Reading your Bible for today February 2

February 2: 2 Corinthians 11:7-12

KJV Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 11:8
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.

Devotion:
If you get to tell other people about God full-time, who would you expect to pay your wages so you can do that work? Alternatively, do you expect to be paid for telling other people about God? These are questions that provoke different answers from people because some people expect to be paid for everything whilst others would do the work and not expect to be paid. The reality of life is that we do need money to survive in society and hence we need to have an income from somewhere in order to live.

Just who should be responsible for paying for us to tell others about God is a good question. Some would say the church, as in the organisation, should pay for people to tell others about God because they are the ones promoting God in our lives. I think many in the church would argue against that knowing that the church does not always have money enough to pay the people for the work they do. Some would argue it should be the local people who get to hear the message who should be paying for the person doing the talking whilst others still would say the organisation or ministry who sends them out should foot the bills.

I have always tried hard not to burden anyone with the expenses for the work I do because that is just the way I feel about my work. The work I do telling others about God can be anywhere between couple of hours in a week to up to 50 hours in a week; not all of it is face to face work but there is a whole lot of work which has to be done behind the scenes at times just to make sure people get to hear the right message and the truth.

Paul was writing to the church in Corinth telling them other people were supplying him with his needs even though he was spending his time ministering to the Corinthians. Sometimes people to get to a stage where they may act like they own you even though they have never given you any financial support; again that is part of life and we have to accept this. Just don’t get caught up in arguments about who should be paying because that will tend to get people down rather than build them up for Christ.

Points to Ponder:
How much time do you spend working for God?

Are you depending on Him or expecting others to supply your financial needs?