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For those of you who have been studying my writings for a while, you know that I firmly believe in doing the Lord's Work for absolutely free. This is because, while I do indeed personally invest a lot of both time and energy into this ministry, the actual lessons that I share with you have been freely given to me by the Lord through what I believe is the inspiration and the intervention of His Holy Spirit. As such, for me to sell or to try to earn a profit in some way from something which has cost me nothing in a financial sense, is simply not right, in my view. As some of you know, the verse I have often quoted is the following one, and represents the instructions that Jesus gave to His followers before sending them out on the road to preach the Gospel:

". . . freely ye have received, freely give."


Aside from this Scriptural gem, as I point out in articles such as "Money-Making Bible Hucksters and Mammon", "Where Are the First Century Churches?" and "MP3's, Commercialized Christianity and Christian Hypocrisy", I am fully aware of what happens to men of God when they take their eyes off of the Lord and His Word, and instead place them upon worldly gain through their commercialization of the Truth. For a more detailed explanation of my views regarding this topic, please refer to the aforementioned articles. For now, however, allow me to share with you just a few quotes from those articles. In "Money-Making Bible Hucksters and Mammon", I wrote the following:

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Regardless of what method you use to preach the Gospel, I know that if you are in God's Will, He will take care of you somehow in some way. The Lord has promised to provide all of our needs if we truly seek His Kingdom first; even if it means subsisting on donations and charity. Here are a few Scriptures for your consideration:

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."


"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."


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In addition to the above quote, I also wrote the following in part one of the series "Where Are the First Century Churches?":

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"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."


Those people who only give, donate or share because they feel obligated to do so due to peer pressure, or to save themselves a moment of embarrassment when the collection plate is being passed around, have very little reward in Heaven. Likewise, those who only give of their abundance, when it really doesn't hurt to give, also have very little reward in Heaven. As Jesus said, it is those who give of their own need who receive the greater Heavenly Rewards as we see in the story below concerning the widow's mite:

"And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."


It is those people who truly give from their hearts without any thought of reward, recognition or recompense, who will truly be blessed of their Father in Heaven; for in supporting the work of the ministry, they are doing it as unto the Lord. Not only that, but we are told that it is impossible for us to give, more than God is able to give back to us in return. He will outdo us every time. Consider the following verses:

"He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."


"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."


In other words, if you are faithful to do God's Will and His Work, and not just selfishly work for yourself at a worldly job in order to enrich yourself, He will provide your every need in some way; perhaps in ways which you can't even begin to imagine. He promised to. In fact, according to Jesus' and the Apostle Paul's own words, God will sometimes use those very same people to whom you are ministering to provide your needs. Here are two more examples from Paul's writings which prove this point:

"It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things."


"If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?"


At this point, some of you may be thinking that this means that we are to ask for money for the spiritual services that we provide. However, if we balance Scripture with Scripture, we see that this is definitely not the case.

Those people who are truly God's sheep will be more than happy to provide you with a meal, a night's lodging, or whatever your needs might happen to be; and yes, some will even freely offer a monetary gift to help see you on to your next town. I recall that when I lived the Life of Faith in Mexico many years ago, sometimes those sweet humble people would invite us into their homes for days, weeks, or even months at a time while we ministered to them and the people of their town or village. The Lord enjoys blessing people like that because they are cheerful givers.

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As you can see by the previous quotes, I firmly believe that the Lord will indeed provide the needs of His children who are truly seeking first His Kingdom by preaching His Gospel of Salvation to the world at large. In fact, I have written another article entitled "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God" which discusses this very same issue. So please never doubt God's ability to provide your needs, and be thankful to Him when your needs are met, whatever they may happen to be.

In contrast, as I likewise briefly mention in the previous quotes, I am firmly convinced that we, the servants of the Lord, are not supposed to commercialize, merchandize or monetize God's Word for the purpose of personal financial gain in any way. As I explain in some of the aforementioned articles, this evil practice was strongly condemned by both Jesus and the Apostles of the First Century Church. The Biblical term which is most often used to describe this wicked practice is "filthy lucre". This phrase refers to personal financial gain. Consider the following verses:

"Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous . . . Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;"


"For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre . . . Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake."


"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;"


"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise."


"And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."


Sadly, as many of you will already know, what these verses strongly condemn, is precisely what the false, modern church is guilty of doing to the highest order. But for those of us who truly love the Lord, and who truly love His hungry sheep, what it really comes down to is faith. As I noted earlier, if we are seeking to please the Lord with all of our hearts, and if we are doing what we can to promote God's Kingdom, and to care for His precious lambs, then we simply have to have the faith that He will provide our every need, according to His own promises in His Word. That is the bottom line. That is what the life of faith is all about.

Now, to those of you who are not dedicated servants of the Lord, but who are ministered to and blessed by a particular servant of the Lord, I hope that you will find it in your heart to support their endeavors. Whether it is by way of financial assistance, or donating food to them, or helping them to get their car fixed, or providing equipment for their ministry, or gifting clothing to their children, or any other thing, God will bless you for it. So please take the time to think and pray about it. And remember; God loves a cheerful giver, and it is more blessed to give than to receive, as we see by this verse:

"I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."


With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Modern False Prophets and Worldly Ecumenism
Money-Making Bible Hucksters and Mammon
MP3's, Commercialized Christianity and Christian Hypocrisy
Parable of the Sower: Salvation and Service
Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God
Sluggards and Sloths
Study, Work and Don't Be Ashamed
Where Are the First Century Churches?

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