Does God Want Us to Have Material Prosperity?

Does God desire to reward his saints with earthly prosperity or not? 

Our reformed, evangelical criticism of the prosperity gospel (what is commonly preached by the likes of Joel Osteen, Paula White, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, etc.)  is warranted. It is an abomination. The basic message is that God promises prosperity to his people: health, wealth, power, possessions and other temporal blessings. We must only have faith or make positive declarations and they will come to us. This false gospel is little more than a get rich-quick-scheme with a veneer of Christian teaching. Jesus turned over tables and fashioned a whip to deal with such scoundrels. He didn’t die on a cross to fill your bank account, but to credit you with righteousness. 

With that said, why does this message resonate with so many? It is a good question for us to consider: should Christians ask for or expect any material blessings this side of eternity? Does God want to give his people temporal riches or blessings, or is he only interested in granting us spiritual blessings? As we look around, it appears that most of the wealthy and powerful in this world are unbelievers. Likewise, most of the saints in the world are of lower income, not wise in worldly standards, not powerful. Few are rulers of industry or nations. It has always been this way. According to 1 Cor 1:26-29, this is intentional on God’s part! 

Under the Old Covenant, we do see promises were often focused on material blessings in the promised land. Obedience would be rewarded by security, long life, and fruitfulness. Their fields would produce, their borders would be secure, they would have many children, they would reach old age (see Lev. 26). In the New Covenant, the focus of blessing shifts to eternal life in the greater promised land, the world to come following the return of Christ. We are urged to seek treasures in heaven and not on earth (Mt 6:19-21). Does that mean all promises for material blessings are vacated in the New Covenant? Should we only expect hardship and suffering, while the evil of the world possess riches, power, and honors? This is not an easy question to answer. In both Testaments of Scripture, wealth and possession are seen as a blessing, but also a danger. The circumstances matter.

Having money is not a sin. But the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim 6:10). Money becomes a sin when it has you. Wealth then becomes a hindrance to entering the kingdom (Mark 10), and can be a snare to those already in the kingdom by faith (1 Tim 6:9; Luke 12:15). While it is not a sin to be rich, we shouldn’t assume that the inverse is true: that it is virtuous to be poor. In fact, poverty is often the result of foolishness and sinfulness. Not always, but often.

The book of Proverbs encourages living wisely and virtuously to produce wealth, while vices such as laziness and procrastination are to be avoided because they lead to poverty (10:4; 10:22; 13:11). Christians ought to be faithful and wise stewards with our work, money, and possessions. Living this way can only have three outcomes: we will see increase, being fruitful and growing wealth, we will see stagnation, where we neither grow or lose wealth but simply maintain, or we will see decrease, where we experience loss despite our efforts. Surely we should expect that those who seek to be diligent in work, carefully fulfilling their calling with skill, being wise in spending and saving and investing, in obedience to God and for his glory, will generally see an increase rather than stagnation or decrease. Isn’t that the point of diligent, godly stewardship? 

To the original question again: Does God want his saints to be rich? Does he desire to give us material blessings? Should we pray for and expect it? Here are some  principles to keep in mind.

• Temporal blessings can be a reward for a life of obedience to God. As a general rule, obedience to God’s commands leads to the best outcomes, not only in the spiritual, but in the material. 
• When we seek to work, live, spend, save, invest, give, and seek gain according to godly wisdom and priorities from Scripture, we do well. God is glorified when his saints live according to his ways. God is disposed to honor those who honor him (John 12:26). So it should not surprise Christians that if they follow biblical principles for wealth building, they will see fruitful growth in varying degrees. 
• Money is valued because it brings a degree of security and power. Beyond basic needs, it provides luxuries that appear to bring happiness, sweetness, and peace to life. However, it often fails to produce these things. God is well pleased to produce the same effects in the lives of his saints by hidden and gracious means apart from riches.God desires to give peace, security, and joy to his saints. He may or may not use money to accomplish that for us. The world doesn’t understand why the saints can sing in chains (Acts 16), while many in the world lament they can’t afford luxury cars. 
• Sometimes advancement or increase in temporal blessings would be to our detriment in some way; in which case, God graciously withholds them from us. For instance, God may withhold great wealth even from a wise, creative, and diligent worker, because such wealth would draw his heart from God or feed other sins he may not even be aware of. On the flip side, God may grant riches to his enemies as a form of punishment, since it will only harden them. 
• God often brings hardship (including financial struggles) into our path for our ultimate good. This shows that we can be blessed spiritually even when our outward circumstances are difficult. God’s good end in such hardship is to cause our hearts to desire the spiritual riches we have in Christ over the world’s goods, and to desire the world to come over this world. 
• We must always remember that the world is still under a curse and will remain so until the last trumpet sounds. Thorns and thistles and the sweat of our brow do not produce fruitfulness and wealth as they would have had sin not brought about the curse. Therefore, we should expect that our work will not bear as much fruit as it ought to.
• God’s focus for his people is on spiritual and material blessings in the age to come: Treasures in heaven over treasures here and now that rot, rust, and are stolen (Mt 6:19-21).
• Spiritual blessings are primary over material. Here we have every spiritual blessing in Christ, in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). Spiritual blessings are fully promised. They are always good and tend to our good, so God does not seek to withhold them.

Christians should obey God and live faithfully as diligent workers and good stewards. This will tend to produce greater wealth or at least a more comfortable living. It isn’t bad to desire this. However, to be fixated on material gain over spiritual blessings is a recipe for disaster and can shipwreck our faith. Instead, let us train our hearts to be content in whatever station God allots for us, be it wealth or poverty. In either case, let not sin be the cause of it. Be faithful stewards and trust God’s provision. Moreover, our hearts should always long for true riches that satisfy and last in the age to come, which is God’s greatest desire for us as well.