IT IS NOT RIGHT TO TRUST IN MAN FOR ANYTHING
Religions always have leaders. Religious people always trust their leaders for instruction about God. They do this in direct contradiction to God’s many warning not to trust man:
Psalm 34:9-10 O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
COMMENTARY: This is basically God’s promise to provide for those who trust Him. If that trust is really there, people in ministry should have no need to solicit or receive payment for spiritual services.
Psalms 146:3 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
COMMENTARY: See Kings, Queens, Princes and Other Rulers for an understanding of princes. A son of man is an Old/First Covenant religionist. These are of no help to anyone who desires to be a New Covenant disciple.
Religious leaders who earn an income from their ministry and products like to think that they are trusting in God for whatever they get. They are deceived in this thinking. In reality, they are trusting people (i.e.and Old/First Covenant religionists) to give them money — not God. Furthermore, they trust their own ability and resources to convince people to give to them.
Psalm 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.
COMMENTARY: People who set themselves up in ministry, whether in a church or in a para-church ministry, essentially put themselves in the position of trusting people for provision instead of God. If they really trusted God, they would not need to solicit funds from people or hire themselves out as employees with religious institutions. If God really was their refuge, they would not look to people to satisfy their financial needs.
Unfortunately, the religious system that has been in place for thousands of years in Judaism and Christianity has legitimized the practice of soliciting funds and receiving payments for services. This is not the system that God established.
On the other hand, people who look to a particular person (pastor, priest, prophet, apostle, etc.) for deliverance or guidance or truth, or whatever, are essentially putting their trust in that man or woman instead of God. Most who do this would deny that they are really trusting man instead of God. The proof is found in their patterns. Do they consistently go to a natural person for their spiritual food, or do they go to God? If someone never goes to God directly, never studies the Bible, never repents, is never obedient to God’s commandments, never listens to his voice, but always goes to church to hear a sermon, or always listens to Christian music for comfort, or always reads Christian self-help books, that person is putting his/her trust in man and not in God.
Psalms 108:12 O grant us help against the foe, for vain is the help of man!
Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Isaiah 2:22 Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
COMMENTARY: Religious professionals who trust that people will provide income through finances (tithes, offerings, donations, support, etc.) are effectively trusting man for their income. People who trust in religious professionals for their spiritual well-being are similarly trusting man. Both fail to trust God.
Indeed there is a sense in which people need to trust other people, but doing so can violate God’s exhortations about not trusting man if there does not first exist an inviolate, overriding trust in God. The question is, then, how can people know if they are trusting God or people?
There are many ways to test whether someone trusts God or not. One very useful test is when, and how often, people trust other people. There are times, hopefully only short seasons, when everyone must trust people and the institutions (social, religious, political, business, etc.) they live in, create, and manage in the course of everyday life. Even then, however, it is important to look beyond the individual or organization you are trusting to God whom you trust will fulfill your needs through that person or organization. If the person or organization is faithful, that is an opportunity to praise God for his faithfulness. If the person or organization proves be untrustworthy, we must still praise God and trust that he knows what he is doing in that situation to build greater trust in us by introducing a season of famine and trouble in our life so that we will eventually repent and turn to God as our only source of help. If the person we trust is a False Prophet, however, we show that we do not trust God.
Another test regarding trust in man is found in examples when we put our trust in man and his institutions for extended seasons of our life. Again we should look beyond the individual or organization to God who is working through that human agent to provide for us and test us in the ongoing process of building our trust in him. The difficulty with these long term situations, however, is that the longer they are, the greater the tendency to idolize the human agents (individuals and corporate institutions) and forget about God. This may be especially true for religious, government, and financial institutions, which can become idols or gods for us. God knows when this happens even if we do not know, and we should not be surprised when he introduces famine and trouble in our life because we have turned to these other gods. Therefore, whenever we experience troublesome shakeups in our life (church, business, government, economy, etc.) we should ask God what he is trying to show us about areas where we are not trusting him.
With respect to the issue of commercial religion and receiving money for ministry, however, the clearest test is to determine if people trust what God said about money and ministry. For example, if religious professionals do not request or receive money for spiritual services they provide, it could be said that they do trust God to provide for their financial well-being. Alternatively, when religious professionals do receive payment for ministry services, then it could be said that they trust man and not God for their financial well-being.
The evidence is made clearer whenever a religious professional solicits a payment of some kind (i.e. requests a donation, offering, support, etc.). Making such requests is clear evidence of a measure of anxiety regarding their financial well-being. Unfortunately, examples of such requests and anxiety regarding financial security are everywhere in the religious community (especially at the end of the year when people make donations so they can be claimed as deductions on their income taxes.). These are demonstrate trust in man (including government administered by men) and lack of trust in God.
