Laborers to live by their labor.
The use of this verse by the apostle has brought it out of an obscurity to which it might have been relegated. It is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:10, and is there applied by him as an illustration in the ancient Law of Moses of the same principle which our Lord affirmed when he appointed that "they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (see Matthew 10:9, Matthew 10:10). We can scarcely go so far as John Calvin in reference to Paul's allusion to it. He says that Paul here says, God does not care for oxen! Surely his meaning is simply that it was not merely from his care for oxen that God commanded Moses to pen such a precept, but that there was a common care of God for all his creatures, and that if he cared thus for the less, it was very certain he would care even more for the greater. Labor, moreover, is to be like all native growths—it is to have "its seed within itself." All who employ laborers are to see that their workmen are sufficiently well paid to enable them to live by their labor. Any one desiring to develop this truth in relation to spiritual toil would naturally rather take the New Testament texts referred to above. Keeping, therefore, simply to the earthly sphere, we remark:
1. No precept in this book which is connected with duty or character is too trivial to be "worthy of God."
2. An apparently small command may wrap up in it a great principle.
3. True benevolence will be kind and thoughtful to the humblest laborer even in minute detail.
4. God does not allow any one selfishly to monopolize the fruits of another's labor without giving the toiler adequate compensation for his toil.
5. The Great Defender of the rights of the working classes is—God!
6. It is a divinely appointed ordinance forever that the power of toil is to be a means of self-support; that labor shall bring wealth to the laborer. Here is a blow struck at slavery.