Pray for me, I got a raise
Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Seems like that would be an answer to prayer, not a prayer request. But it is totally serious and here’s why it sounds weird and why its so important?
As Christians in our culture, we seem to have gotten into the habit of creating a false separation between prayer requests and praises (I’m speaking from my own experience here; your experience may be different). In other words, we open up Sunday School with prayer time and start out with praises. This is usually our list of things that are going “right” in our lives, or the “good” things God has given us. Like a raise, a new house, a new job, better health, etc. Then after we’ve finished listing our praises to God for “good” things, we start on our prayer requests, which are generally the “bad” things that we’d like God to fix in our lives. Like unemployment, sickness, money problems, etc.
The problem is that this bifurcation reveals how we view God. We’ve missed out on the truth that God is working all thing together for our good and His glory. So that means that everything in our lives is meant for our good. Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV): “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And James tells us in James 1: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” So when trials, weaknesses, tribulations come into our lives, what do we do? Praise God. Glory in infirmities. Count it all joy. God is at work.
This low view of God as Santa Claus has come up lately in some discussions I’ve had on tithing (you can read some here, here (especially the comments section), and here.) One argument that generally comes around when you discuss the Biblical view of giving with someone who believes in the tithe as a command for believers is the prosperity argument. EnnisP, a blogger who decided to interact with some of my postings on the tithe just stooped to using this argument. He says this in a recent post: “You have no reason, however, to claim God’s material blessing on your life if you do not commit to this offering [the tithe]. Put Him to the test and see what happens but remember, tithing is obedient giving not sacrificial giving and the Bible teaches that God’s special blessing will be on those who obey.” So the logic here is that if I want God’s special, material blessing on my life, I must tithe, and, of course, what he means by special, material blessing is God giving me more material things like money.
But isn’t that a complete misunderstanding of the differences between the Old and New Covenants, you ask. Of course it is. And what about the fact that God never actually issues a command for believers in general to tithe? That doesn’t stop them. And its a widespread problem. The same people that would rail against the high profile health, wealth, and prosperity preachers on TBN and elsewhere will tell you that tithing will bring about God’s financial blessings. And they’re armed with examples of people who didn’t think they could afford to tithe but decided to anyway and then got a raise or better job, etc. It goes even further though. Have you ever heard someone talk about someone who is rich and say something like, “God has just chosen to bless that guy a little more than the rest of us”? Maybe you’ve said or thought that yourself.
But if you think about it, if you’re a believer, how can you say that God has blessed someone more? Think about Paul’s words in Ephesians 1: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. . . .” Every spiritual blessing. This is the inheritance that Paul goes on to say that God has lavished on him. Its so important to him (and to us) that when Paul talks about confidence in the flesh in Philippians 3, he says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” C.S. Lewis dissected this idea well in his essay titled “The Weight of Glory“.
The promises of Scripture may very roughly be reduced to five heads. It is promised, firstly, that we shall be with Christ; secondly, that we shall be like Him; thirdly, with an enormous wealth of imagery, that we shall have “glory”; fourthly, that we shall, in some sense, be fed or feasted or entertained; and, finally, that we shall have some sort of official position in the universe—ruling cities, judging angels, being pillars of God’s temple. The first question I ask about these promises is: “Why any of them except the first?” Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ? For it must be true, as an old writer says, that he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.
So when we consider the riches Christ has lavished on us, chiefly our position in Him and relationship with the Father, how could we say that someone could be more blessed. “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” And if everything in my life is a gracious gift of God for my benefit and His glory (even the so-called “bad” things) then why would I ask God for more money or material things. Believe me, He may choose to give them to me and He has, but ultimately they should not be our focus.
The danger is to mistake more material things with God’s special blessing. Poverty may be God’s special blessing in your life because you learn to trust God better. Relationship problems may be God’s special blessing because God wants you to learn to be satisfied in Him. Everything is God’s special blessing in your life because everything is done for your good and His glory to conform you to the image of Christ.
