Catholic Commentary
The Honor and Support Due to Ruling Elders
17Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and in teaching.18For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.” And, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
1 Timothy 5:17–18 instructs that church elders who lead and teach faithfully deserve both respect and financial support, as their labor is genuinely exhausting work. Paul supports this obligation with two scriptural citations—the command not to muzzle the ox and Jesus's saying that the laborer deserves wages—establishing a binding duty across both testaments.
You cannot honor a priest with applause while letting him go hungry—the Church owes her ministers both reverence and livelihood, never one without the other.
The second citation — "The laborer deserves his wages" — is striking precisely because Paul calls it "Scripture" (graphē), yet the exact phrasing does not appear verbatim in the Hebrew Bible. It closely echoes Leviticus 19:13 ("You shall not withhold the wages of a hired servant") but even more closely matches Luke 10:7, where Jesus sends out the seventy-two disciples and instructs them: "Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages." That Paul appears to cite a saying of Jesus as graphē — with the same authority as the Torah — is profoundly significant: it signals that the words of the Lord were already circulating in written or quasi-canonical form in the Pauline communities and were regarded as possessing scriptural authority. The two citations together — one from the Law of Moses, one from the words of Christ — form a double witness (cf. Dt 19:15) that makes the obligation to support ministers of the Gospel not a preference but a binding moral duty rooted in both Testaments.
Catholic tradition reads this passage as foundational to the Church's understanding of the ordained priesthood, the rights of clergy, and the corresponding duties of the faithful. Several lines of teaching converge here.
The Dignity of the Ordained Ministry. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the ordained minister is, as it were, an 'icon' of Christ the Priest" (CCC 1142). If the minister images Christ, then to honor or demean him is to honor or demean the one he represents. "Double honor" is therefore not favoritism but theological realism: the priest's office carries an ontological dignity that demands external recognition.
Material Support as a Justice Obligation. The Church has consistently taught that the support of clergy is not charity but justice. The Second Vatican Council's Presbyterorum Ordinis (§20) states explicitly: "Priests are worthy of receiving a just remuneration... just as workers in every other occupation provide for themselves and their families, priests also should be able to provide for their own needs and justly fulfill works of charity toward those who need it." This language echoes Paul's kopiōntes almost exactly.
The Hermeneutical Principle. St. John Chrysostom, in his Homilies on 1 Timothy, marvels that Paul calls both citations "Scripture," concluding that the words of Christ carry no less authority than the Mosaic law — a principle later enshrined in Catholic biblical hermeneutics: "The Church does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone" (CCC 82), but Scripture and Tradition together form a single sacred deposit. Paul's implicit canonization of dominical words as graphē is an early witness to this unity.
The Fathers. St. Ambrose (De Officiis I.50) applies this passage to the bishop's duty to labor not merely administratively but especially in preaching, warning that a bishop who does not teach fails the very criterion by which double honor is merited. Pope St. Gregory the Great echoes this in Regula Pastoralis: the pastor who does not preach "leaves the ox to starve while wearing its yoke."
For contemporary Catholics, this passage issues a quiet but sharp challenge. In an age when parish finances are perpetually strained and priests are asked to serve ever larger clusters of merged parishes, the temptation is to view clerical remuneration as an awkward necessity rather than an act of justice and honor. Paul's language corrects this instinct: the laborer deserves his wages — this is not patronage but debt.
Practically, this means that Catholics have a genuine moral obligation — not merely an admirable habit — to contribute to the material support of their parish and diocese, directly enabling their priests to preach, teach, and shepherd without financial anxiety. It also means that parishes and dioceses must ensure that priests engaged most heavily in teaching, catechesis, and sacramental ministry receive not only a living wage but the material conditions (time, books, sabbatical, study) necessary for that work to flourish.
On the other side, Paul's qualifier — "who rule well," "who labor in the word" — reminds the ordained that double honor is earned by excellence of pastoral service, not merely by holding office. This passage is as much a spur to priestly zeal as it is a claim on the faithful's generosity.
Commentary
1 Timothy 5:17 — "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor"
The Greek word presbyteroi — here translated "elders" — is the same word from which the English "priest" is derived and already in the Pauline churches designated a recognized order of governance and oversight within the local community (cf. Acts 14:23; Tit 1:5). Paul is not speaking loosely of older men but of those who proeistōtes — who "stand before" or "preside over" the congregation, a technical term for structured ecclesial authority. The modifier "who rule well" (kalōs proestōtes) implies that not all elders perform their office with equal fidelity; the community's discernment matters, and meritorious service is recognized rather than ignored.
The phrase diplēs timēs — "double honor" — is deceptively rich. Timē in Greek carries both the sense of esteem or reverence and of concrete worth, payment, or price (it is cognate with the verb timaō, "to value" or "to pay"). The "double" does not mean twice the normal stipend in any arithmetic sense; rather, it signals a layered dignity: honor in the form of respect and honor in the form of remuneration. The distinction between the two remains important: the community owes its presiding elders both reverence and livelihood, and neither can be substituted for the other. One cannot honor a priest with applause while letting him go hungry, nor support him financially while treating him with contempt.
The superlative case is made for those "who labor in the word and in teaching" (en logō kai didaskalia). The verb kopiōntes — "labor" — is Paul's customary word for arduous physical toil (he uses it of his own tent-making in 1 Cor 4:12); its application to preaching and catechesis is deliberately physical, insisting that intellectual and spiritual work is genuinely exhausting work, worthy of the same material reward as manual labor. Teaching the faith is not a leisure activity performed by gentlemen of private means; it is sweat-producing labor that sustains the whole body.
1 Timothy 5:18 — The two-fold Scriptural proof
Paul's double citation is remarkable for several reasons. The first text, "You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain," comes from Deuteronomy 25:4 (cf. also Lev 19:13 in its general principle). Paul has already cited this same verse in 1 Corinthians 9:9 in precisely the same context — apostolic financial support — and there he asks rhetorically: "Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake?" This is typological exegesis at its most explicit: the humane provision for the working animal is a figure () that points beyond itself to the Church's obligation toward its ministers. The animal that provides the community's bread must be allowed to eat while it works; the minister who provides the community's spiritual bread must likewise be fed.