Should Pastors Be Paid? What 1 Corinthians 9 Teaches

The Private Jet and the Empty Pantry

A few years ago, a news headline caught my attention: “Pastor Seeks Donors for His Private Jet.” Being a pastor myself, I had to stop and read it. The article described a pastor and a church I didn’t know. This man was asking his congregation to fund a private jet—not his first, but his sixth. His justification? God had given him a vision of expanding his private jet collection so he could reach more of the world with the gospel.

My first thought was, “This guy is robbing these people blind.” My second was, “How does he fly six airplanes at once?”

Men like this give pastoring a bad name. Their eyes are fixed on what they can gain in this life rather than what they should be storing up in Heaven, and they are not true biblical shepherds. They are also part of the reason so many people have stopped trusting pastors. A 2025 Gallup poll found that only 27% of Americans rate the honesty and ethics of clergy as high or very high—the lowest number on record.

But there is another side to this coin, and it is far more common than private jets.

I know many pastors whose churches pay them just enough to say they’ve done their duty, and not a dollar more. No one thinks about the gas money for hospital visits or notices that the pastor’s family is stretched thin trying to meet its obligations. Over time, these men grow discouraged and weary. Many take second jobs just to keep food on the table. According to Lifeway Research, 47% of evangelical pastors in America are now bivocational. I wouldn’t be surprised if that number has climbed by the time you read this.

Both sides of this coin are wrong. A pastor must never take advantage of God’s people for personal profit. And a local church must understand its God-given responsibility to care for God’s man.

I’m thankful that the congregation I serve understands its duty here. They have been extraordinarily good to my family and me. I’m writing on this subject now because it comes next in my series, Blueprint for a New Testament Church, an expository study of 1 Corinthians. I love preaching expository messages—verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter. It guards me against the temptation of the “bully pulpit,” preaching what I think rather than what God says. Subjects like this one make pastors and congregations squirm. But we can’t skip them, because God’s people need to know what He expects.

Soldier, Farmer, Shepherd, Ox: Four Pictures of a Pastor’s Labor

So, let’s see what God says.

“Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?”

1 Corinthians 9:7

The Holy Spirit opens with questions that are really simple reminders of how life works. No nation sends its soldiers to war and then asks them to pay their own way. No farmer breaks his back raising a crop and then walks away from the harvest. No shepherd tends a flock and never tastes its milk. Everyone who labors partakes of what his labor produces. That’s how the world works, because that’s how God designed it.

But these aren’t random illustrations. Each one paints a picture of what a pastor actually does.

Like a soldier, he leads in spiritual warfare, standing with his people when the enemy attacks their marriages, their minds, and their faith.

Like a farmer, he keeps sowing the seed of God’s Word, week after week, often without seeing what will grow until much later.

Like a shepherd, he feeds the flock, giving them the milk and meat of Scripture so they can grow strong in the Lord.

Then the Holy Spirit takes us back to the Law of Moses for a fourth picture:

“For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?”

1 Corinthians 9:9

Picture an ox walking in circles over the grain all day, separating the wheat from the chaff. God commanded that it be allowed to eat while it worked. If God cared enough to write a law protecting a working animal, what does that tell us about how He wants His servants treated?

“Doth God Take Care for Oxen?” How God Provides Through His People

Does God care for oxen? Of course He does. But notice how He cares for them: He uses men. Men feed the oxen, and the oxen serve men.

So if God expects men to care for the beasts that serve them, doesn’t it follow that He expects His people to care for the men who serve them with His Word? The Holy Spirit says exactly that:

“Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

1 Corinthians 9:10

Don’t miss the word altogether. In the Greek, it means entirely, with all certainty, most assuredly. This was written for the believers in the local church—for our sakes—so that every congregation would understand, without any doubt, that caring for its pastor matters to God.

Now someone might object, “Doesn’t the Bible say God will provide? Shouldn’t a pastor just trust the Lord?”

He should, and he does. Jesus said:

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Matthew 6:33

Most pastors believe that verse with all their hearts. I have watched God keep that promise to my family more times than I can count. I would far rather serve Christ than have all the riches this world can offer, and every pastor worth his salt would say the same.

