A volunteer preacher who receives no salary, and who depends on God for food and for the fare to reach the next congregation, will sooner or later ask whether the labor counts for anything. The question deserves a direct answer from Scripture. So what does the Bible say about heavenly rewards for serving God? It says there is a reward, that God Himself gives it, that it is eternal, and that it comes by His grace and not as a payment He owes.
This article sets out what those passages teach. It looks at 2 Corinthians 4, 1 Corinthians 9, Hebrews 6 and Luke 14, and it is written for the preacher and also for the relatives and brethren who stand beside him.
Why the Preacher Without a Salary Is Not Working for Nothing
An empty envelope at the end of the month can suggest that nothing is being earned. Scripture measures the work by a different standard. Hebrews 11:6 teaches that God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The one who weighs the labor is God, and He does not use the ledger of an employer.
Hebrews 6:10 gives the plainest assurance: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” The verse says God will not forget. A sermon preached in a small room, a journey made on foot or by borrowed fare, a visit to a sick member: each is known to Him, whether or not any person has recorded it.
Paul closes his great chapter on the resurrection with the same conclusion. Having taught that the dead in Christ will be raised, he writes in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that the believer’s “labour is not in vain in the Lord.” The reason the labor is not in vain is the resurrection, which is the very thing the reward rests upon.
Relatives and brethren who give a meal, a place to sleep or a contribution toward travel share in this. The ministering to the saints in Hebrews 6:10 is itself something God remembers.
Light Affliction and a Weight of Glory: What Paul Set Side by Side
In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul writes: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” He places two things next to each other, and the contrast is deliberate.
On one side stands affliction, which he calls light and momentary. On the other stands glory, which he calls far more exceeding and eternal. Paul was not a man who had suffered little. In the same letter he lists beatings, shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11:23-27). He calls such things light only because he compares them with what is coming, and not because they were small.
The next verse explains how he could judge this way: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” A bare cupboard is seen, and it is real. It is also temporary. The glory is unseen at present and it lasts forever.
This passage does not tell a preacher that hunger is pleasant, or that he should pretend he is not tired. It gives him a true measure by which to judge his present hardship. The hardship has an end, and the glory does not.
Paul’s Own Reward Was to Preach Without Charge
First Corinthians 9 is the chapter most often quoted on this subject, and it contains two truths that must be held together. First, the Lord has ordained support for the preacher. Verse 14 says: “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” A congregation that withholds support from a preacher it could help is not obeying that command.
Second, Paul himself chose not to use that right. In verse 12 he says, “Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.” Then in verses 17 and 18 he asks and answers a question: “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 names his reward as the privilege of preaching freely, so that no one could say the gospel was being sold. He also writes in verse 16, “necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” He preached because he was commissioned, and the reward was not what moved him to begin.
Some volunteer preachers serve without a salary by Paul’s example, and others because there is simply no congregation able to pay. Scripture honors both situations without making one the measure of the other. Paul did sometimes receive gifts from the churches, and in Philippians 4:15-16 he thanks the Philippians for sending help more than once. Receiving is not shameful. Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 9 is that a preacher’s first concern is that the gospel is not hindered.
The same chapter then turns to the crown. Verses 24 and 25 compare the preacher to a runner who is temperate in all things, and say that others strive “to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” The prize is of a different kind from anything money buys.
Reward Is a Gift of the Father, Not a Wage Owed to Us
The word reward can mislead if it is read as payment. Romans 4:4 states the difference: “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” A wage is owed to a worker. Scripture teaches that no one can place God in debt.
Jesus makes this plain in Luke 17:10: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” A servant who has done his duty has not earned a claim. Yet the same Lord who says this also promises that He will reward His servants. Both teachings are true, and they fit together because the reward comes from the Father’s generosity and not from the servant’s merit.
The parable of the laborers in Matthew 20:1-16 shows the same thing. The householder pays each man the same, and answers the complaint by saying he may do what he will with his own. The reward is his to give, and he gives it generously.
Romans 6:23 states the whole matter in one line: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Eternal life is not a salary for good preaching. It is given through Christ to those who are in Him, and the faithful service of a preacher is the fruit of belonging to Him, not the price of it.
This guards against two errors. One is despair, which says the labor is wasted because no one has paid for it. The other is pride, which says God now owes the preacher something. The Father who gives freely is neither unjust nor in debt.
What Scripture Says Is Kept for the Faithful Servant
The Bible names the reward in several ways, and the descriptions agree with one another.
- Eternal life with Christ. Jesus says in Mark 10:29-30 that those who leave houses, family or lands for His sake and the gospel’s will receive in this time what He provides, “with persecutions,” and “in the world to come eternal life.” The promise carries its own warning that the present time includes persecution.
- A crown of righteousness. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 that he has fought the good fight and finished the course, and that a crown of righteousness is laid up for him. He adds that the Lord will give it “not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
- A crown of glory that does not fade. Peter tells the elders who shepherd the flock that “when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 5:4).
- An inheritance. Colossians 3:23-24 tells servants to work heartily as for the Lord, “knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance.” The Lord Christ is the one served, and He is the one who gives.
- Treasure in heaven. Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21 that treasure laid up in heaven is beyond the reach of moth, rust and thieves.
Luke 14 adds a particular note. In verses 12 to 14 Jesus tells His host to invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind when he makes a feast, and says, “they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” The reward is deferred to the resurrection, and it is promised exactly where no earthly repayment is possible. A preacher who serves people unable to repay him, and the relatives who feed and clothe the sick without return, are in the position this passage describes.
Later in the same chapter, in verses 26 to 33, Jesus tells the crowd to count the cost before following Him, as a man counts the cost before building a tower. Discipleship was never offered as an easy bargain. The reward is real, and so is the cost.
Scripture does not promise earthly wealth to the faithful preacher. Paul warns in 1 Timothy 6:5-6 against those who suppose that “gain is godliness,” and says that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” He also writes in 2 Corinthians 2:17 of those who “corrupt the word of God” for profit. Any teaching that guarantees riches in this life as the sign of a faithful ministry contradicts these verses and misleads the people who hear it.
How to Carry This Hope on a Day When the Cupboard Is Bare
Hope in a future reward does not remove present hunger, and it would be false to say it does. The Scriptures give a preacher a few concrete things to do on such a day.
Read the passages aloud. Second Corinthians 4:16-18 and Hebrews 6:10 are short enough to read in a minute. Reading them with the family restores the right measure of the present trouble.
Pray plainly for the day’s need. Jesus taught His disciples to ask for daily bread, and the request belongs to the same prayer as “Thy kingdom come.” The earlier article on how a preacher can pray when the bread is running short gives help with the words.
Accept help without shame. If a brother offers food or fare, receiving it honors the ministering that Hebrews 6:10 says God remembers. The giver is serving too, and refusing him takes that service from him.
Remember the one who stands with you. Relatives and brethren can say to the preacher what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58, that the labor is not in vain in the Lord. They can also ask what he needs and act on the answer, since a word of encouragement does not fill a cupboard. For the daily strain of ministry that takes all the hours of the day, the article on staying motivated in ministry without pay speaks to that fatigue directly.
The reward kept for the faithful servant is eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is given by the Father. The unpaid season is brief by Paul’s measure, and the weight of glory that follows has no end.
Continue to the companion reading, ‘God Has Promised to Provide for the Preacher. Here Is What He Actually Promised’, to see what God has pledged for daily bread while the eternal reward is still ahead.