An anonymous asker sent in the following question:
“Why does the doctrine of prosperity preaching, the Christian religious doctrine which claims the Bible teaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, fail to match up with scripture and what the Bible actually says?”
Biblical Prospective on Money, Wealth, and Income
Very applicable question! In our society of wealth here in the United States, it is very important for Christians to have a solid understanding of what the Bible teaches about money and how God handles it in our lives. I will do my best to elucidate what that is.
As a general remark, I might just be out-of-the-know, but I have never heard of a “doctrine of prosperity”. Money, while an important issue, is not a doctrine that is central to the Christian faith (except in the issue of greed within the issue of the Depravity of Man perhaps). Maybe you are meaning the “prosperity Gospel” (or “prosperity theology” as it’s sometimes called) which is a colloquial term referring to the tendency in the United States by pastors to preach that if one becomes a Christian he/she will experience nothing but prosperity and sunny skies. Either way, no “doctrine of prosperity” exists as far as I am aware.
Scripture
There are several Scriptures that deal directly with the issue of money and whether God blesses people with it:
Jesus’ parable of the talents
Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV); Luke 19:12-27 (NIV)
Matthew 6:19-24 (NIV), “19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[a] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Footnotes
a. Matthew 6:22 The Greek for healthy here implies generous.
b. Matthew 6:23 The Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy.
Proverbs 28:20 (NIV), “A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”
Psalm 144:9-15 (NIV), “9 I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, 10 to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword 11 deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. 12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. 13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; 14 our oxen will draw heavy loads.[b] There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. 15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”
Footnotes
b. Psalm 144:14 Or our chieftains will be firmly established
1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV), “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
I know that is a lot of Scripture to process at one time, but I want to answer this question thoroughly. From my research, I would answer your question as follows: while it is not necessarily the will of God for every Christian to be rich, God’s will does not exclude making a believer rich. Additionally, a form of God’s blessing and favor is monetary blessing. With those things in mind, let’s look at each Scripture individually to see why this is the case.
Jesus Parable of the Servants and Talents
This well known parable has everything to do with money. In this story, a master leaves a significant amount of money to each of three servants. To each one he successively gives less for the servant to look over. After a somewhat long period of time (neither Scripture gives a definite amount of time), the master (or “king” in Luke) returns to check up on the status of the money he left behind. The first and second servants doubled their money (10 to 20 and 5 to 10 respectively), but the third servant hid his master’s money because he was afraid he’d lose it and was afraid of the master. The result is that the master is upset with the servant and casts him out and gives his money to the one that was issued 10.
What does this parable teach about money in general? It isn’t yours! All money is God’s—in fact everything is God’s and He graciously allows everyone to use what is in Creation. The best description I’ve heard with regard to money is that money is something God gives us to manage (just like the master/king in the parable). He assigns different values to different people. If you invest it (use it to God’s purposes), He will bless you with more responsibility (which can be more money to manage). If you don’t invest it, don’t use it, squander it, or are greedy, God will take it away from you.
This, therefore, means that God does in fact make people administrators over money and sometimes lots of it. It does not mean the will of God for every Christian is to be rich. Rather, it means that for the advancing of God’s kingdom that requires money, He will give certain believers responsibility over amounts of money so that He can fulfill His will.
Matthew 6:19-24
Matthew 6:19-24 (NIV), “19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[a] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[b] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Footnotes
c. Matthew 6:22 The Greek for healthy here implies generous.
d. Matthew 6:23 The Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy.
An interesting note about the Greek: the word for “money” in verse 24 (“mammon” as translated in the KJV) means money as an object of worship—not money itself. That is a crucial fact to understand about this verse. Jesus is teaching that money should not be the focus of a believer’s life in the sense that it is not an object to be worshipped or sought after over God Himself.
Also, I do not believe this passage means for the believer not to save up money (as one might be tempted to think that based on verse 19). I do not believe this because it would contradict such verses as Proverbs 13:22 (KJV), “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.” which clearly teach that a good person will save up money for their children’s children. This would make sense since when Jesus then says to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” He could not possibly be meaning that literally, for that would require the believer to actually enter Heaven to place treasures there. Rather, Jesus was speaking within the context of the believer’s heart—that one should not put their trust in things temporal (“where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”) but rather in things eternal (“where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”).
Proverbs 28:20
Proverbs 28:20 (NIV), “A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”
This is verse is a wonderful enigma. In the first half, God says that those who are faithful will be richly blessed (which can include money, see the discussion of Psalm 144:9-15 below), but yet then says that one who is eager to get rich will not go unpunished. So which is it? Should the believer expect riches or not? The answer is that the believer who desires riches above everything else should not expect them since that makes one guilty of covetousness (and by that idolatry, see Colossians 3:5). However, the believer that keeps Christ first in his/her life, God can trust with money, etc..
Baptist theologian John Gill (1697-1771) said it well: “he that is over anxious, and immoderately desirous of being rich, and pursues every method of obtaining his desires, with all his might and main; that labours night and day for it; though he takes no criminal nor unlawful methods, properly so called, nor does he do anything injurious to others, yet he is not innocent; that too much anxiety in him is criminal; nor is he free from covetousness; see Proverbs 23:4;”
He also makes the observation that those who are faithful will have the attribute of being beneficent and generous and thus avert the covetousness that he refers to (see his entire commentary on the verse here: http://biblecommenter.com/proverbs/28-20.htm).
Psalms 144:9-15
Psalm 144:9-15 (NIV), “9 I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, 10 to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword 11 deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. 12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. 13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; 14 our oxen will draw heavy loads.[b] There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. 15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”
Footnotes
b. Psalm 144:14 Or our chieftains will be firmly established
This passage is included here to illustrate that following point: blessings can include monetary blessing. There is a tendency to think that “blessings” can only be spiritual—like mercy, joy, peace, etc.. While I think blessings can be those things, it does not capture all of the ways in which God can bless a believer. God can choose to bless faithfulness monetarily.
This would make sense in the light of several key followers of God. People such as Solomon, Job, and Joseph of Arimathea were all very wealthy believers, but faithful followers of Christ.
1 Timothy 6:10
1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV), “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
This often-quoted passage teaches that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and has caused many people griefs and even to wander from the faith. I think it is important to notice that the passage does not say “money is a root of all kinds of evil.” but rather “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money in and of itself is a creation of God and thus is not properly evil. Money that is idolized is evil but because of its role as an idol, not because of its role as an item of value.
I think one can take from this passage that again: the believer need not be eager to make a lot of money and pursue it. Rather, the believer should pursue Christ, His will and plan and let Him take care of the monetary concerns. Do not forget Jesus’ words: “25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?” (Matthew 6:25-27 [NIV], which is interestingly right after the passage above on Matthew 6.)
e. Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to your height
Conclusion
In finality, I would say that the believer should leave wealth up to God’s will. Certain believers will have to have money in order to carry out some commands such as being generous and helping the poor (commands that could not be fulfilled if God does not bless some believers with money). It is definitely not His will for every believer to have money, but it is His will for some. And only God knows whom He will bless with money (and more importantly why—to fulfill His will).
God bless,
Robert A. Rowlett