And when, for His good reasons not based on your performance, God decides to give you more material wealth or possessions, it is a temptation to mistake them for performance incentives. If I get a raise or better job it could be a temptation in my life to trust in my employer rather than God. Hence the title of this post. Pray for me, that I wouldn’t put my trust in the wrong place. Pray for me that I wouldn’t overly indulge myself in the things money can buy. Pray that, like Paul, I would count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. And pray for the prosperity preachers tithe proponents, that they would learn that spiritual blessings far surpass material possessions. And that God wants your heart, not your money, though He’ll take both.
Tagged as blessings, Money, prosperity, Tithing + Categorized as Theology
well said! Oh and btw–we have always been taught as long as i can remember that tithing is “obedient giving” and sacrificial giving is “above and beyond your tithes.” We were always told that if we are not giving our FIRST 10% back to the local church then we are living in sin. Until we attended the church we are currently in–this is what we have been drilled. Jacob and I both have learned in many circumstances that some stuff is “preacher preference” ,and we can’t find verses that state these things as commands. There are plenty more examples i could go into that we have had to “relearn” ourselves–and we blame ourselves for not questioning what we are taught against the Bible more often and just taking the word of the person who “knows more than we do”.
Yeah, it seems that preachers who do a lot of the “preacher’s preference” stuff usually spend a lot of time preaching the authority of pastors. I had a pastor once who would preach his autobiography every message so we would constantly be reminded about what a great believer he was and how we weren’t giving as much or serving as much or seeing as many people saved as he would. It got old pretty quick. I think the head pastor model is partly to blame. Its easy to develop the kind of ego that places your opinion on the level of Scripture. The guy whose been promoting tithing here is a typical example. It doesn’t really matter what the Scripture really says. You can assume God said something, or take a promise to Israel and pretend it applies to the church. But when it applies to money it seems a bit more unethical.
Character assassination is not an argument, Mark. To quote someone and argue against their ideas is legitimate but to assume they are like every other person who believes a certain thing is puny. You seem like a well spoken person but it sounds like some of your previous pastor’s traits have rubbed off.
But as far as your arguments go, tithing is not a crime and blessings are not only spiritual. They also come in the form of material needs, sometimes supplied bountifully. In Psalm 37:25 David said,
“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
That is only one of many such verses.
EnnisP–
Remember that David lived under the old covenant. He was promised, like all Israel, material blessings. Also, material blessings and physical needs are two things. God will provide for our needs because of our position in Him, not because of anything we do.
Mark–
I really appreciated this post. Well said. On our church website we have a list of 32 “blessings” that the Bible says a person receives the moment they believe. Find it at http://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/?page_id=9. I heard that someone else has compiled a list of over two hundred such blessings. As Lewis say, what else is there? If we as believers cannot learn to live in these blessings by faith, what good will any material goods do us?
Character assassination? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Perhaps you could point out a position I argued against that you do not hold. I said that tithing proponents misunderstand the distinction between the old and new covenants, which you clearly do. I said tithing proponents generally teach a prosperity-type message when it comes to tithing, which you clearly did. I said tithing proponents twist and misapply Scripture and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge what Scripture actually teaches which you clearly have.
And I never said tithing was a crime, just that its not a command. See the difference? What I said was that telling people that they are commanded to give 10% of their income is unethical. If a person freely decides to give 10% of their income, good for them. But you can’t compel people to give 10% because the word tithe appears in the Bible.
And Paul doesn’t seem to think much of material things as if they’re blessings. He seems to be more interested in the fact that Christ has endowed us with “every spiritual blessing”. In other words, you’re not going to get more blessings if you give. You have every blessing in Christ because you have Christ. You’re trying to teach that if you give your tithe, you’ll get special material blessings. And you’re basing your arguments on old testament passages written to Israel. I don’t know what systematic disposition you’re coming from but either way, applying literal, physical, Judaic promises to the NT church doesn’t work in any system. God’s work in Israel was national and material. His work through the church is personal and spiritual. So stop quoting OT passages to prove your point. You need to show why those OT passages to Israel apply to the NT church.
Jeremy, great points. I remember reading that article on your church website and it has influenced some of what I’ve said here. Its sad that people treat God’s material provisions as performance incentives and go about trying to get more grace.