Joseph Prince’s talk on financial generosity is great – but are there hidden motives to our generosity? – Rev George Ong (Dated 18 Nov 2022)
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 13 Nov 2022, 5 days ago, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 25-second video:
“Let me tell you this, it seems like the Bible is saying those who are generous, those who are magnanimous, those who have prosperity with a purpose in mind, these people have, their bodies, if you are generous, that means your body is healthy.”
“Are you stingy because I am generous? Amen. So those who are full of grace are people who are generous.”
Joseph Prince said;
“… if you are generous that means your body is healthy.”
What kind of perverted Health and Wealth teaching is that?
That being generous can give you a healthy body.
As Christians who speak the Malay language would say, “Suka Suka Theology” and “Any how Hantam theology”.
In English, it is teaching in any way as Prince fancies and a theology that is totally farfetched.
But I would just leave this as that as this is not my focus of this article. My focus is what is written below.
Generosity is indeed a great virtue that is taught in the Bible and we should all work towards being generous to others.
I have met people who are full of grace (true grace, not the false grace taught by Joseph Prince), and their graciousness can be seen in their generous giving.
Yes, by all means, be generous.
But there is something which you and I ought to be wary of – our motives.
Is there a hidden motive to our generosity?
Do we give generously because we want the whole world to know about our generosity?
Are we generous because we are buying favours from others?
Do we give to others generously because we want to win more people over to our agenda?
Am I magnanimous to others because I want to lessen the opposition that they have against me?
Do I give generously because I wish the other party could do the same favour to me?
Do I give generously to others so that they can be beholden to me and support my hidden agenda?
Do I, as a Pastor, give generously to other churches which are against my doctrine, hoping that from henceforth, they would not speak against what I teach?
Whether it is me, or Pastor so and so, or Joseph Prince, we had better be searching our hearts to see if there are such self-seeking and ungodly motives that we harbour in our hearts.
This is especially crucial when our giving comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why do I give so much money when the other party doesn’t really need it?
If there are hidden and ungodly motives to our giving, no matter how generous our giving is, it is an abomination to God.
Let’s suppose if I teach a certain doctrine that is not acceptable to most churches, and they even fight against my doctrines; and I give generously to many churches hoping that they would not be vocal about their opposition, and with the eventual aim that they will be beholden to me, is my generosity pure?
And if I target key people and senior leaders in the church hierarchy to give expensive gifts so as to secure support from them about my doctrine, then my giving is certainly a scandalous act to God.
So we must be careful about our call to give generously.
Be generous, by all means, but always make sure our motives are right and pure.
If you haven’t, you may wish to view these 2 articles;
Joseph Prince uses the Prosperity Gospel as an excuse to trumpet his financial giving to Singapore churches
Brian Houston, former Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, appreciating Joseph Prince for the $200,000 gift,
by clicking on the links below;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n8S1Av803w16vLqSgWL1RZmLgmcWxor1/view
Rev George Ong