Prosperity Theology vs. Stewardship Principles

Prosperity theology. The “health and wealth” gospel. It’s popular in the West (though not so much in most of the rest of the world). What is it, and how do its principles compare with Scriptural stewardship principles?

Prosperity theology comes in a few different flavors and features many well-known teachers. In this article we’ll summarize the key points (admittedly painting with a broad brush) and contrast these with stewardship teaching. Not every prosperity teacher teaches exactly as we describe here, but the basic principles are widely held.

Prosperity Theology Basics:

Material Rewards for Spiritual Faithfulness

Although there are different points of emphasis among teachers, the basic tenet of prosperity theology is that God rewards the faithful – in this life. There are material rewards for spiritual faithfulness.

The Prayer of faith

Some teachers emphasize the prayer of faith – what many have referred to as “name it and claim it” teaching. This teaching emphasizes passages such as:

• Matthew 21:22 (“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”)
• Mark 11:24 (“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
• John 15:7 (“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”)
• John 14:14 (“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”)
• 1 Chronicles 4:10 (“Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.” Often referred to as the Prayer of Jabez)

Repayment for Giving

Other teachers emphasize material rewards for generous giving. Some teachers have abused this idea in several high-profile cases and many more lower-profile ones, but the basic principle is that God rewards generous givers with financial prosperity. Scriptures cited in support of this idea include:

• Proverbs 3:9-10 (“Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.”)
• Malachi 3:10 (“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”)

Reward for Faithful Living

A third flavor of prosperity theology emphasizes faithful living. The idea is that if we live in faithfulness to God, he will return material blessing to us. Examples of this in Scripture include the Old Testament patriarchs, King David, and others. We don’t have to live perfectly (none of the patriarchs did and David certainly didn’t!). But if the overall direction of our lives is faithfulness to God, he will reward that faithfulness materially.

Does it Work?

All of these thought processes are based on elements of truth. God has indeed rewarded those who gave generously, who lived faithfully, and who prayed believing in His ability to answer. We see that in Scripture and also in contemporary life. Well-known athletes and entertainers, successful CEOs and others live faithful lives, experience success, and attribute that success to God (rightfully so!).

So yes, God has rewarded and continues to reward those who live faithful lives. But is this always true? Does it necessarily follow that if we’re not experiencing material blessing, there must be a shortcoming in the way we’re praying, giving, or living?

Scripture refutes this idea in several places, but perhaps the most famous is Hebrews 11 – the “Hall of Faith”. In this chapter, we see God responding to faithful followers with miraculous rescues, status and wealth, and his clear direction. But we also see faithful saints put to death in various ways, tortured, and living destitute, persecuted lives. The chapter concludes with this: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.“

While material blessing sometimes does accompany faithful living, this isn’t always the case. And the writer to the Hebrews emphasizes that God’s ultimate promise isn’t about material blessing – it’s about an eternal blessing.

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Prosperity Theology vs. Stewardship Teaching

Prosperity theology and stewardship teaching differ in several key aspects. Three of these are:

• Primary focus
• Approach to Scripture
• Underlying Assumption

We’ll look at each of these in turn.

The Focus: What’s the Goal?

In practice, prosperity theology and stewardship teaching differ in a fundamental understanding of the purpose of God’s provision. Both philosophies agree that all that we have comes from God. But in prosperity theology, the practical purpose of those resources is for our enrichment. While prosperity theology has an important place for giving, in practice it treats us as owners, rather than stewards, of what God has provided.

Prosperity theology implicitly assumes that God wants His people to be wealthy. This teaching often presents faithful living as a means to that end. It’s self-focused and transactional in nature, with material rewards being kind of a tit-for-tat response to faithfulness. While some prosperity teachers undoubtedly have close relationships with God, the teaching itself is not relational.

Stewardship teaching differs from prosperity theology in all of these key aspects. The Christian acts as a steward of whatever blessings God provides, rather than as an owner. And while God does provide material possessions for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17), these things are not to be our focus.

Stewardship teaching is relational in nature rather than transactional. The goal is bringing glory to God rather than enriching oneself. The understanding of faithful living is similar to that in prosperity theology, but the purpose of such living is different. The focus is on God, not on oneself.

