1 Timothy 5:17

1 Timothy 5:17. Worthy of double honour. The apostle is practical enough to recognise even the value of money - payment as a recognition of higher gifts well used. The word ‘honour,' as in Acts 28:10, clearly implies such payment, even if it is not necessarily confined to it. The rule implies that the ‘elders' of the Church were not all equally gifted. Some succeeded in their pastoral work; some failed. Some laboured in the more conspicuous and exhausting work of public preaching (the ‘word') and continuous class-teaching (‘doctrine'), and for this there was to be a provision, such as that which we often find made for the dean of a cathedral or the head of a college, to twice the amount of that given to the other elders. Measured by modern standards, even the ‘double' stipend was probably such as would only attract one of the artisan class, and for him came as a compensation for the loss of profit involved in his calling; but 1 Peter 5:2 shows that it was enough to tempt some to take the work for the sake of the pay.