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Giving and Receiving
By Ken Horn | February 16, 2008
“Give that it may be given unto you.” I heard a television minister misquote Luke 6:38 that way. There is no question that the Greek word kai means “and,” not “that.” Jesus was not encouraging Christians to give in order to receive; He was teaching that blessings flow to believers as a result of a giving lifestyle.
The Bible certainly does teach faith, success … even prosperity. But success and prosperity in God’s terms frequently are not what we consider them.
God’s promises are true: “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). Christ came to give His followers abundant life (John 10:10). But living like King’s kids does not mean living like spoiled brats trying to get as much as possible out of their Father. In the passage that tells us “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10, NIV), we are also enlightened that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (verse 6).
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This has frequently been misinterpreted: Learn to delight in God so you can get what you want. But anyone who truly delights in the Lord finds the desires of his or her heart changed … elevated. What believer who truly delights in God would spend a disproportionate amount of time claiming material blessings while ignoring spiritual growth and the plight of the lost?
According to Jesus, it is extremely difficult to be rich and godly (Mark 10:25, 27). Being rich in a material sense is a calling given to only a few Christians who can handle it faithfully. Most of us couldn’t. We’d end up like the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21, who had “much goods laid up” and was prepared to “eat, drink and be merry” when the Lord required his soul.
Genuine prosperity is being “rich toward God” (Luke 12: 21).
Topics: money, Christian living |
February 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Thanks for such a clear explanation. Few things bother me more than to see preachers take leave of their exegetical skills when it comes to what the Bible teaches about prosperity.