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Volume 1 · Honest HereticsLesson 10About 22 minutes

Wealth as Blessing

Is money a sign that God is pleased with you, or a weight you are carrying?

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Lesson 10 · Honest Heretics
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The center · Luke 6:24
24“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

In this lesson

You have probably heard some version of it. God wants you to prosper. Give faithfully and he will give back more. It is preached on television and said sincerely in churches every Sunday. Jesus talked about money as often as almost anything, so it is easy to measure against the center.

This may be the easiest gap of all to see. The man who told a rich man to sell everything is now preached by ministers who fly private jets and promise that donations will come back multiplied. Saying so to someone who feels blessed for their giving rarely lands, but the text alone makes the case, and his teaching on money is good advice for anyone.

Read it3 min

Start with the man who walked away sad. He had kept every commandment since he was young. Mark adds a detail the other Gospels leave out: Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Mark 10:17-27
17As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” 18Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not give false testimony,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and mother.’” 20He said to him, “Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth.” 21Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.” 22But his face fell at that saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions. 23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!” 24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom! 25It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.” 26They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”

Luke records a sermon in which Jesus pairs every blessing with a woe. Read the two halves side by side.

Luke 6:20-26
20He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for God’s Kingdom is yours. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation. 25Woe to you, you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26Woe, when men speak well of you, for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.
"Blessed are you…" "Woe to you…" who are poor who hunger now who weep now when men hate you who are rich who are full now who laugh now when men speak well of you
Luke 6:20–26. Each blessing has a matching woe. The people the world envies stand on the woe side.

He said plainly that money is a rival master.

Matthew 6:24
24“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

And he told a story about a farmer whose fields did so well that he ran out of room.

Luke 12:16-21
16He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. 17He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ 18He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ 21So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Who's who: The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are the books that tell Jesus' life; the verses above are his own words in them. Deuteronomy, Proverbs and Job, mentioned below, belong to the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish Scriptures Jesus grew up with. A tax collector, like Zacchaeus, collected taxes for Rome and was despised as a collaborator.

The world behind the words4 min

Most of the people listening to Jesus in Galilee were farmers, fishermen and day laborers. Many worked land they didn't own and carried debts they couldn't pay. And they had grown up with a common idea: if you were rich, God must be pleased with you.

Their own Scriptures seemed to say so. Deuteronomy promised that if Israel obeyed, "all these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you" , and the blessings listed include full barns and fertile herds. Proverbs says, "The LORD's blessing brings wealth" . At the end of the book of Job, God gives Job "twice as much as he had before" . It was natural to read the rich as the blessed.

That is why the disciples were so shaken by the man who walked away. Jesus didn't condemn him; Mark says he loved him. He simply asked the man to let go of the thing holding him, and the man couldn't. When Jesus said a camel would sooner go through a needle's eye, the disciples were "exceedingly astonished" and asked, "Then who can be saved?" If even a rich, obedient man was in danger, who was safe?

A myth to set aside: You may hear that the "eye of the needle" was a small gate in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through on its knees. No such gate is known from the time of Jesus; the explanation appears many centuries later. The disciples' reaction shows they heard an impossibility, not a tight squeeze.

The pattern runs through the Gospels. Jesus praised a poor widow's two small coins over the gifts of the rich . In his story of the rich man and Lazarus, a man "clothed in purple and fine linen" ignores a beggar at his gate, and after death the two trade places . And when the rich tax collector Zacchaeus gave half his goods to the poor, Jesus said, "Today, salvation has come to this house" .

In every one of these stories, Jesus treats wealth the same way: as a danger to the person holding it, and generosity as the way out. Not once does he point to someone's money as proof that God approves of them.

How it drifted5 min

Ring 4: modern movements
The prosperity gospel, 1950s to today
The further an idea sits from the center, the more it needs a reason to outrank his words.

The first Christians took these words at face value. Luke writes that the believers in Jerusalem "had all things in common" and sold property to give "according as anyone had need" , so that "neither was there among them any who lacked" .

