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19. A Ministry Without Paid Clergy
What Latter-day Saints believe
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, local leaders are not paid. The bishop of a congregation is a regular member with a job and a family who serves for a number of years, and then someone else is called. Members teach classes, lead youth, play the organ, and care for one another as volunteers. The Church has said its senior full time leaders receive a modest living allowance, but local ministers serve freely, as the Bible describes.
2Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
Elders are to feed the flock “not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”
2. Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
“Freely ye have received, freely give.”
3. Acts 20:33-35
33I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. 34Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Paul says, “I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold,” and reminds the elders he worked with his own hands.
4. 1 Corinthians 9:18
What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
Paul wanted to “make the gospel of Christ without charge.”
5. 2 Thessalonians 3:8-9
8Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: 9Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
Paul worked “night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.”
6. 1 Thessalonians 2:9
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
“Labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you.”
7. Titus 1:7
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
A bishop must not be “given to filthy lucre.”
8. Isaiah 55:1
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
“Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
9. Micah 3:11
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
God rebukes leaders whose “priests thereof teach for hire.”
10. John 10:11-13
11I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, unlike the hireling who flees.
How other Christians read these verses
Most Christian churches support paid pastors and ministers, and they find good biblical reasons, such as 1 Corinthians 9:14 (“they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel”) and 1 Timothy 5:17-18. Many pastors serve sacrificially for modest pay. The Latter-day Saint approach of a fully volunteer local ministry is unusual among large churches.
Full index: 28 verses
Includes the key verses above, the Church's Topical Guide, and every King James verse that uses these words: filthy lucre, hireling, without charge, chargeable. Key verses are highlighted. Tap a book to open it.
2 Samuel (1)
2 Samuel 13:25 And the king said to Absalom, Nay, my son, let us not all now go, lest we be chargeable unto thee. And he pressed him: howbeit he would not go, but blessed him.
Nehemiah (1)
Nehemiah 5:15 But the former governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the people, and had taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of silver; yea, even their servants bare rule over the people: but so did not I, because of the fear of God.
Job (3)
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Job 7:2 As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
Job 14:6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
Isaiah (3)
Isaiah 16:14 But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
Isaiah 21:16 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Micah (1)
Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
Malachi (1)
Malachi 3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
Matthew (1)
Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
John (3)
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
John 10:12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
John 10:13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
Acts (3)
Acts 20:33 I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.
Acts 20:34 Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
1 Corinthians (1)
1 Corinthians 9:18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
2 Corinthians (1)
2 Corinthians 11:9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
1 Thessalonians (1)
1 Thessalonians 2:9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
2 Thessalonians (2)
2 Thessalonians 3:8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
2 Thessalonians 3:9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
1 Timothy (2)
1 Timothy 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
1 Timothy 3:8 Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
Titus (2)
Titus 1:7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
Titus 1:11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
1 Peter (2)
1 Peter 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
1 Peter 5:3 Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