We can make the same assessment of consumers of religious services. If the one who receives ministry finds it necessary to make a payment of some kind in exchange for the ministry, it can then be said that the consumer trusts man and not God because he/she violates God’s exhortations about exchanging money for ministry. This is so because it is just as wrong to receive payments for ministry, it is wrong to make a payment for ministry. This unbiblical practice only works when both sellers and consumers participate.
In Matthew 6:33-34 God promises to provide for all needs of those who trust him (i.e. seek his kingdom and his righteousness). This is God’s promise to provide for those who trust Him. If that trust is really there, people in ministry should have no need to solicit or receive payment for their spiritual services or products. Similarly, those who trust God for their spiritual well-being should have no need to make payments for spiritual services. They will trust that God will provide even when there are not spiritual professionals available to provide ministry.
People who set themselves up in ministry, whether in a church or in a para-church ministry, effectively put themselves in the position of trusting people for provision instead of God. They would say, of course, that they trust God, but if they continually go to people to ask for money, their statements are invalidated. If they really trusted God, they would not need to solicit funds from people or hire themselves out as employees with religious institutions. If they really trusted God, they would follow what he says about working for a living and commercial religion.
Unfortunately, the religious system that has been in place for hundreds, even thousands of years has legitimized the practice of soliciting funds and receiving payments for services that are glorified as “ministry”. This is not the system that God established. It is justified, of course by scriptures that reference tithes and offerings, but, as we have shown in Sacrifices Tithes and Offerings and Tithes, people are misled by the literal interpretation and do not understand or apply the spiritual interpretation of those scriptures.
So we see clearly that religious professionals err in seeking payment or rewards of any kind for the services they provide. But they are only half of the economic equation. People who look to a particular person (pastor, priest, prophet, apostle, etc.) for deliverance or guidance or truth, or whatever, are complicit in the unholy alliance that is Commercial Religion.
People who provide money for religious services essentially put their trust in men and women instead of God. They wrongly believe that if they hire/pay someone to do ministry for them God will give them (i.e. the one who pays) credit of some kind for making a supposed spiritual sacrifice. Of course they are making a sacrifice but it is a financial sacrifice — not spiritual.
Most who do this would deny that they are really trusting man instead of God. The proof is found in their patterns. Do they consistently go to a natural person for their spiritual food, or do they go to God? Do they engage in some kind of ministry themselves or are they content with hiring someone else to do it for them.?
If someone rarely goes to God directly, rarely studies the Bible, rarely repents, rarely does good to others, and is not always obedient to God’s commandments, but always goes to church to hear a sermon, or always listens to Christian music to worship and connect with God, or always reads Christian self-help books, that person has an established pattern of putting his/her trust in man and not in God. They have effectively made the people they support gods and idols.
Micah 7:1-7 Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.
COMMENTARY: This is another warning to not trust anyone (including those with whom you are very intimate) for religious instruction or ministry support. That includes clergy trusting the people in the congregation for tithes that will pay their salaries, or the missionaries who trust that others will be faithful to provide continued support while they are in the mission field.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun {during} the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. 19 Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.
COMMENTARY: Basically what this says is that God provides. All that is left for us to do is rejoice in our labor. Since ministry is our primary labor, we should rejoice in ministry as a gift from God. The same is true for our other labors.
Isaiah 1:23: Your rulers are rebels and companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.
COMMENTARY: This verse reflects on the relationship between religious rulers (i.e. clergy) and the people who voluntarily submit to their leadership. Religious leaders who solicit funding for their ministry efforts are essentially chasing after extra rewards for performing their ministry services. God considers the income that they receive to be bribes they earn in exchange for telling people what they want to hear. They should be satisfied with the spiritual rewards of ministry that God provides, but they are not.
This scripture also provides clues that help to identify these rebels. They perform ministry in exchange for payment. In worldly commerce, payment for services is legitimate. But it is not legitimate to receive payment for spiritual services or teaching. These rebels are also known by the fact that they do not defend widows and orphans. That suggests that they are exclusively concerned with their own well being – not the well being of others.
Proverbs 23:23: Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.
COMMENTARY: This says clearly that truth is not to be sold. But then it says to buy wisdom, instruction and understanding. How can it be that something can be bought but that it cannot be sold? Logically, if someone is buying, someone is selling.
This contradiction is resolved in a correct understanding of the concept of buying which is found in Isaiah 55:1-3 (see below) which says that those who are thirsty can buy wine, milk and bread without money. The correct understanding of this scripture is that the cost of truth, wisdom, instruction and understanding is not with a payment of money. The cost is a spiritual cost, not a financial cost.
Isaiah 55:1-3: “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
COMMENTARY: This says that neither money or physical effort is required for spiritual food or drink. It also says that good, delightful spiritual food is acquired only by listening to God’s voice. This is the payment for entry into the everlasting New Covenant.