The Didache, a short handbook of Christian teaching written around 100 AD, told believers: "Do not turn away from someone in need; share everything with your brother, and do not say it is your own." Around 388, the preacher John Chrysostom, later archbishop of Constantinople, gave a series of sermons on the rich man and Lazarus in Antioch. He didn't soften the story.

“
Not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life. We do not possess our own wealth but theirs.
John Chrysostom, Second Sermon on Lazarus and the Rich Man, c. 388

As the church grew rich in the Middle Ages, some believers chose poverty instead. Around 1206, Francis of Assisi, a wealthy cloth merchant's son, gave up his inheritance in public and lived among the poor. His order made poverty a way of following Jesus.

In 1905 the sociologist Max Weber proposed that some Protestant groups came to treat hard work and success as signs that God had chosen them. Historians still argue about his theory, but the idea it describes, that success may show God's favor, took deep root in America.

The modern prosperity gospel took that idea much further. Its roots are usually traced to E. W. Kenyon, an evangelist of the early 1900s who taught that believers could claim God's promises by speaking them in faith. From the 1950s, the healing evangelist Oral Roberts preached "seed faith": give to God as a seed, and expect a harvest in return. Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland spread the "Word of Faith" teaching through Bible schools and television from the 1960s and 70s, and Christian television carried it worldwide.

c. 30Jesus: "Woe to you who are rich."
c. 100The Didache: share everything; do not call it your own.
c. 388John Chrysostom: not sharing with the poor is theft.
1206Francis of Assisi gives up his inheritance.
1905Max Weber's theory of a "Protestant ethic."
1950sOral Roberts preaches "seed faith."
1960s–80sWord of Faith teaching spreads on Christian TV.
2018A LifeWay survey finds most Protestant churchgoers believe God wants them to prosper financially.

The verses used to support it mostly come from outside the Gospels: Malachi's promise to "open you the windows of heaven" for those who bring the tithe , or a letter's friendly greeting, "I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy" . The one saying of Jesus often quoted is "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" . Read the next verse: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" . The chapter is about a shepherd giving everything up, not gaining.

Whose purpose it serves: First, the ministries that collect the "seed" money; a message that promises a return on donations pays the messenger before anyone else. Second, everyone already comfortable, because it turns privilege into a reward from God. And it quietly blames the poor: if faith brings wealth, poverty starts to look like a lack of faith. Many believers in it are sincere, often looking for hope in hard times. The system they trust profits from that hope.

What they'll say back3 min

"The Old Testament promises blessing to the faithful." It does, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. But the same Scriptures also include Job, a righteous man who loses everything, and prophets who condemn the rich for oppressing the poor. And Jesus, who knew those Scriptures better than anyone, never repeated the promise of wealth. He reversed it. If he is the center, his reading comes first.

"It's about your attitude toward money, not the money itself." There is truth here: Jesus warned against "covetousness" , which is about the heart. But look at what happens in his stories. He told the rich man to actually sell. Zacchaeus actually gave half away. The widow actually gave everything. In each one, the money moves.

"Jesus had wealthy friends." He did. Women of means "served them from their possessions" , and Zacchaeus kept half of what he had. Jesus didn't ask every follower to give up everything. That makes the point sharper: he let people keep wealth, but he never praised anyone for having it, only for giving it.

Be fair: Paul wrote that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" , not money itself, and many generous Christians are well off. Having money isn't the drift. Treating it as proof of God's favor is.
When you hear these: The Old Testament objection is the most common, so expect it first. It is also the weakest with a believer, because it concedes that Jesus said something different. Ask calmly: "Did Jesus ever repeat that promise?" Then let the silence do the work.

Measured against the center2 min

A contradiction
Jesus treated wealth as a danger and generosity as the way out; teaching that wealth proves God's favor says the opposite of what he said.

