Jan 08, 2006

Jay Adkins opened a can of worms on another topic this week – “Is it pleasing to God for people to make money in His name?”

Bravo Jay! A really good topic for a whole host of reasons – chief among them is that many people accuse the Church of only being interested in their money.

I started this post as a comment on his blog, but it grew until I was uncomfortable posting something this big on his site, so I moved it here instead.

I think this is a fairly cut and dry topic, yet I’m about to write a bunch on it anyway. My thoughts on this may be different than some, but do be sure to read Jay’s post because we come to similar conclusions. He just does it a lot quicker than I do.

1. God gave us dominion of the earth and everything contained in it. Money is just an extrapolation of the fullness of the earth.
2. We gave up our land lease to Satan by following him rather than God
3. Now, what was once a pure blessing to us, is also twisted by sin. It can twist us, IF we love it more than God.
4. That is why it is not money that is evil, but the love of money.
5. People seem to equate being wealthy with “a love of money”. That is not the case.
6. God gives to those who give to His Kingdom.
7. God gives us guidelines to follow for giving to His Kingdom

Everything we have, we have by God’s grace and through a talent that He provided to us. Ministry, revelation, etc. are no exceptions to this. If you have a God given talent that is a blessing to the Church, why is it wrong to in turn be blessed from that? I don’t think it is – I believe that you CAN profit honorably through true Ministry. Why? Because I haven’t read anything in the Bible that forbids taking profit from true service to the flock.

The closest thing you can find is Jesus overturning the money changers tables in the Temple, but is this the same thing? I don’t think so. Jesus specifically says that it is a den of robbers, referring to Jer. 7:9-11, where God says:

“Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ – safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!” declares the LORD.

I maintain that the “robbers” Jesus was evicting from the Temple weren’t just humble servants of the faithful, but rather were exploiting those who came to worship and most likely were involved in other nasty things as well – If God makes an analogy, I don’t think it will be a “sort-of” analogy, but rather one that fits His real meaning. So, the eviction doesn’t speak to profit through true ministry.

If you acknowledge that God doesn’t forbid making a profit through the honest use of ALL of His given talents (ministry included), then we need to look at the accumulation of this profit and if one can be wealthy and still be right with the Lord. This means we have to talk about giving, which is the other option to accumulation. As I mentioned previously, God gave us guidelines for giving – the Tithe, first fruits, sacrificial giving, etc. But God’s overall message to us on giving is clear in Malachi 3:10.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

Well, that sounds like abundance to me. Also, God blesses many figures in the bible with material wealth, Joseph, David, Solomon, etc. Were these all perfect men who deserved their wealth? Of course not, all have fallen short of the mark. Just because God blesses us in one part of our life doesn’t mean that He approves of EVERYTHING in our life. God has blessed people in the past and will continue to do so.

To categorically say that the wealthy are in sin because they have ostensibly exceed some arbitrary level of lifestyle “sufficiency” is simply judging them based on emotion not biblical principle. Where does materialism start? I’m OK owning a Chevy, but what about a Buick? Oh, and a Cadillac? Everyone KNOWS that they are just sinful frivolity! See how ludicrous it starts to sound?

The fact is that only God determines what is “enough” for everyone – not us. He is the one that determines if we do enough sacrificial giving. If God has given material wealth to someone and is not happy with their giving, then they will answer to Him, not to us. Doesn’t Matthew 7:1-2 tell us:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Along those same lines, yet focusing more on making money from ministry, doesn’t the bible also tell us in Mark 9:42 that God will specifically deal with those who have lead his children astray? 2 Peter 2:1 further says that doing so will bring “swift destruction on themselves”.

This is the double whammy. If it were not OK to make money in God’s name, then anyone who did would be exploiting the Church. Yet, if it IS OK to make money in God’s name, but you shouldn’t KEEP a tremendous amount of it, that would mean that this person isn’t following God’s plan for giving. I think that it is highly improbable that a preacher could exploit the Church and not follow God’s plan of giving, and yet somehow manage to not lead believers astray and also continue to be blessed financially by God. It just doesn’t add up.

