Sadly, many ministers all around the world today teach that God promises prosperity to all faithful followers and that believers should freely seek, and expect to acquire, wealth beyond their needs. This teaching appeals to the “lust of the eyes” (1 John 2:16), in other words, the materialism of the old self. The teachers often add that our tithing will lead God to bless us financially. We refer to these teachings as the “prosperity gospel”. The prosperity gospel has never been considered orthodox in Christian history; it would have been summarily rejected by all the great Christian teachers of the past. This includes the pioneers of Pentecostalism.
Much of prosperity teaching relies on the Old Testament, which as we saw in our previous post on wealth is not legitimate because the New Testament teaches a new approach to wealth. Do we want to live under the old covenant? Do we want to practice animal sacrifice and require circumcision? Teachers may reason that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant, therefore our material blessings under the new covenant should be superior to our material blessings under the old covenant. They point to the blessings that God promised to Israel and reason that we believers should have the same. Prosperity gospel teachers also often take Old Testament passages that refer to the final fulfillment of the kingdom of God, the second phase of the kingdom, and apply them to our current age. This is an example of how teachers can misuse reason to distort Scripture while making their teaching sound rational. The reality is that the new covenant is superior to the old, but as we have shown prosperity is not promised under the new covenant until Jesus returns, which is the second phase of the kingdom of God.
Prosperity teachers also point to 2 Corinthians 9 where Paul asks the Corinthians to give generously, then states: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully . . . He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (9:6, 10-11, ESV). In this passage we see that Paul believed that if the Corinthians gave generously then God would bless the Corinthians financially so they could be generous to others.
But this does not mean that God was promising prosperity or wealth to all faithful believers. The promise is that God would supply sufficient provision for the community and “multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” There is no promise for individual wealth, only that they would have enough collectively to be generous to others.
The idea that whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully (9:6) must be interpreted by what we know from other passages, from those we have quoted in our previous post on wealth, and from other New Testament passages. For example, in the same letter to the Corinthians Paul says that some believers have little and some have much (8:12). There was a mixture of wealth among the believers and Paul never teaches that their lack of finances was a result of a lack of devotion; otherwise, he himself would be guilty of lacking devotion since he also lacked finances at times. 2 Corinthians 9:6 cannot be used to cancel out all the other passages regarding wealth.
Taking another look at the 2 Corinthians passage, the fact that Paul was asking for donations for another congregation is enough to defeat the prosperity gospel. When he was writing 2 Corinthians, Paul was taking up an offering for believers in Jerusalem who were in financial need (Romans 15:25-29; 1 Cor. 16:1-4). But how could they be in need if God had promised to make them prosperous if they were faithful? Do we have any reason to think that God was withholding financial blessing from the congregation at Jerusalem because they had not been faithful with their giving? If so, shouldn’t Paul be teaching that the Jerusalem believers need to practice sacrificial giving? And if the Jerusalem believers were being faithful in general, shouldn’t God have blessed them with enough wealth so that they could be giving away to the needy rather than being in need of donations themselves? If the idea that one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully means that God promises material blessing to all faithful believers, then the Jerusalem believers should not have lacked material needs.
It is fine to ask God for material blessings as long as they are reasonable and not wrongly motivated. But he does not promise material prosperity and we do not have a right to it. Please do not be deceived by prosperity teachers, that is, by anyone who emphasizes material prosperity for believers. This is sowing to the flesh and you will be wasting your time and losing out on the spiritual blessings God wants to give to you.
