It’s perhaps a strange thing to contemplate, especially for those who belong to this world and its ways, but I have to confess that I really struggle with this dubious relationship between sacred spirituality, and something so base and so materialistic as money.

As I work my day job as a painter and decorator, much of the time I really do feel like I earn my keep; it’s honest, hard work, and despite the sweat on the brow (thanks, Adam!) and it sometimes being kind of ‘dirty’ work (with sanded filler in the eyes and paint all over my hands at the end of the day), it’s actually very enjoyable and satisfying, and also a rewarding way to make enough to pay my way through this established world, with the ways things typically work financially within it. Admittedly, the way worldly economics plays out generally in all our lives is not to my mind the most ‘Utopian’ of systems; there is probably a better way to do it, under God. But, since the banks took over the world and made bartering our goods and services ever increasingly more convenient for us all, it’s kind of been this way for such a long time now that changing it drastically into something else would probably mean the end of the world! Therefore, we are unavoidably born into this system of metal and paper IOU’s, and must learn to use money correctly and wisely so that everything is fair and above board from the Lord’s perspective, who keenly watches how we spend every penny very closely, judging the way our hearts relate to it for a future time when we all stand before Him to give an account of it.

I mentioned my day time work, for there is something very fair about receiving a wage once physical work is completed. Every drip of sweat costs something, and not just financially. Our time and skills are rewarded, hopefully well, and it’s just and right that it is so. And it has to be said here and now that I am very comfortable with taking money for the physically demanding and skillful work that I do; the more the better (although I know that the Lord loves balanced scales, so extortion is an evil to be entirely avoided).

Here then lies the conundrum within me. I understand that there is much work of varying types to do within the church body, especially with the organised denominational buildings that need continual upkeep, and other enterprises such as charities and community work stemming out from within the churches, that need manual workers like admins and organisers; so I also understand that money obviously also gets wrapped up into it all, as the general necessity of life that it is. Painting the church building, for example, is every bit as necessary as painting a normal house, cosmetically and protectively. This is what I call ‘practicalities’, that while a committed believer may do every ounce of their hard physical work unto the Lord, the practical nature of it warrants a financial reward, just as in any other sphere of working life. This is not the problem I have, for it is totally understandable.

There are a few common terms for certain people within the church that I am not fond of. One of them is ‘vicar’ or ‘pastor’; basically, a ‘professional’ Christian who assumes a leadership role. These ‘special’ people are paid handsomely (in the West, at least) to teach, minister, take care of weddings and funerals, and other such clerical work. It can be quite a thankless job in a world full of heathens, especially if they are actually preaching a true gospel message (for people hate being told they are sinners that are hell bound without Jesus), but most of the time, it seems that these people tend to have respectable places in secular society, and seem to make a fairly good income – good enough to send kids to university and go on sabbaticals to somewhere exotic, and the general wage is financially comparable to any normal classy secular job. Indeed, one might strive to actually do this kind of work as a full blown career move, regardless of beliefs! This is where my issue is, though. To say I’m totally against this type of work being a paid vocation would be too strong; but with the large reservations I have, I definitely struggle to marry this relationship between something that I believe should be sacred work done unto God in a continual act of worship, and the getting of some kind of a financial reward for it. Apart from having seen it abused most of the time during my years as a believer, I guess I feel it’s because money seems to ‘cheapen’ the spiritual work anyone does, in my eyes; for example when one gives a sermon or teaches a nugget of wisdom they received from the Holy Spirit, financial gain from it just feels totally inappropriate to me. It just doesn’t resonate with the sacred, from where I’m stood. In my view, it’s worldly.

So the question is, where is the line drawn? I’ve noticed that too often, the person or people making money from ‘spirituality’ are not even born again in the first place, so they cannot even discern spiritual things and are totally unaware of how such behaviour displeases God, for they are inadvertently worshipping the idol of mammon by their actions. There are so many people in this world who declare themselves ‘saved’ and under the banner of Christ, but who do not in fact know Him at all; for personal gain, they even use His spiritual principles to try to convince others (as well as themselves) that they DO know Him, making their victims feel all the better (and even holier!) for handing over their hard earned cash to these vultures, thinking they are even doing something worthwhile for the kingdom and the cause of Christ. To me, this spiritual capitalism is one of the greatest crimes of our time. To be honest, I think there are hardened criminals who are closer to God than these types of snake oil sales-pitchers (at their worst), who I think are worth less than nothing to Jesus (in terms of the usefulness to His kingdom). It’s so ironic that for all the success of their best selling self-helping pseudo-spiritual books and their packed out mega-churches, it’s all wood, hay and stubble before the coming blazing refining furnace.

