What Does Luke 10:7 Mean?
And remain in that same house, eating and drinking what they give, for the worker is worthy of his pay. Do not step from house to house.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.THE KEY
The food on the table is part of the worker’s wage, and remaining gives the work a settled home.
THE MEANING
The work moving through your life has a place where it is received and sustained; what is given there belongs to the exchange. The worker is worthy of the wage, so receiving support does not diminish the work, and staying gives that support a settled relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a worker must refuse or minimize support to prove the work is sincere; it names the wage as deserved.
THE ROOT
μένετε
menete
GROWS FROM
μεν-
men-
The Greek word-family stem for staying, continuing, or remaining.
English “remain” can sound like mere inactivity, but a related form also means a dwelling or abode. Staying in the house gives the welcome continuity, while “Go not from house to house” keeps the work rooted in one place.
ALSO GROWS
monē: Dwelling, abode
μονή
This related noun makes the link between remaining and dwelling explicit: staying is a way of inhabiting a place.
epimenō: Continue, remain in
ἐπιμένω
This compound carries the same “remain” stem into continued presence, echoing the verse’s settled stay.
μισθοῦ
misthou
GROWS FROM
μισθ-
misth-
The Greek word-family stem for wages or compensation for service.
“pay” in this verse is misthou. The same word-family names both the wage and the act of hiring, so “hire” is concrete compensation, not an abstract compliment. The verse places the worker’s due alongside the household’s food, making support part of the exchange.
ALSO GROWS
misthoō: Hire or engage for wages
μισθόω
The verb shows the wage as part of a real arrangement between work and provision.
misthios: Hired worker, wage earner
μίσθιος
This related noun names the worker through the same wage-family found in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Provision for those who labor belongs to the just order of the work, not merely to another’s generosity.
On his day you give him his wage, and the sun does not go down upon it, for he is bowed down and carries his living soul toward it. Lest he call out against you to the LORD, and it be missing in you.So also the Lord has arranged that those who proclaim the good news should live from the good news.For the writing says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain," and, "The worker is weighed worthy of his wage."THE THREAD
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it stays in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.“Abide” and “remain” translate the same Greek verb, μένω (menō; stay, remain). Here, as in Luke, sustaining life is bound to remaining in a relationship: the house provides for the worker, and the vine sustains the branch.
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