Chapter 33—Laboring Under Difficulties
While Paul was careful to set before his converts the plain teaching
of Scripture regarding the proper support of the work of God, and
while he claimed for himself as a minister of the gospel the “power
to forbear working” (
1 Corinthians 9:6
) at secular employment as a
means of self-support, yet at various times during his ministry in the
great centers of civilization he wrought at a handicraft for his own
maintenance.
Among the Jews physical toil was not thought strange or degrading.
Through Moses the Hebrews had been instructed to train their children
to industrious habits, and it was regarded as a sin to allow the youth to
grow up in ignorance of physical labor. Even though a child was to
be educated for holy office, a knowledge of practical life was thought
essential. Every youth, whether his parents were rich or poor, was
taught some trade. Those parents who neglected to provide such a
training for their children were looked upon as departing from the
instruction of the Lord. In accordance with this custom, Paul had early
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learned the trade of tentmaking.
Before he became a disciple of Christ, Paul had occupied a high
position and was not dependent upon manual labor for support. But
afterward, when he had used all his means in furthering the cause of
Christ, he resorted at times to his trade to gain a livelihood. Especially
was this the case when he labored in places where his motives might
have been misunderstood.
It is at Thessalonica that we first read of Paul’s working with his
hands in self-supporting labor while preaching the word. Writing to
the church of believers there, he reminded them that he “might have
been burdensome” to them, and added: “Ye remember, brethren, our
labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be
chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.”
1 Thessalonians 2:6, 9
. And again, in his second epistle to them, he
declared that he and his fellow laborer while with them had not eaten
“any man’s bread for nought.” Night and day we worked, he wrote,
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