1 // NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loved to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” | Matthew 6:24
2 // FOR WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE YOUR HEART WILL BE ALSO“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” | Luke 12:32-34
3 // ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF GOD“Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” | Mark 10:24b-25
4 // A SEED FALLING ON GOOD SOIL“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” | Matthew 13:18-23
5 // BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST ALL KINDS OF GREED“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” | Luke 12:13-15
6 // BE TRUSTED WITH TRUE RICHES“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” | Luke 16:10-11
7 // SHE PUT IN EVERYTHING“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” | Mark 12:41-44
All of Jesus’ teachings about money remind us of this central truth: money is a competitor for our hearts. Pick one of these passages and dwell on it today as you ask Jesus, “How can I become more obedient to your teachings about money?”
Charles Spurgeon said,
“Discernment is not knowing the difference between
right and wrong. It is knowing the difference
between
right and almost right.”
Today, church planters and even established churches must
help people discern
the difference between the
biblical Gospel and the prosperity gospel.
In the urban context of New Orleans, where I serve, one of the primary focuses in our local church is to ensure every person we encounter hears a clear proclamation and articulation of the Gospel. Nine years of planting and pastoring in New Orleans led me to no longer assume people understand or have ever heard the biblical Gospel. Sure, they may know the name of Jesus, or even give the Sunday school answer that He died on the cross, but for many it seems to stop right there.
The Apostle Paul gives us a clear articulation of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians. The Scripture states, “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me” (15:3-8).
If we wanted to surmise this passage, we could say, all people are separated from God by sin, unable to save ourselves, but Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, rose on the third day, and appeared to His disciples. It is by trusting in His finished work that we find forgiveness and are given everlasting life. In short, the biblical Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.
Colossians speaks of the Good News in this way, “He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him” (2:14-15). So this good news of the Gospel even proclaims how Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection defeated Satan.
The Good News is robust, life-changing, and biblical, but the counterfeit message of the prosperity gospel is void of power, destroys lives, and is unbiblical. Why, you may ask? Well, the prosperity gospel promises a life of financial abundance, no suffering, health on demand, and anchors people to the world system instead of the Kingdom of God.
When comparing the biblical Gospel and the prosperity gospel, we can see a stark difference. First, we can go directly to the Scripture, find the biblical Gospel, and see it clearly defined. Remember, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Nevertheless, the prosperity gospel takes Scripture out of context in order to say something it does not.
The prosperity gospel or health and wealth message was made famous in the late ’80s by teachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, and others. However, it does have roots that stretch back to the ‘50s. This teaching, popularized through Christian TV and radio, has now been exported across the globe and, I would argue strongly this message is now the face of modern-day western Christianity.
This new health and wealth message is sly. For example, let’s look at the following verse: Deuteronomy 8:18, “but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
Proponents of the prosperity gospel will say, “See, it’s right there, wealth is a promise from God.” However, if you simply back up a few verses we can see the context of this verse and the audience. God is speaking to the children of Israel and giving them a warning to remember Him and keep His commands when they enter the promised land. In writing on this verse, Warren Werisbe stated, “How easy it would be for Israel to become proud, to forget how helpless they were before the Lord rescued them, and to think that their success was due to their own strength and wisdom—and that they deserved it!” Why bring this up? Well, this promise was not made to those in the new covenant, nor was God directly speaking to those in the church age either. He was dealing directly with the children of Israel, under the old covenant, and declaring what He expected of them in coming into the promised land.
How then do we help ensure our people are not deceived in this way? First, teach those you are leading to read the biblical text entirely and in context. Next, encourage them to ask good questions while reading. Questions such as: What do these words mean? What is God saying? What is the cultural context? How does this passage relate with everything else in the Bible? How does this text apply to us today? In the end, we must teach those we are leading to sit and wrestle with the biblical text before jumping to application.
Again, looking at the distinctions between the biblical Gospel and the prosperity gospel. The health and wealth message promises the whole world to the detriment of your soul. Fredrick Price, in his book High Finance: God’s Financial Plan, wrote: “We need to realize that prosperity is the will of God. It is God’s perfect will that everyone prospers in every area of life. Primarily, we are dealing with material and financial prosperity because it has to do with tithes and offerings.”
However, the Scripture teaches, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10). The question for prosperity gospel adherents is, “Did Jesus teach that the result of His death, burial, and resurrection was immense wealth, health, and a life free of suffering for his followers?” In fact, this is a great question to those we are ministering to as well, to help them discern between the biblical Gospel and the prosperity gospel.
Understand the lynchpin of the prosperity gospel isn’t that Jesus forgives our sins, but the end goal of the death, burial, and resurrection is financial abundance, wealth, and health in this life. However, we see Jesus’ own words to His disciples, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). The argument isn’t against having material possessions, but within the prosperity gospel, possessions are the goal interwoven with why Jesus came. On the other hand, the biblical Gospel does not exclude the poor, nor does it promise that the poor will become wealthy in this life. However, as a result of having new life in Christ, according to Ephesians 1:3, every believer is given, “every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.”
Regardless of your context, the way to protect those you lead from the deception of the prosperity gospel is to saturate your preaching, teaching, and discipleship with the biblical Gospel. A large part of your ministry may consist of helping people unlearn an unbiblical gospel which is so common in our American culture. Even so, if your ministry is saturated with the biblical Gospel, it will lead to those who can discern the lie of the prosperity gospel. This chart lays out the clear distinction between the prosperity gospel and the biblical Gospel.
The concept of being in one accord is expressed frequently in the Bible, with ten instances in the book of Acts. For example, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14, ESV). To be in one accord communicates being one in heart and mind.
More specifically, the words in the original language convey the inner unity (oneness of heart and mind) of a group of people engaged in a similar action. As such, the expression is sometimes rendered “with one mind,” as in Romans 15:6: “So that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice” (CSB).
When a group of people acts single-mindedly, unanimously, in harmony, in unity, and without dissent, they are operating in one accord. In the Bible, the phrase often occurs along with statements about the people, the place, or the activity in which the harmonious group is participating: “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul’” (Acts 15:22–25, ESV).
In the Old Testament, the phrase in one accord is always used to describe unanimous participation in a particular action. In Joshua 9:2, the pagan kings “gathered themselves together to fight with one accord against Joshua and Israel” (LEB). Speaking of the conversion of heathen nations, Zephaniah 3:9 says, “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD and serve him with one accord” (ESV). Here, the phrase translated “with one accord” literally means “with one shoulder.” It likely comes from the practice of yoking oxen together for plowing. The NIV translates the idea with a similar English expression, “shoulder to shoulder.”
In the New Testament, in one accord is used to emphasize the internal unanimity of a community. In Acts 12:20, that community is “the people of Tyre and Sidon” who are angry with Herod. In Acts 8:6, it describes the crowd of people who are listening to Philip’s teachings: “And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did” (ESV). It illustrates how the community of Christian believers worshiped, prayed, and fellowshipped together (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; Romans 15:6). Unity in the early church is also expressed by the sharing of material possessions: “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32, ESV). The early church, being in one accord, had “no schisms, no divided interests, no discordant purposes” (from Notes on the Bible by Albert Barnes, 1834).
This kind of oneness of heart and soul in the body of Christ is only possible through the Holy Spirit’s enabling (Ephesians 4:1–6). It is a gift of God’s grace (Romans 12:3–13). The Greek term translated “in one accord,” according to the Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, “helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. . . . The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonise in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.”