<p>10:7 <i>And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give. For the labourer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house</i>- See on Lk. 9:4.<br />Preaching is all about relationships. The Lord commanded to not go from house to house but rather build up a base in one home. I take this to mean that He saw the importance of relationship building in preaching, rather than a surface level contact with many people of the type achieved in more public addresses. He envisioned these houses as becoming the focus of house churches, which were to be the building blocks of the wider body of Christ.</p><p>Preaching is essentially about building relationships, not platform evangelism. The Lord taught that His preachers were not to go &quot;from house to house&quot; but rather to remain within an acceptive household and make that their base. In modern terms, I think we could interpret this as meaning: 'Focus on building relationships; don't build up a shallow relationship with a lot of people, but rather try to get deep with one household'.</p><p>The reference to eating and drinking what was offered, as noted on :8, would seem more likely to mean 'Accept their offer of table fellowship on whatever basis they offer it'.</p><p>The saying that &quot;the labourer is worthy of his hire&quot; is quoted as &quot;Scripture&quot; in 1 Tim. 5:18, on the same level of acceptance as the Old Testament. This indicates that the gospel records were in circulation in written form from an early stage after the events, and were accepted by the church as Divinely inspired. Higher criticism is simply wrong to claim that the gospels were written long after the events by men with dim memories.</p><p>As in all ages, it was common in the first century for religious teachers to expect payment. But here the Lord redefines that 'payment' as being no more than subsistence level.</p>