A short while ago I heard a brother use Luke 16:9 to justify the reliance on government or worldly organisations for funding for our church, whether it be local or the entire church. He said that Jesus encouraged us to make friends with money in this particular verse. This made me feel so incredibly uncomfortable, the Holy Spirit literally screamed “no” within me. All I have ever read in the Bible was warnings against such things like in Matthew 6:24 where Jesus Himself warns “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” If someone with money has been converted and chooses to use their money as donations to further Gods work that’s all well and good but what we’re talking about is joining forces with worldly entities with the goal of ensuring ongoing financial support.
However, Luke 16:9 which reads “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations” isn’t about believers making friends with rich people or governments or worldly organisations it’s about using our resources for the good of those around us so that we can befriend them and share the gospel with them. It’s not about us receiving money, it’s about us spending it in a way that benefits and helps others. Giving to the poor, helping the widows, orphans and the prisoners etc.
Ellen White said this in Christs Object Lessons p373.1 “Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness,” Christ says, “that when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.” R.V. God and Christ and angels are all ministering to the afflicted, the suffering, and the sinful. Give yourself to God for this work, use His gifts for this purpose, and you enter into partnership with heavenly beings. Your heart will throb in sympathy with theirs. You will be assimilated to them in character. To you these dwellers in the eternal tabernacles will not be strangers. When earthly things shall have passed away, the watchers at heaven’s gates will bid you welcome.” Many other Bible commentators have come to the same conclusion.
We are warned against making covenants with the unGodly in the Bible for example in Exodus 23:32 “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods” and Exodus 34:12 “Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee”. These covenants include financial contracts that include certain obligations. There is an old saying “whoever pays the piper calls the tune.”
I have had it happen in my professional life too. I worked for a small insurance broker that was bought by a big insurance company. At first everything was fine, things continued as normal with some nice extras thrown in one being a huge camping weekend with concerts etc at a theme park the company owns. Then slowly things began to change. Departments were “restructured” and as we relied on our wages we had to go along with the changes albeit reluctantly, we played the tune we were being ordered to. Eventually I was given a choice to either take a 40-50% pay cut to do the same job or take redundancy. I took redundancy but it’s not that easy for an entire organisation.
For example, a local church wants to buy its own premises. They have some funds but need a considerable amount more. The local government offers to help pay a large amount monthly towards the mortgage payments until the mortgage is paid off in 15 years or offers a loan for the amount needed to be paid off in 15 years at a set monthly amount. A contract is drawn with the small print declaring that the local government can update the terms of the contract at any time based on changes in overall government funding policies with the church having the option to either agree to the changes or they can exit the contract at a cost and lose the funding. These changes could include how the premises are used and when. If they don’t agree to this clause the agreement will not go ahead and the church can’t buy the premises. Once that contract is signed the local church is at the mercy of it’s financer.
Such agreements only lead to compromise by those who are relying on the financial assistance. God owns all the money and riches in the entirety of creation and will use unbelievers to gift to us riches He bestowed upon them, so if a government entity offers to donate or gift the lump sum needed to buy the building with no strings attached then that’s ok. But we’re not to rely on ongoing funding outside of our church organisation, we are not to make covenants with the unGodly. We are not to put ourselves, our churches or our organisations in the position of being compromised or under the control of anyone other than God.
