Many churches and ministers today have this teaching called "blessing the man of God."
Is this teaching Biblical? Is it right to believe this teaching and obey it?
In this article we'll look at what this teaching is, if it is Biblical, its dangers, and how we should respond to it.
Blessing the man of God
The idea of "blessing the man of God" is a good thing. It simply teaches all who go to church to honor those who labor in the preaching of God's word and prayer, especially those who look after the souls of a congregation that God entrusted to them.
Though there are no Bible verses that expressly say "bless the man of God," the Bible certainly points to treating God's servants well.
Here are some verses that teach us to bless the men and women who serve the Lord:
"Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer is worthy of his wages."" (1Timothy 5:17-18)
"And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves." (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)
"Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel." (1 Corinthians 9:13-14)
These verses, all of them written by the apostle Paul, are simply meant to teach us to honor the laborers who truly labor among us.
These ministers, pastors, and church workers have dedicated their lives, time, effort and skill in taking care of our souls, equipping us to do the work of ministry, and helping us pursue the Lord.
Dangers
There are some ministers, however, who abuse this kind of teaching.
Some ministers preach what is called a "prosperity gospel," a "gospel" that teaches sowing and reaping principles more than the gravity of sin, the necessity of repentance, the beauty of holiness, the importance of truth, the consuming pursuit of obedience to God's word, and the final end-goal of Christ-likeness.
These ministers go and brandish religious jargon to make it sound legit, but in reality the goal is to make people give more money to the "man of God."
Ironically for these people, the perfect Man of God who went by the name Jesus Christ didn't feed Himself with the fat of the lambs. He didn't try to act and sound like if you gave all your cash to Him, He would make you richer than you ever were.
He wasn't a conman. Philippians 2:5-8 tells us,
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."
Christ didn't exalt Himself. He was the perfect Man of God who did all of God's will. Any self-confessed "man of God" who tries to exalt himself or leech people "in the name of Jesus" does not deserve to be honored.
How to respond
So how do we respond to such teachings?
1) Go deeper into the Word of God
Knowing the Word of God will help us distinguish the authentic from the fakes. We need to read God's Word, study it, and make it the standard with which to base our decisions and the teachings we accept.
Any false teaching, especially those that are masked attempts to extort from us, must be brought low. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we should be:
"casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..."
2) Evaluate if the preacher is authentic
We need to know if the one who is teaching has an ulterior motive to get rich off our money. If we find that they're after our cash and not our salvation, then we've got to keep away from what they teach.
3) Recognize and honor authentic servants of God
Lastly, we've got to recognize and honor those who truly serve the Lord. They who work hard to study God's Word and teach it to His people, as well as reach out to a lost world by preaching the Gospel of salvation to all men, deserve their wages.