Let us remember that it is God who set up the rules for people giving to the Priesthood. They were all commanded to give according to their ability. Of larger tribes, more was required. Of smaller tribes, less was required. Each gave to the Priesthood as God decreed. The priests were given the best of everything – much of it for holy sacrifice, but much of it for their own use as well. So, giving money to the Priesthood is not just “OK”, but rather is required.

To go one step further – after their giving, there were STILL tribes with more and tribes with less. God didn’t command that the tribes all give until all of them had equal amounts. He doesn’t command us to do that either, yet this is what someone who maintains that “John Doe from XYZ Church has too much money” is really saying. What level do they advocate John Doe give until? Usually the reply will be something along the lines of “They should give everything in excess of their needs.” Well following that logic, what determines those needs? I think it probably equates down to “Well, somewhere about the same as me. Because CLEARLY, I’m giving the right amount, as I couldn’t possibly do with less.” I’m sure you see where I’m going with this… Its not about biblical principle, but rather about emotion.

On to my next point regarding if it is OK to have wealth. If you maintain that it isn’t possible for a Pastor/Minister/Preacher to be wealthy, then you have to wonder if it is OK for ANY Christian to be wealthy. I again refer to the fact that God has blessed many throughout the Bible. He blessed Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, etc. He blessed Lot. He blessed Job, allowed it to be taken away through no fault of Job’s and then gave it to him back twice as much as he had before. He blessed Lazarus, who was Jesus’ friend. He even blessed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus – how else could they have put 75 pounds of myrrh in His tomb? God is clearly not against wealth. Therefore having wealth is NOT the same thing as the love of money.

As Matthew 6:24 says:

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

That means loving money MORE than God. Seeking FIRST the kingdom of money, not God. God presents us with opportunities to resource His Kingdom, and it is up to us to do so – BECAUSE we love Him more than the money. But, nowhere in there does it talk about specific amounts.

Even in the early Christian Church, in Acts 5, the story of Ananias and Sapphira – they fell down and died not because they didn’t give all of the money, but because they SAID they gave all of the money and lied to God. If it were otherwise, the passage would have said that the full amount for the field was REQUIRED, but because they didn’t give all of it, they would be punished. But that wasn’t the case – it was a case of loving the money more than God. If they simply hadn’t sold the field or were simply honest about the amount they were giving, they would have been OK. Nowhere in Acts is there a list of people who DIDN’T sell their fields – that didn’t matter. Loving money more than God and lying to Him over it is what mattered.

So, I think that a believer (pastor or not) can be wealthy as long as they are truly seeking God’s Will for their lives.

Even though it isn’t really the same issue, someone will invariably bring up the argument of “Well, what about the non-believer that is blessed financially? Why does God bless them yet they don’t believe in Him or follow His plan for giving.” Its a good question in and of itself, and I think there are a few answers:

1. God looks at an entire lifetime, He who is not Saved now, may be later.
2. Not all wealth is a blessing. How many rich stars, sports figures, etc. become alcoholics, go through several divorces, battle drugs, etc. Don’t think this isn’t true for other rich folks – you just don’t see it on CNN.
3. Matthew 4:8-9 shows that the world is Satan’s to give – could he not be giving to some according to his twisted will? Of course, you could say this same thing of someone who you believe is “exploiting” the church for ill-gotten gain, but again God says in 2 Peter 2:1 that He will deal with them quickly. God’s Word is always more powerful than Satan’s plan…
4. God has been known to do His work with non-believers – such as the Midianites conquering an adulterous Israel. God tells us to care for the poor. Not to liken them to the Midianites, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is doing more for the long term care of the world’s poor than most church efforts could even dream of. I can’t speak for their relationship with the Lord, but I suspect that if it was Biblical, they probably would have said something by now.

Wow, this really is much longer than I intended. My point is this (and is the same conclusion that Jay came to in a much more elegant way):

If you profit through lies, exploitation and illegal activity then it is not OK, especially if it is “In God’s Name”. There may indeed be people that do this – BUT

1. they will answer to God for it and
2. that doesn’t mean that one can’t be financially blessed through true Ministry or any other honest application of a God given talent.