The Prosperity Gospel That Jesus Actually Taught

From my title, I suppose you think I am going to tell you how God will shower you with money if you send me money. In fact, you’ll notice that I haven’t even given you a way to do that. There is no PayPal link on my website, not even a street address. If you are technically savvy, you can’t even find my street address by looking up my domain name with the Whois utility. There is no way for you to send me anything but an email.

In fact, am not even going to tell you that if you are sufficiently pious, God will improve your investment portfolio. I am not going to tell you that if you become an evangelist, get a television show, and ask everyone to send you money, you will get rich (though that obviously is a way to acquire worldly wealth. I have a different meaning in mind.)

Jesus’ Prosperity Gospel is not about acquiring wealth, but about giving it away.

God’s gifts are through you, not to you. God gives you gifts so that you can benefit other people. If God gives you a spiritual gift of preaching, it is to benefit the people who hear your sermons. If God gives you a spiritual gift of love, it is to benefit the people you love. If God gives you a gift of healing, it is to benefit those who you heal. This is true in the secular world also: people don’t go to medical school to heal their own illnesses, but to heal other people’s illnesses.

If you lean back in your easy chair and feel waves of ecstacy from your spirital gifts, you have missed the point and you have misappropriated God’s blessings. God gave you the power to ask and receive spiritual gifts, but not to use that power for personal gain.

Prosperity is indeed a gift from God, but you must use it to benefit others.

Then [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
—Luke 6:20, NRSV

This sounds odd to us, because we don’t think of poor people being especially blessed, but think about it: How can a person say that God’s blessings result in material wealth?

The poor have a special advantage in the Kingdom of God. Haven’t you noticed that poor people rely on God’s grace more than you do? They pray for food when they don’t know where tomorrow’s meals are coming from, they pray for employment when they don’t have any, if they are in the United States, they pray for healing because they cannot afford to go to a doctor.

The wealthy, on the other hand, don’t think about God very much. They sometimes don’t see the need to pray, they often don’t go to church, they don’t give as much of their income to charity, and they even have a higher divorce rate. So how are the rich more blessed than the poor?

Since I’m writing this during the COVID pandemic, you might be in a similar fix, and you may have noticed that it has improved your prayer life.

It is time to rethink our attitude toward the people who brave public insult to stand at street corners begging for money or jobs.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
—Mark 10:25, NRSV

If you are a television evangelist with a private jet, a 32-acre campus, a staff of 16 to process your mail, and a parsonage worth $16 million, how do you plan to get through the eye of the needle? If you have a roof over your head, with electricity to run your computer, and sufficient food to avoid starving, you are wealthier than most of the human race, how do you plan to get through the eye of the needle?

Do you have more than you need? Do you really need to live in a 32-room mansion, or could you downsize to a two-bedroom apartment, sell the mansion, and give the money to the poor? You say, “Oh, but I have so much stuff,” and I have to confesss that’s my problem too.

No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
—Matthew 6:24, NRSV

Haven’t you noticed that when times are good, you neglect your prayers and your church attendance, but when times are bad, your spirituality improves? At every funeral, there are people who promise the minister that they will start coming to church, but when their grief is gone, so are they. The cares of the world separate you from God. You are so tired from working for your wealth and financial security that you justify staying home from church by saying you need to relax, and your prayer life evaporates unnoticed like a puddle on a sunny day.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into their eternal homes
—Luke 16:9, NRSV

Now this is a puzzling verse for most people, because it seems to say that you can buy your way into heaven with dishonest wealth. Well, almost. It means that poor people have a special place in God’s heart, because they rely on Him more. Poor people don’t live in fancy houses, but they are much more likely than the wealthy to receive a mansion in the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, make friends with them through your generosity, so that they will welcome you into their eternal homes.

This is Jesus’ version of the Prosperity Gospel. If you are prosperous, give thanks to God, and give it away. The gifts of God are not to you, they are through you.