Measured against the center, this is not a small difference of emphasis. It is a contradiction, not an add-on. Jesus said "woe to you who are rich," called money a rival master, told a rich man to sell what he had, and praised a widow for giving her last coins. The prosperity gospel tells people that God rewards faith with money and that giving is an investment that pays back. Those two messages cannot both be his.

What you noticed is real, and it is one of the plainest failures in modern Christianity. Ministers who preach wealth as a blessing are preaching against the man they name. If you grew up hearing that faith would make you prosperous, or that hard times meant you didn't believe enough, you can set that down. He never said it.

A keeper1 min

Whatever you believe about who Jesus was, his teaching on money holds up on its own. Your life is not the sum of what you own. Hold possessions loosely. Give where it costs you something, and give quietly.

Luke 12:15
15He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”
Matthew 6:21
21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Modern research agrees with him. In a set of studies published in the journal Science in 2008, psychologists found that people who spent money on others reported more happiness than people who spent the same amount on themselves.

You don't need any faith to take this one. It is simply true that people who hold money loosely and give freely tend to live freer, happier lives, and Jesus said so two thousand years before the studies did.

Reflect2 min

  1. When have you heard someone's success described as God's blessing? What did that imply about people who struggle?
  2. Have you, or someone you know, been told that giving to a ministry would bring money back? What happened?
  3. Who is the most generous person you know? Do they have much?

Take your time with each one. There is space to write your answers in the book and the PDF.

Practice this week1 min

This week, notice how money and God are talked about around you: on television, online, on church signs, in your family. Write down one example of wealth described as a blessing, and one example of someone giving quietly. Then, if you like, try the teaching for yourself: give something that costs you, and tell no one.

Bring it back1 min

1
Common ground
"I love that you want God involved in every part of your life, money included. Let's see what Jesus said about it."
2
The bridge question
"Can you think of a time Jesus pointed to someone's money as proof God was pleased with them?"
3
Back to his words
He did the opposite: "Woe to you who are rich" (Luke 6:24). Ask gently: "If he said that, where did we get the other idea?"
They sayYou can say
"God blessed me with all this."
"Maybe so. But Jesus never once pointed to someone's money as proof of God's favor. He praised the people who gave it away."
"The Bible promises blessing if you tithe."
"That's Malachi, in the Old Testament. When Jesus mentioned tithing, he said justice and mercy matter more (Matthew 23:23)."
Pass it on: Some believers are quietly uneasy with prosperity preaching but have never seen what Jesus said about money laid out in one place. If one of them asks, hand them the believer edition of this book instead of an argument.

Remember it

Too wide for the slit

One master. Luke 6:24: "Woe to you who are rich." Matthew 6:24: "You can't serve both God and Mammon." The two verses share a number, so they are easy to find together.

Too wide for the slit: a gold disc far wider than the thin slit beside it. The camel and the needle's eye.

  1. Which two verses share the number 6:24?
    Luke 6:24 and Matthew 6:24.
  2. What did the rich man do when Jesus told him to sell what he had?
    He went away sorrowful (Mark 10:22).
  3. What is John 10:10 really about, if you read the next verse?
    A good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
Sources
  1. U.S. Senate Finance Committee inquiry opened by Senator Charles Grassley, ranking member, in letters dated November 5, 2007, to six television ministries (Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo and Taffi Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, Paula and Randy White), asking about compensation, housing and private aircraft.
  2. Didache 4.8 (late first or early second century), paraphrased from the standard translations.
  3. John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, tr. Catharine P. Roth (St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1984), Sermon 2, the second of his sermons on Lazarus and the rich man (Antioch, c. 388–389).
  4. Francis of Assisi: Thomas of Celano, First Life of St. Francis (c. 1229); the Regula bullata approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223.
  5. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905).
  6. Kate Bowler, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2013), on Kenyon, Roberts, Hagin and Copeland.
  7. LifeWay Research, survey of Protestant churchgoers on prosperity teaching (2018).
  8. Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton, "Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness," Science 319 (2008): 1687–1688.
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