Stewardship teaching recognizes a trap that prosperity theology falls into. Jesus tells us that wealth is deceitful – in fact, it’s one of the things that causes people to forsake a life of faith and it’s a barrier to entering the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:22 in the context of the parable of the sower; Matthew 19:23-24 in Jesus’ commentary after encountering the rich young ruler). In the same passage where Paul tells Timothy that God provides everything for our enjoyment, he famously warns that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:9-10).

The clear choice between prosperity theology and stewardship teaching is the choice of master. Jesus tells us that we cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24); we have to choose. While prosperity theology wouldn’t say that it teaches believers to serve money, in practice, that’s where the teaching leads. Stewardship teaching makes a goal of choosing to serve God.

The Basis: Approach to Scripture

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

2 Timothy 3:16

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

Because Scripture reveals the heart and nature of God, all of it is valuable for us (yes, even Leviticus!). But it’s also possible to read and interpret Scripture erroneously, which is why Paul enjoined Timothy to correctly handle it.

Prosperity theology tends to mishandle Scripture in several ways. To be fair, some stewardship teaching also falls into these traps; but we will consider the appropriate counter to each error.

The Main Character

Stewardship teaching rests on the foundation that God gave us everything we have and that it still belongs to him. This supports a thematic reading of the Bible as a story about God, rather than a story about individuals. When we see that the Bible is first and foremost about God, we realize that everything God does is for his own purpose. That purpose is to bring glory to himself. As Rick Warren famously puts it in The Purpose-Driven Life, “It’s not about you.”

Prosperity teaching, on the other hand, has people as the central focus and their well-being people as its end goal. This teaching sees faithful living, generous giving, and praying in faith as means to reach this end, rather than as means to glorify God.

Note that these two are not necessarily mutually exclusive – God is often glorified by taking care of his people. But he can also be glorified in the death of martyrs and other non-prosperity events, as Hebrews 11 clearly pictures. The contrast is in the focus of life – is it to glorify God or to prosper materially?

Scripture in Context

We’ve all seen Bible verses abused by taking them out of context, and insisting that they mean something that was actually never intended by the Holy Spirit. Did you know that there’s a verse in the Psalms that says, “There is no God”? It’s Psalm 14:1, and the full sentence is, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”

This is an extreme example, but it shows the danger of taking verses out of context. Here are a couple examples of verses taken out of context by prosperity teaching:

• Philippians 4:13: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” This verse is often quoted in the sense of overcoming obstacles to gain victory, but in context it’s a verse about enduring rather than overcoming. In fact, Paul talks in the previous two verses about having lived both in plenty and in want! So the very verse used in favor of prosperity theology actually teaches the opposite.
• John 15:7: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This verse is used to support the idea that we can ask God for anything and He will give it to us (often coupled with Matthew 18:19 about two people praying in agreement or Matthew 21:22 about believing when we pray). The problem is that John 15:7 is in the context of bearing fruit for the kingdom as part of the vine (which is Jesus). It’s not about our own prosperity.

Proof-text vs. whole counsel

Prosperity theology tends to rely heavily on the “proof-text” method of interpreting Scripture. This approach begins with a conclusion assumed to be true, then works through Scripture to find evidence or “proof”. This method is really an extension of the idea of taking verses out of context; but in this case, it’s about taking verses out of the context of Scripture as a whole more than out of the immediate context.

For example, starting with the idea that God rewards his people materially for generous giving, this method of Scripture interpretation finds “proof” in verses like Proverbs 3:9-10 and Malachi 3:10, as mentioned above.

Good stewardship teaching, in contrast, values all of Scripture and focuses on overarching themes presented in multiple contexts. For example, stewardship teaching emphasizes that God created and owns everything. We are managers or stewards of what he has provided. We find support for this in such diverse places as the story of creation, the Law (for example, Deuteronomy 8:17-18), the epistles (for example, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:3), and the Psalms (for example, Psalm 24:1-2).

While this may look like the proof-text method (just with more texts), the difference is in whether or not the conclusion is consistently attested to in Scripture. When it comes to prosperity theology, the examples and teaching of Scripture are mixed. Hebrews 11:37, for example, speaks of faithful followers of God who lived destitute lives. When some objected to the “waste” of expensive perfume used to anoint Jesus’ feet, he responded in part that the poor would always be with them (Mark 14:7). And, lest we think that the poor in that example must be non-believers, Acts 6:1 clearly speaks of poor widows among the early disciples. The Jerusalem church suffered significant poverty at one point, prompting Paul to encourage the Corinthian church and others to support them (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9).

