What is a Hireling? (Podcast Episode # 19)

The Meaning of a Hireling in John 10

What is a hireling, right? This is from John chapter 10. Jesus talked about this. What is a hireling? So I wanted to look at this question. What is a hireling? Because I've just seen some things that lately have really kind of clarified this passage in John 10.

This is when Jesus gives the parable of the good shepherd. So I'm going to make the argument that a hireling is a pastor or a Christian leader who refuses to fight for biblical truth. A hireling is a Christian leader who refuses to protect the flock from wolves, which Jesus described, who are the wolves?

They're the heretics, the false prophets. The hireling avoids matters of rebuke. He might hold a Bible study on rebuke, but he's not going to actually rebuke people, not in any serious way. The hireling just wants to kind of keep his position, cash his paycheck and not, you know, if anything hard, difficult happens, if there's a fight that comes to him, he's not willing to fight.

He flees. That's what Jesus says here. A hireling refuses to take a stand or preach anything that's controversial.

Why?

Because he's not a shepherd. He doesn't really love the flock as much as he cares about his own position, his own wellbeing. So he doesn't want to do anything that might affect his paycheck. I'll read from this section from John 10 in a moment, but I think this is a very relevant issue and it helps to explain why there is a famine of the word of God today, because let's face it, it's just really hard to find someone who's preaching the whole counsel of God and is willing to fight today's battle.

So the word hireling on its most basic level means someone you hire for a menial task, but Jesus refers to it in the context of being a shepherd. And of course, the word shepherd means pastor. So the hireling is not really a shepherd.

He's not really a pastor. He's more of a hired hand. I remember a while back, I was talking to a Mormon and the Mormon took issue with Protestant and evangelical pastors receiving financial support for their churches because being a pastor, despite what some people might think, it is a job, it does take work, it can be stressful and all the rest, but this Mormon or member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as they are officially called, this Mormon accused Protestant pastors of being hirelings simply because they get paid.

That is not the definition of a hireling. Because apparently at the local level, the bishops or the pastors of the Mormon churches, they're all volunteer. They don't pay their bishops or their pastors.

Of course, the leaders in Salt Lake City are very rich, but that's another story. And from what I understand, the sermons that local Mormon pastors preach are sent to them by LDS headquarters, so that helps.

But the point is the Mormon pastors don't get paid. So Mormons will often refer to evangelical pastors as hirelings because they're getting paid. That's not what Jesus is talking about here at all. That is a ridiculous argument since in the Bible, supporting a pastor or supporting a missionary, that's very biblical.

Remember the apostle Paul, there were some churches he didn't take support from, but there were other churches that did support him financially. Paul said that a worker is worthy of his wages. He said, don't muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.

And he applied that to this subject, this principle that pastors should be paid. He said, those who preach the gospel should live by it. And the context in 1 Corinthians 9 is on ministers receiving financial support because it is a job.

1 Timothy 5 .17 says, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. And again, the context there is financial support. So the charge point is the charge coming from the Mormons that Protestant and evangelical pastors are hirelings because they get paid.

That's out of context. That's something that's out there, but that's not what Jesus is saying. So let's look at what Jesus said. John 10, verse seven, Jesus said to them again, most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, he sees the wolf coming.

This is the part to notice here. Verse 12, the hireling, when he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

So notice that the characteristics of a hireling are, number one, he runs from danger. He won't fight. Number two, he doesn't care about the sheep. And number three, he's nothing like Jesus. You know, Jesus was willing to fight.

Remember, he confronted the scribes and Pharisees. He called them whitewashed tombs. He flipped over the table, the money changers in the temple. Jesus was as kind and gentle as he needed to be at times and as hard as he needed to be at other times.

Jesus was, you could say, dynamic. He wasn't one-dimensional. So Jesus is the good shepherd. The hireling, though, is a false shepherd. He's a bad shepherd. In fact, he's not a shepherd at all. He's a hired hand.

He's just there doing the work, so it appears. If you found the hireling with the sheep on a good day when everything's fine, he looks like a faithful shepherd. But when things get difficult, when a wolf shows up, Jesus refers to false prophets and false teachers as wolves.

So when the wolf shows up, what does the hireling do? He runs away from the fight. He isn't willing to battle the wolves. The hireling, pastor, is not willing to confront false teachers and false doctrine.

Pastor John MacArthur writes this, the hireling, or hired hand, likely represents religious leaders who perform their duty in good times, but who never display sacrificial care for the sheep in times of danger.

They stand in contrast to Jesus, the good shepherd, who laid down his life for the flock. Throughout history, there have been pastors, Christian leaders, who have died for the faith. They have died defending the truth.

They have died protecting the flock. That's a pretty rare situation. It usually doesn't come to that, and it doesn't have to come to that. The question is, are they willing to fight off the wolves? I can't help but think, I don't think this is the primary application, but I can't help if they're talking about fighting today's battles.

I can't help but to think of, in our time, remember COVID? Yeah, of course, of course you do. How pastors in Canada were defending their church and defending their people and their right to worship. And because of that, some pastors were arrested and put in prison.

