Galatians 6:6 :

But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches.

Although it is true that we should pay our Bible teachers, it would appear that in context, this verse is talking about sharing a pattern of life. Paul was talking about restoring sinning brothers. It would be quite strange for him to say an isolated statement about compensation in the middle of this serous discussion about sin. I was told that the word here for share isn’t necessarily a word about pay. That makes it even more likely that Paul is referring to the earlier topic: restoring the sinning brother.

Listen to what Jesus said to His disciples:

Luke 6:40 :

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Could it be that Paul really needed help here? He needed these spiritual believers to step up and take care of some difficult things. Paul needed the spiritual ones to take action to bring these sinning ones back.

Bible teachers are not permanently more spiritual than those they lead. Neither the teacher nor the student should see it this way. Instead, every student should seek to actually live like their teacher is living. This puts an enormous burden on the teacher, but God warned teachers about this. Even though preachers are not super-human, they should be serving as an example to those they teach.

When we think this way about pastors, it helps us select an appropriate church. We should be taught by pastors that live the life that we know we need to be living. We don’t go to church for a performance. The life of our pastor is a pattern for us. We should seek to live life in the pattern that he demonstrates. If a pastor doesn’t demonstrate the kind of life that everyone should be living, or is harming people, that kind of pastor should be avoided.