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“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)I think, today’s Christianity is confronting more heretical teachings than any in church history. Out of many false teachings that are abounding in Christianity, one such which is commonly widespread is prosperity gospel. Not only in the Western countries, it is also spreading like a wildfire in the urban cities of my nation, India. Many gullible folks are becoming victims of this dangerous teaching. Hence, I decided to address this issue in my blog.
There are many Scriptures which prosperity preachers use, perhaps it is proper to say abuse, to prove their doctrine that God wants all Christians to become wealthy. And 2 Corinthians 8:9 is one of the key foundational Scriptures for the champions of prosperity teaching. They claim that this Scripture speaks about Jesus giving up His riches to make us wealthy Christians on earth. So, for the time being, I would like to address this particular Scripture.
Was Jesus Rich or Poor?
First, to say that Jesus became physically poor to make us materially rich goes right against their own teaching. What prosperity preachers actually argue is that Jesus was a wealthy person and had surplus goods. Listen to what one of the prominent proponents of this view asserts:
Now to justify their stance, certain prosperity preachers subtly twist 2 Cor. 8:9 to claim Jesus was rich before the cross and the only time He became poor was when He was taken to the cross. However, this doesn’t stand the test of biblical reason. The text doesn’t tell us that Jesus became poor when He was taken to the cross. It simply says, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.”
This seems to speak about Christ’s incarnation, in which He left His heavenly glorious privileges and became poor, having being laid in a manger, taking up finite and weak body and walking around Palestine as an ordinary man but doing extraordinary things.
Is not because Jesus was born in a simple family that His mother Mary had to offer a sacrifice consisting of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, which only those who cannot afford were supposed to offer such sacrifices? (Lu. 2:22-24; cf. Lev. 12:2-8) Did not Jesus say to one of the wishful followers, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head"? (Matt. 8:19-20) Of course, He had His earthly parents’ house, but he was constantly traveling from one place to another with no permanent home to lay his head.
Moreover, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, did not Jesus have to borrow the colt from another man, sat on it and entered Jerusalem? (Mark 11:1-11) Even when Jesus died, He had no tomb of His own. A rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, asked for Jesus’ body and placed it in his own new tomb (Matt. 27:57-60). Finally, someone rightly points out that if Jesus was so rich, having Judas Iscariot as His treasurer, why should he betray Him for just thirty silver coins, which comes to about $15 or about INR800? (Matt. 27:3) <http://www.letusreason.org/wf15.htm>
What Paul says in 2 Cor. 8:9, wherein Christ became poor in His incarnation, goes in line with Philippians 2:6-7, “Who [Christ], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
How clearly we are revealed to the fact that though Christ, being in very nature God, He left His heavenly riches and made Himself nothing, ordinary, poor, by taking the very nature of a servant! Although He was the King of Kings, He became a meek servant. (Matt. 20:25-28)
We have no clear evidence from the Holy Scripture that Jesus was rich before He went to the cross. Nevertheless, to justify their kingly lifestyle and to accumulate more wealth, prosperity preachers twist the Scriptures to make Jesus appear wealthy while He walked on earth, when in fact the Scripture plainly reveals that He became a humble servant and lived a simply life on earth. [continued next page...] | 1 of 2
"The Bible says that He [Jesus] had a treasurer-a treasury (they called it "the bag"); that they had one man who was the treasurer, named Judas Iscariot; and the rascal was stealing out of the bag for three-and-a-half years and nobody knew that he was stealing. You know why? Because there was so much in it, He couldn't tell. Nobody could tell that anything was missing..., if Jesus didn't have anything, what do you need a treasury for? A treasury is for surplus. It's not for that which you're spending. It's only for surplus-to hold it until you need to spend it. Therefore, He must have had a whole lot that needed to be held in advance that He wasn't spending. So He must have had more than He was living on." [Fredrick K.C. Price, "Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN [23 November 1990] <www.letusreason.org/wf15.htm>If Jesus was wealthy, according to the prosperity preachers, how can they claim that He gave up His riches, becoming poor, to make us wealthy people, as per their interpretation of 2 Cor. 8:9? To the one who is sane in his mind, doesn’t this prove to be a sheer contradiction?
Now to justify their stance, certain prosperity preachers subtly twist 2 Cor. 8:9 to claim Jesus was rich before the cross and the only time He became poor was when He was taken to the cross. However, this doesn’t stand the test of biblical reason. The text doesn’t tell us that Jesus became poor when He was taken to the cross. It simply says, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.”
This seems to speak about Christ’s incarnation, in which He left His heavenly glorious privileges and became poor, having being laid in a manger, taking up finite and weak body and walking around Palestine as an ordinary man but doing extraordinary things.
Is not because Jesus was born in a simple family that His mother Mary had to offer a sacrifice consisting of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, which only those who cannot afford were supposed to offer such sacrifices? (Lu. 2:22-24; cf. Lev. 12:2-8) Did not Jesus say to one of the wishful followers, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head"? (Matt. 8:19-20) Of course, He had His earthly parents’ house, but he was constantly traveling from one place to another with no permanent home to lay his head.
Moreover, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, did not Jesus have to borrow the colt from another man, sat on it and entered Jerusalem? (Mark 11:1-11) Even when Jesus died, He had no tomb of His own. A rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, asked for Jesus’ body and placed it in his own new tomb (Matt. 27:57-60). Finally, someone rightly points out that if Jesus was so rich, having Judas Iscariot as His treasurer, why should he betray Him for just thirty silver coins, which comes to about $15 or about INR800? (Matt. 27:3) <http://www.letusreason.org/wf15.htm>
What Paul says in 2 Cor. 8:9, wherein Christ became poor in His incarnation, goes in line with Philippians 2:6-7, “Who [Christ], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”
How clearly we are revealed to the fact that though Christ, being in very nature God, He left His heavenly riches and made Himself nothing, ordinary, poor, by taking the very nature of a servant! Although He was the King of Kings, He became a meek servant. (Matt. 20:25-28)
We have no clear evidence from the Holy Scripture that Jesus was rich before He went to the cross. Nevertheless, to justify their kingly lifestyle and to accumulate more wealth, prosperity preachers twist the Scriptures to make Jesus appear wealthy while He walked on earth, when in fact the Scripture plainly reveals that He became a humble servant and lived a simply life on earth. [continued next page...] |
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