Pastors in the US faced fines. A couple were arrested, I think. And what happened? People were trying to smear their reputation. Of course, now, three years later, almost everyone agrees that was wrong, that was a mistake.

But really, it's just an obvious example of how some pastors were willing to fight. They were willing to put themselves at risk for the people, but most just kind of caved in. They folded like a cheap lawn chair.

They got to work part-time from home for six months. That was a pretty good deal. While the other pastors who stayed open, they got shot at, spiritually speaking, from the world and even from behind.

Even some Christians attacked them. But really, more to the point, so I can't help but think of that, because they were willing to fight that battle. Most were not. But really, more to the point of what Jesus is saying, because the wolves represent false teachers.

Remember how in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 7, 13 through 15, enter by the straight gate or the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the path that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Jesus says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing.

But what are they?

They are ravenous wolves. So we see that the wolves are false prophets. So you can see how that fits with what Jesus said here in John 10 about the hireling. He says, I am the door. He says, I'm the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.

But the hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and then the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. So bottom line, if the wolves are the false prophets, the hireling is the Christian leader who refuses to fight the wolves off.

So once I realized that, and I studied different topics throughout the week, and when I was looking at this, once I realized that, that that is the interpretation, it's like, wow, what an eye-opener.

Why Many Pastors Refuse to Fight False Teaching

Are there hirelings today who are not willing to fight? Oh, yeah, big time. And I even hear, and I know people repeat things they hear from others, so I don't wanna be too hard on people, but I mean, I hear Christians talking about fighting the good fight, fighting off false teachers.

I actually hear Christian pastors give advice to other pastors saying, don't worry about the false teachers. Don't preach against that. Just preach the gospel. Don't speak about what's wrong. Don't talk about false teachers.

Just tell people what's right. Well, here's the thing. We need to tell them both. Or they say, never name names. Ignore the issue of false prophets. Take Gamaliel's advice or something like that. Even though every single New Testament epistle, and if you're not paying attention, you need to hear this.

Every single New Testament epistle except Philemon. So the entire New Testament, every book except Philemon deals with the subject of false prophets, false teachers. And what are the apostles doing? What's Jesus doing?

They're combating the false doctrine from the false teachers. I mean, this is a theme throughout the entire Bible. So once you understand that, and then you compare it today how many, if not most churches and most pastors are never even really dealing with this issue when it's such an important issue.

Yeah, it's a real eye opener. So a hireling, again, is a Christian leader who refuses to fight off the wolves. He refuses to put himself at risk. Why is that? He is weak. He doesn't want to upset anybody.

Could be a lot of reasons. And this could take several forms, but I think the main application is clear. He refuses to preach on the subject of heresy and false teaching. The Protestant reformer Martin Luther once said, where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.

And to be steady on all the battlefields besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're fighting this little skirmish over here and this little thing over here, or say a pastor is preaching against slavery in a battle that was 150 years ago.

If you're not willing to fight today where the battle is the hottest right now, if you're not willing to fight those battles, you're being unfaithful. And Martin Luther was a man who would know. He took on the Roman Catholic Church.

And today, here's the irony. People today, they hear this quote, they agree. They look at Martin Luther and they honor him for opposing the Catholic Church. And yet if a pastor today takes on the same Roman Church, you have Protestants and evangelicals getting angry at them.

I mean, it's so bizarre. So in conclusion, starting to wrap this segment up, the show is almost over. If you take the teaching of Jesus seriously about the hireling, this again is a real eye-opener. I don't think I've ever heard a sermon about this.

I even looked at the website, gotquestions .org, where they cover pretty much everything. They don't have an article on this. So that means not many people are dealing with it. So what's the takeaway?

What does this mean for you and for me and for pastors today? We have to fight today's battles. The last thing in the world I wanna be talking about is the whole LGBT nonsense. Trust me, that is not a subject that interests me that I even wanna talk about, but it's a battle that's being brought to us.

Just read something in the paper about Christians being called a hate group and they're trying to smear another group of local Christians talking about a hate group.

Why?

Because they believe in a traditional view of marriage and sexuality. My friends, this is today's battle, like it or not. So when, oh, I don't wanna talk about that because someone might get upset. You're a hireling at that point.

If you refuse to fight, if you refuse to preach on these subjects because someone might get upset, that might affect your paycheck, you're only worried about yourself, you don't wanna stick your neck out, looks like you fit the qualifications of a hireling.

So the takeaway, we need to fight today's battles. We need to combat all the false teaching out there. We need to warn the flock about false teachers and false prophets. So this is an important subject.

Nothing disrupts a church like wolves and false doctrine. Personal grudges and unforgiveness, I mean, that's a huge problem too within churches, but the difference is people are willing to acknowledge that that's wrong and preach against it.

But preaching against heresy and fighting off wolves, people will actually get upset when you do the right thing. It's one thing if you're doing the wrong thing and people get upset. But yeah, sometimes people get upset when you do the right thing.

Doesn't matter.

We need to follow what scripture says. So that's a hireling. This is from John, again, John 10, Jesus and his parable of the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd, Jesus says, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but the hireling flees because he is a hireling and he does not care about the sheep.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.