But here’s what we sometimes miss: a pastor’s faith doesn’t let the church off the hook. God uses people to provide. The same God who feeds the ox through the farmer provides for His servant through the local church. When a pastor trusts God to care for his family, God’s usual answer is a congregation that takes its responsibility seriously.

Why does this matter so much? Because of what pastors are for:

“And he gave some… pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:11–13

Pastors lead their people toward spiritual maturity, equip them to serve the Lord, and help them build up one another. God has chosen ordinary men, called and set apart, to be His instruments in that work. That’s why the Holy Spirit asks in verse 11, “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?”

Worthy of His Hire: What Caring for Your Pastor Looks Like

So what does this care actually look like? Back in verses 4 through 6, the Holy Spirit names three rights a minister of the gospel has from God.

The right to be fed. “Have we not power to eat and to drink?” (1 Corinthians 9:4). Food and drink are basic to life. A local church is responsible for making sure its pastor and his family have what they need.

The right to travel support. “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?” (1 Corinthians 9:5). To “lead about” means moving from place to place in the work of the ministry. The apostles traveled with their wives and families wherever God sent them. When the Lord laid Nepal on my heart years ago, I led my wife and family there, and they went with me without hesitation. Today my travel looks different: hospital rooms, living rooms, seminars, and a hundred ordinary ministry errands. Gas isn’t cheap, and a reliable car matters when someone is in the ICU at two in the morning. Helping a pastor get where he needs to go is part of caring for him.

The right to sufficient income. “Have not we power to forbear working?” (1 Corinthians 9:6). When Paul and Barnabas first came to Corinth, they made tents to support themselves. Once a church existed there, they had every right to lay down the tent-making and give themselves fully to the Lord’s work. That’s the goal for pastors and missionaries alike: enough support to devote their full attention to the Word and the gospel.

Then the Holy Spirit states it plainly:

“Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”

1 Corinthians 9:14

This isn’t man’s opinion. It’s God’s ordinance, and the rest of the New Testament backs it up.

“Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.”

Galatians 6:6

The word communicate means to share, to have in common, to support. The one who is fed by the Word shares good things with the one who feeds him.

The church at Philippi understood this. When Paul sat in a Roman prison, they sent help, and the Holy Spirit recorded His approval: “Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction” (Philippians 4:14). They took God’s Word at face value, did their duty, and God was pleased.

Later, when Paul wrote to a young pastor named Timothy, the Holy Spirit quoted that same law about the ox:

“For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.”

1 Timothy 5:18

In the verse just before, the Holy Spirit says elders who rule well are to be “counted worthy of double honour.” That word honour carries the sense of compensation. A faithful pastor who labors well in the Word should be generously cared for.

A word of grace belongs here. Paul himself made tents when he had to, and many small congregations give sacrificially and still can’t fund a full salary. A bivocational pastor is not a failure, and neither is a small church doing all it can. The sin is the church that could care for its pastor and simply won’t. Any congregation that knowingly neglects God’s man is disobeying what the Lord has ordained.

Where to Start This Week

If this has stirred something in you, don’t let it fade into a vague good intention. Here are a few places to begin:

• Ask a simple question. Ask your deacons or finance committee whether your pastor’s salary actually meets his family’s needs or just meets the minimum.
• Cover the miles. Offer to pay for a tank of gas, an oil change, or a car repair. Hospital visits and home visits add up fast.
• Feed his family. A grocery gift card or a meal dropped off during a hard week says “we see you” louder than words.
• Remember the missionaries. Paul’s example applies to them too. Ask whether your church’s missions support keeps pace with their real costs.
• Encourage him with your words. Tell your pastor specifically how God has used his preaching in your life. Weariness often has more to do with discouragement than with dollars.

God has given each local church everything it needs to know, down to the smallest details, and caring for His man is one of them. My task, and every pastor’s task, is simply to point to God’s way of doing things. The controversy over a pastor’s pay only begins when we start doing things man’s way. When a church does it God’s way, the pastor is freed to give himself fully to the Word, the people are fed, and the Lord is pleased, just as He was with Philippi.