1 Timothy 5:18

1 Timothy 5:18. The Scripture saith. It is interesting to note that St. Paul had already quoted (in 1 Corinthians 9:9) and reasoned on the verse from Deuteronomy 25:4, going below the letter to the principle on which it rested, and applying that principle as a law of action for men in their dealings with each other. The other quotation presents a question of greater interest. The words, ‘The labourer is worthy of his hire,' are found in Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:7. Did St. Paul cite them from either of these Gospels, and so recognise their claim as Scripture, side by side with the law of Moses? Looking to the facts (1) that St. Paul had some years before quoted from ‘the words of the Lord Jesus' (Acts 20:35); (2) that he had for several years been in the constant companionship of St. Luke, and that the compilation of the Third Gospel must at least have been begun by this time; (3) that St. Peter applies the term ‘Scripture ' to St. Paul's own writings (2 Peter 3:16); (4) that St. Paul quotes an account of the Last Supper which we find in St. Luke (1 Corinthians 11:23; Luke 22:19); (5) that there is at least an apparent reference to other writings than those of the Old Testament in ‘the Scriptures of the prophets' in Romans 16:26, and ‘the prophecy of the Scripture' in 2 Peter 1:20 (both of which passages refer, I believe, to the prophetic work of the Christian, not the Jewish Church), there seems a strong preponderance of evidence for thinking that the words are taken from some written account of our Lord's work and teaching, and that that record was probably at least the groundwork of the Gospel according to St. Luke.