The Goodness of Prosperity

On the Connection between Obedience and Earthly Blessing

Years ago, my family saw a documentary that included a clip of prosperity gospel huckster Kenneth Copeland telling his TV viewers that all they needed to do to become fabulously wealthy was to “confess their billion flow.” If his watchers simply believed hard enough, the dollars would pour in. Copeland’s words (and the demented look on his face) really stuck with my four boys, who still repeat them mockingly from time to time. Sadly, however, many have been deceived by men like Copeland into believing that the only reason they are not healthy and wealthy is that they don’t have enough faith.

As absurd as Copeland is, every heretic has his texts. Prosperity preachers can point to any number of places in the Bible that seemingly connect earthly prosperity with faith in, or faithfulness to, God. Did not our savior say: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5)? Does not Proverbs promise that those who seek true wisdom will find “riches and honor, enduring wealth and righteousness” (Prov 8:18). Jesus, it is claimed, also promised one need simply have faith and the mountains in one’s life will be removed (Matt 17:20; 21:21). Perhaps it really is the case that our lack of material and physical wellbeing is due to our lack of faith. Did not Jesus say to the man whose son was possessed by a demon that “all things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23)? If our faith was stronger, would the tap to the “billion flow” be opened and our health fully restored?

Many Christians know that such teaching is unbiblical. However, despite the errors of the prosperity gospel peddlers (and they are legion), there is a consistent linkage in the Bible of Christian obedience and material blessing from the Lord.

Consider just a few of the many examples from Scripture:

Prov 10:6: “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”

Prov 10:22: “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.”

Prov 24:25: “but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.”

It is commonly noted that the Proverbs are not exceptionless promises. This is true and is important to emphasize. Such statements in Proverbs must be understood in light of life in a fallen world. We know from elsewhere in Scripture (and from Proverbs itself) that it is not uncommon for the ungodly to prosper outwardly for a time and the righteous to suffer loss even when they are faithfully serving God. The book of Job is the most sustained treatment of this theme; the Psalms and Ecclesiastes similarly show that life is not always as it should be this side of heaven (Psalm 73:12; Eccles 9:11; etc.).

We must, however, be careful not to swing the pendulum to the opposite end of the spectrum where we sever the connection that exists in the Bible between faithfulness and outward (not merely inward) blessing. How, then, should we understand this relationship between obedience and prosperity? If it is not the case that faith and faith-filled obedience always bring material blessing, how should we make sense of the many biblical texts that seem to link the two?

I have yet to find a better explanation of how to make sense of this connection than that found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question and Answer 66, which is a brief explanation of the blessings promised to those who obey the fifth commandment (“Honor your Father and Mother” [Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16). The question “What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?” is answered as such:

The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is, a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God’s glory, and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.

This captures the full range of biblical teaching on the relationship between obedience and earthly blessing succinctly. The normal way of things in the divine ordering of the world, even after the Fall, is that keeping God’s commandments brings blessings, even earthly ones, just as disobedience normally brings poverty (Prov 10:4) and ruin (Prov 13:15). In commenting on the fifth commandment the catechism, in drawing out the implications of the commandment as, for example, Eph 6:1–3 does, highlights two blessings that result from obedience: long life and material prosperity. When we live as God intends us to live, good things happen. At least, they normally happen. That is how things should be. But we also live in a world corrupted by sin, in which things do not always happen as they should. The catechism also highlights this in qualifying its central statement by explaining that earthly blessing results from obedience “as far as it shall serve for God’s glory” and as far as it is for the believer’s “own good.” These two qualifications are essential. First, in God’s perfect (and often inscrutable) wisdom, there are times in which he allows even his obedient children to suffer earthly loss, and not as a form of discipline. This loss will ultimately turn out to bring glory to God as he directs it toward his ultimate purposes for the world. Secondly, there are times when earthly blessings (as counter-intuitive as it might seem) would not be for the believer’s own good. We must, of course, understand this as the believer’s own ultimate good. Only an all-wise God knows how to direct trials and hardships toward our good and knows precisely what we need at all times (spiritually and materially). Sometimes this will mean that Christians will suffer great earthly loss. But we know, even in those hard times, that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom 8:28).

I was struck recently in reading through the Psalms how each element of the catechism’s teaching is found in a different place in the Psalter. In Psalm 128:1–2 we read: “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.” This is the normal way of things in the moral universe of God’s design: it shall be well with God’s people as they faithfully serve him, even in eating the fruit of the labor of their own hands (thus: this is not merely a “spiritual” benefit). This is certainly how things should be. But Psalm 34:19 speaks of times when things aren’t as they should be: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Believers will experience many trials in this life (Acts 14:21–22). Yet, the Psalm also promises deliverance, whether in this life or the next. Ultimately, “those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever” (Ps 125:1). The fact that we need a promise that we will not be moved shows that there is much in life that would otherwise shake us free from God’s loving protection, including the loss of material things.

Ultimately, then, our hope is not in our material condition but in the Lord’s protection and deliverance. When we trust in the Lord, we shall not be moved, no matter what loss and hardship we face. We can say with the apostle Paul: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:12–13). But we must not let the fact that the Lord will sustain us in times of loss lead us to the false conclusion that material blessing itself is the problem. This is not entirely dissimilar to the difficulty many Christians have in seeing that earthly power (even political power), though often corrupted and abused, is meant by God to be used for good in the world. The goodness of prosperity is also a vital theme for motivating Christians to excellence and success in business endeavors, which are often wrongly understood as sub-spiritual.

The Bible, as we have seen (though only scratching the surface of this theme), is replete with passages emphasizing that God’s normal way in the world is to reward spirit-empowered obedience with spiritual and material blessings. Sometimes in God’s perfect wisdom, he allows his faithful children to suffer deprivation for his own glory and for our own good. It is this latter fact, along with an inability to see the dangerous temptations that often come with earthly prosperity (Matt 19:16–22; Luke 12:15; 1 Tim 6:9–10; etc.), that the prosperity wolves like Kenneth Copeland are unable to understand. In the end, even wealth and prosperity itself is worthless if it is not enjoyed with gratitude and in humble service to the Lord, as well as open-handed generosity to the saints: “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it” (Prov 15:16). At the same time, however, “the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life” (Prov 22:4), blessings meant, like those granted to Abraham, Joseph of Arimathea, Phoebe, and many more Christians down through the centuries, to be used to glorify and serve God.

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