The Ministers and Physical Work

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Useful physical labor is a part of the gospel. The great Teacher, when enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, gave directions that every youth should learn a trade. Thus the people would be enabled to earn their own bread. And knowing how hard it was to obtain money, they would not spend their means foolishly.

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Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, learned the trade of a tent-maker. There were higher and lower branches of tent-making. Paul had learned the highest branches, and he could also work at the common branches when circumstances demanded. Tent-making did not bring returns so quickly as some other lines of business, and some times it was only by the strictest economy that Paul could supply his necessities.

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Why did Paul thus connect mechanical labor with the preaching of the gospel? Was not the laborer worthy of his hire? Why did he not labor all his time in preaching? Why waste time and strength in making tents? But Paul did not regard the time spent in making tents lost by any means. As he worked with Aquila, he kept in touch with the great Teacher. He gave Aquila needed instruction in spiritual things, and he also educated the believers in unity. While working at his trade he gave an example in diligence and thoroughness. He was diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. He and Aquila and Priscilla had more than one prayer-and praise-meeting with those associated with them in tent-making. This was a testimony to the value of the truth they were presenting.

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Paul was an educator. He preached the gospel with his voice, and by diligent labor he preached it with his hands. He educated others in the same way that he had been educated by one regarded as the wisest of human teachers. As Paul worked quickly and skilfully with his hands, he related to his fellow workers the specifications Christ had given to Moses in regard to the building of the tabernacle, as found in the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh chapters of Exodus. He repeated chapter after chapter to them, for his own and their benefit. He taught that supreme honor is to be given to God. He told them that the skill, genius, and wisdom brought into the work of building the tabernacle, were given by God to be used for his glory. He repeated the communications from God to Moses found in Ex. 35:20, 35, and 36:1-7.

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After leaving Philippi, Paul went to Thessalonica, on the seacost. The history of his work there is recorded in the first and second chapters of first Thessalonians. He labored in the gospel and worked also with his hands. «We were gentle among you,» he writes, «even as a nurse cherisheth her children; so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.» He declares that if a man will not work, neither shall he eat, and by his own example he illustrates his teaching. He says, «Neither did we eat any man’s bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail day and night, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.»

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«And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus.» Here he remained three years and six months, «disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.» Here he toiled at his craft also. He writes to the Corinthians, «For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labor, working with our own hands, being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat; we are made as the filth of the world, and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day. I write not these things to shame you, but as may beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

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Lifting up his toil-worn hands, Paul makes this appeal, «Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessity, and to them that were with me.» Those hands speak to us with remarkable impressiveness.

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Why did Paul, an apostle of the highest rank, spend on mechanical labor time which to all appearances might have been put to better account? Why did he not devote his time and strength to the preaching of the word? By laboring with his hands Paul was preaching the word. Thus he set an example which spoke against the sentiment then gaining influence, that the preaching of the gospel excused the minister from mechanical and physical labor. Paul knew that there were many that loved ease and indulgence much better than useful labor. He knew that if ministers neglected physical work, they would become enfeebled. He desired to teach young ministers that by working with their hands, they would become sturdy; their muscles and sinews would be strengthened.

Mrs. E. G. White.

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The gospel of Christ is an educator. It teaches us not to pamper and indulge self and waste the means that should be employed to extend the triumphs of the cross of Christ. There are ministers now dead whose lives would have been prolonged had they not yielded to the temptation to indulge appetite. When they should have eaten abstemiously, they were tempted to eat largely of rich food, though they knew that what they were eating could not be assimilated by the system, but would only be an extra burden to be gotten rid of in some way. The unnecessary food taken into the system poisoned the blood, and produced evils that resulted in disease.

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The apostle states plainly that if a man does not work, if he does not use his physical powers, neither should he eat. The healthful and equal exercise of all the powers of the being is required to keep the living machinery in the best condition. He who would have a system unclogged by feebleness and disease must use every part of the system harmoniously. The muscles are not to be allowed to become weak through inaction, while the brain carries too large a share of the work. Each part of the human structure is to bear its burden.

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Paul recognized physical work as composing a part of the education he was to give. He realized that his teaching would lack vitality if he did not keep all parts of the human machinery equally exercised. His labor to support himself and others should have been commended, rather than regarded as belittling to his position as a minister of the gospel.

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The Greeks on the seacoasts were sharp traders. They had educated themselves to sharp practices in deal, and had come to believe that gain was godliness, and that ability to acquire gain, whether by fair means or foul, was a reason why they should be honored. Paul was acquainted with their practices, and he would not give them a chance to say that he and his fellow laborers preached in order to be supported by the gospel. Although it was perfectly right for him to be supported in this way, for the laborer is worthy of his hire, yet he saw that if he was, the influence upon his fellow laborers and those to whom he preached would not be the best. Paul feared that if he lived by preaching the gospel, he might be suspected of selfish motives in doing his work. He must show that he was willing to engage in any useful labor. He would not give an excuse to demerit the work of the gospel by imputing motives of selfishness to those who preached the word. He would not give the sharp Grecians any occasion to hurt the influence of God’s servants.

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Paul reasoned how could he teach the commandments, which required him to love God with heart, and soul, and strength , and mind, and his neighbor as himself, if he gave any one reason to think that he love himself more than his neighbor or his God: that he followed the practices of the Grecians, trading sharply upon his office for the sake of gain, instead of following the principles of the gospel. How could he lead the people to Christ if he took all he possibly could from them? Paul decided that he would not give these keen, critical, unscrupulous money-traders occasion to suppose that God’s servants were working as sharply and following as dishonest methods as they were.

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The apostles talked and prayed over the matter, and decided that they would preach the gospel as it should be preached, in disinterested love for the souls perishing for want of knowledge. Paul said that he would work at tent-making, and that he would teach his fellow laborers to work with their hands, so that in an emergency they could support themselves. But some of his ministering brethren presented the inconsistency of such a course, saying that by so doing they would cheapen their influence as teachers of the gospel. The tenth chapter of second Corinthians records the difficulties Paul had to contend with and his vindication of his course. «Now I Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you»-because he humbled himself to do mechanical work-«but being absent am? bold toward you.» He was about to speak decidedly. «Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed.» God had placed special honor upon Paul, and had called him to do a special work. He had given him visions. He had given him his credentials, and had laid upon him the most weighty responsibilities.

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«That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves, by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.» Paul could see evils coming into the church, and he declared, «I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.»

Mrs. E. G. White.