When it comes to the so-called “prayer of faith”, John refutes the idea that we can ask for anything. While his gospel records the promise of Jesus mentioned earlier (John 15:7), his first epistle insists that in order to be answered, prayer must be according to God’s will (1 John 5:14-15). In fact, this passage implies the condition of John 15:7 (“If you remain in me and my words remain in you”), but the prosperity gospel tends to ignore that condition.

James is even more clear. He calls out believers who pray according to their own selfish motivations:

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:2-3

He did it once; He’ll do it again!

Finally, stewardship theology tends to assume God will act in the future as he has in the past. This is really another example of taking Scripture out of context and re-interpreting Bible history as Bible promises. And it ignores the many counter-examples in Scripture.

In their excellent book, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart point out the error of assuming that Scriptural narrative is actually normative for believers at all times. Narrative is just that – it describes how God has acted in the past. It is not a guarantee of how God will act in the future.

The most famous example of this application of scripture is the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10). In it, Jabez asks God to bless him, enlarge his territory, and keep him free from pain. Scripture records that God granted these requests.

The assumption of prosperity theology is that God will do the same for us, since he is interested in our well-being. This teaching goes on to point out God’s blessings of the patriarchs, who were all extremely wealthy. All of that is true, of course – and God may well do that in any of our lives. But the fact that he has materially blessed faithfulness in the past does not obligate him to do that today.

The Outcome: Underlying Assumption about Wealth

These divergent views of Scripture, combined with differing focal points, lead to contrasting views of wealth.

Prosperity teaching

Prosperity teaching emphasizes wealth as a goal and something that God will grant if we’re faithful to him. God desires for his people to be well taken care of. The prosperity of his people is a demonstration of his power and a witness to an unbelieving world.

And here’s the thing – this is demonstrably true. We see it in the lives of the patriarchs, in kings like David and Solomon. We see it in Job at the beginning and at the end. And we see it in the lives of successful business people and others today.

But the fact that something can be demonstrated doesn’t make it universally true. We also see faithful believers persecuted and martyred, living in poverty, and suffering in various ways. We see this in Scripture and in our contemporary world.

Stewardship teaching

Stewardship teaching, on the other hand, understands that wealth is deceitful (Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19). Paul writes to Timothy that “those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap” (1 Timothy 6:9). We see that over and over again in the lives of people like the rich young ruler, who couldn’t give up his wealth to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-22); and Demas, who deserted Paul because “he loved this world” (2 Timothy 4:10).

Wealth itself isn’t evil, but the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). This is because we have to choose between serving God and serving money. We have to decide between storing our treasures on earth or storing them in heaven (Matthew 6:20-24). Love of money leads us to the wrong choices in these decision points.

It is possible to be wealthy and not love money – but it’s the exception. Jesus made this clear in his response to the rich young ruler about how hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23). There are faithful people who have stewarded their significant resources well, but they’re in the minority.

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Summary: Prosperity Theology vs. Stewardship Teaching

Prosperity theology, with its assumption of material rewards for faithful living, simply doesn’t work in most parts of the world. It’s a Western concept developed in a culture of relative wealth. Most of the world – Christian and otherwise – simply doesn’t live this way. There are many reasons for this, including systemic issues like government corruption and poor infrastructure. As David Platt points out, a gospel that doesn’t work everywhere can’t be the true gospel.

Further, if wealth is the natural outcome of faithful living, then the obvious conclusion for anyone who is not wealthy is that it must be because they are not living faithfully. This is the same view that attributes all suffering directly to individual sin. While some people do lack resources because of poor judgment or sinful behaviors, this is not universally true.

The table below paints with a bit of a broad brush, but it’s a good basic outline of the high-level differences between common prosperity theology and stewardship teaching:

View of Wealth	Prosperity Theology	Stewardship teaching
Nature	Positive, goal to shoot for	Not evil, but deceitful; approach with caution
Acquisition	Earned through faithful living, prayer of faith, generous giving	Given as a blessing from God.
Universality	Should be expected by any individual who lives faithfully	Not universal; determined by God
Ownership	Individual owns wealth	God owns the wealth and entrusts it to individuals as stewards
Purpose	Benefit of the individual	God’s glory, expansion of his kingdom, blessing to others

As we consider our own stewardship and as we disciple others, we need to recognize any point at which prosperity theology has crept into our understanding. At these points, we need to reframe our thinking with a God-ward, rather than man-ward, focus.

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