Objection: We Should Avoid Faith Teachers Who Live in Mansions Who Suppose That Godliness Is a Means of Gain

Determining whether or not to listen to a certain faith teacher should be based on what he’s teaching and not based on whether or not he lives in a mansion.  (Not all faith preachers live in mansions, you know.)

Watch out!  You can start slandering God’s anointed if you’re not careful!  This objection makes an unfair supposition – that any faith teacher who lives in a mansion MUST just be in it for the money.  Furthermore, another supposition is that he got the money for that mansion from his supporters through their offerings for his ministry, and thus he spends too much ministry money on himself instead of on ministry.

How do you know?

He could have inherited the money that got him that mansion, or inherited the mansion itself.

An even richer person might have given him that place because he liked the preacher’s ministry so much.

He could have had a business on the side that provided the money to buy that place.

You don’t know that it came from the offerings taken up in meetings or mailed in by partners.

Besides, a preacher has the right to live from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14), so some of the supporters’ money had BETTER be going to him personally to provide for his finances!

My wife and I don’t live in a palatial estate, but we have a nice house in a very desirable and sought-after neighborhood.  We also have a nice summer place on the ocean.  I’ll never apologize for them.  If I live somewhere nice, does that mean that I just suppose that godliness is a way to make money?  I don’t know how you’re going to accuse me of that when this book is yours to read for free!  I wrote it to bless you, not to get your money.  The fact is that I’ve also made seven figures apart from ministry and THAT is why I can have nice places to live, while sometimes doing meetings absolutely free without even taking offerings!  (Some people have thought I was weird doing some meetings without taking offerings when actually behind-the-scenes partners took care of everything.  But if you think that’s weird, you must think Jesus is weird, too, because that seemed to be the ONLY way He operated.  So it can’t be THAT weird.)

And be careful of criticizing ministers who have airplanes – for the same reasons above!  Or nice watches, which might have been gifts from grateful listeners.  (Don’t send me one – I don’t like to wear a watch while I’m playing the piano, so I don’t wear watches when I minister.)  Besides, if your living depended upon doing a lot of literal sprinting through airports to barely catch connections (or barely miss them), that might get old after a while and you might want to see what other options you had.

God doesn’t enjoy having His people set themselves up as judges who take personal pot-shots at others, sometimes in the name of having a “discernment ministry.”  If someone is REALLY a dangerous heretic, then by all means follow Paul’s example and expose him publicly by name.  But you’d better be sure that he’s preaching doctrine that’s sending people to hell and that you aren’t just jealous of his lifestyle or his large following.  Otherwise, go ahead and confront whatever doctrinal issues you disagree with on the basis of Scripture, but don’t make it personal.

Everyone will have to answer to God for his own actions, and we should be too busy doing what we’re supposed to do to get involved in taking swipes at people just because they’re living well and they’re in the ministry.  I’d also add – it’s idiotic to complain about what someone has when you don’t know his giving history, which he probably won’t broadcast.  The biggest givers are the biggest receivers.  Because I’ve been involved in the financial world, I had a business client ask me what the best investment was that I’d ever made.  I didn’t even have to stop and think.  I said that giving to the gospel is the best-returning investment I’ve ever made.  He said, “No, I’m talking about how to GET money, not how to SPEND money.”  I said, “So am I.”  You can’t outgive God, and you don’t want to criticize people just because they are now receiving with the same large measure they’ve been giving with!