerial reciprocity with his church plants.
To receive payment from converts would be greedy and therefore lazy, contrary to the diligence required of God’s servants. Sincere diligence demands forgoing ministerial reciprocity.
sincere diligence in the work of ministry requires the rejection of unmediated payment.
The apostle operates as a sincere servant, a sincere apostle, a sincere father, and a sincere partner. To wholeheartedly do what he has been called to do and genuinely be what he has been called to be, he must reject ministerial reciprocity.
the falseness of a false teacher does not merely hinge on erroneous doctrine, but on the teacher himself. Dentures are regarded as false teeth though they may bite and chew like real teeth. Likewise, one who seeks his own gain in ministry is a false teacher though he may promote a similar authentic doctrine.
all who minister with an eye toward material payment possess an ulterior motive, unveiling themselves as less than sincere, as false teachers. This observation elevates the dorean principle beyond a nice-to-have idea. If the New Testament anticipates that we should be able to distinguish false teachers from true teachers by their disposition toward reciprocity, then the dorean principle is an essential component of God-honoring ministry.
the New Testament prepares us to identify greed—the pursuit of ministry for the sake of earthly recompense—as the identifying marker of false teachers.
It is not merely it impossible to facilitate the distribution of the gift of the Holy Spirit by means of financial exchange; it is dishonorable to make any such attempt.
All false teachers are motivated by greed, and all teachers motivated by greed are false.
“At the very least, this [passage] implies that Christian leaders should not be motivated to minister by the thought of remuneration or any particular level of payment.”
The New Testament does not merely offer the dorean principle as a way to honor God in ministry but additionally as a way of discerning true teachers from false teachers.
The dorean principle sufficiently accounts for the disparity in the apostle’s attitude toward the financial practices of his friends and toward those of his opponents.
The ministries of Elijah and Elisha are marked by the support of women who understood the importance of using hospitality as a way to promote the ministry of the word of God.
the vertical obligation regulates the horizontal obligation.
While Scripture explicitly teaches the dorean principle, it also demonstrates it implicitly as well.
Things that exist leave traces of their existence; it’s a simple fact of reality. A claim is only a claim apart from evidence.
where the Didache offers guidance on ministry fundraising, its instruction emerges from an evaluation of New Testament sources and that its judgments were largely shared by the early second-century church.
“There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God.”
In fact, while the Reformation centered around the doctrines of Scripture and salvation, the relationship between money and ministry was arguably the primary catalyst of the Reformation.
Luther believed a minister was obligated to be selfless in his office and saw the calling of pastor to be one of imitation of Christ in his sacrifice.
just as the Lord reigns over all the earth, the jurisdiction of the dorean principle extends to all gospel ministries.