This knowledge of how badly people treat God’s holiness and the spiritual inspiration anyone ever gets from Him, makes me want to go to and strive for the other extreme; whilst I’m happy to work hard doing manual labour to get the necessary bills paid, I tend to go out of my way to make sure that anything I feel I ever do for the Lord remains free from any charges, and sometimes I even end up paying for the privilege to witness to someone or to help someone out. No complaints at all by the way, for this is how it should be for all of us, in my opinion, and I’m glad to finally say it publicly. It actually seems incredible to me that anyone would want to gain money for the pleasure of doing God’s work! But, I have a nasty feeling that I’m one of the few that think so. Many Christians who run successful ministries come to rely on a flowing regular income to expand their influence and improve their outreach, of which growth determines when the admins and organisers are needed, as the whole enterprise enlarges and takes more of a ‘business model’ shape. To me, as I stated above, if the money from donations from believers who sympathise with their ministry helps to pay for the practicalities, then all well and good, and no complaints from me. I would say however, that if there is an excess of money left over after catering for the direct needs, then saving it for a rainy day is far less preferable to instead using that money themselves as a ministry to sow somewhere else into God’s kingdom, for currency should flow in and out like a rapid river of God’s provisional blessings, like blood pumping from the heart around the rest of the body – for it will surely return back to the heart in the near future (if the body is working normally).

But, I’ll declare now for the sake of clarity that I feel it’s totally outrageous to seek to take money for something spiritual, something that feeds people’s souls. I’m talking about worship music, about teaching and preaching, about evangelism and discipleship. I’m talking about prophecy and spiritual gifts like interpretation of tongues, or even a more ‘normal’ gift like encouragement or hospitality. These are things that in my opinion should be done freely from a grateful and loving heart, a heart that should even be offended if money is offered to buy that gift from them. Part of the beauty of the sacredness of the Spirit is that it costs the person giving it out something, not the receiver. It is the way of true love, and always will be. Can anyone ever pay God off for all the work He did for any of us? Grace is priceless (in every sense of that word), and we who seek to know it deeper must incorporate such heavenly ideals into the fabric of our own lives if we ever want to have a hope of fully understanding it personally.

It is here that I must make it clear that I do not think that donations are to ever be rejected, unless the motive for giving the donation is ‘off’; some people, from grateful hearts that have been blessed by someone’s ministry to them in whatever way it was, feel the need to give into something they feel will bless others in the future, and also at the same time worship God by being generous and aware of the needs of His body. That kind of giving should never be rejected, for it is from a pure motive and is surely Spirit led. However, if they are looking to ‘buy’ a blessing from the ministry, whether it’s for a promise for financial improvement of their circumstances because of their ‘seed of faith’, to something like wanting to buy blessed holy water or oil to anoint people with, then no, that is not good. Such things come directly from the hand of God through prayer anyway, and do not need some ‘special mediator’ like a pastor to sell it to you. But, if these givers freely want to sow into what is going on with any person or people that are obviously doing God’s work, without having been asked for it (that’s also important), and yet knowing there is a need that they can fulfil, then by all means, this is a beautiful thing and should not be discouraged.

Money too often clouds our thinking, and hazes our spiritual eyes. May I motion to you all that we try to cut it out of the picture entirely when it comes to living our spiritual lives and for all the experiences we have with the Lord’s Spirit, unless we ourselves are the giver of it. For the time being, money is a necessary thing in this world, and I understand that; but as the scriptures tell us, the sheer love of the stuff is the root of all kinds of evil, and due to the snake being the most ‘subtle’ of all beasts, we must be totally on our guard with it, for he certainly uses our needs for it to his advantage. The best way to combat the love of money is to simply leave it to be the well earned fruit of hard, physical labour, rather than (to my mind) illegally taking it from the sacred as a recompense for certain spiritual efforts, which then thereby (to my mind) neutralises the message by making the sacred spirituality your everyday, mundane job that requires payment, even if it has become essentially powerless (2 Tim 3:5).

The world should have no bearing on the hard line spiritual truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you really are preaching the truth from a pulpit, there are actually very few people who will really want to pay you for that privilege, for it is a message that most people do not want to hear at all. I believe, upon reading the gospels for myself, that Jesus did it this way… so who else do we as Christians take our cues from? Let us imitate Him, for He is the only good role model there is.

‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ (Jesus)

‘ Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ (Jesus)

‘The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.’ (Peter)

‘For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.’ (Paul)

‘Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.’ (Luke)