In our last article, we defined who a missionary is, In this article, we shall be dealing with the concept of business and other worthy building activities in connection with the missionary calling. Many have wondered whether it’s right to get involved in business and other wealth-building activities as missionaries, they have looked for answers to what the Bible has to say about these things. After being in the missionary field for about four years, I decided to do some Biblical studies concerning this topic, the answers I found were fascinating. What did I find out? Should missionaries own businesses or get involved in wealthy buildings?
The main conception when it comes to missionary work is to leave everything behind and concentrate on Spiritual things, there is always a close link created between leaving everything behind and missionary work, this may include leaving your loved ones, relatives, friends, or a job excluding those who do missions as their job/career. Many take this step due to existing Biblical passages which seem to suggest leaving everything behind. Among these is Luk 14:26-27. Which says.
Luke. 14:26-27.
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Then does this mean we should leave everything behind and concentrate on mission work? Does this call us to not get involved in any business? For us to answer these questions fully, we need to discuss the different aspects of a missionary, and their life calling in connection with wealth building. However, we must first understand who is a missionary according to the Bible. I advise you to read the article Who is a missionary? Here let’s continue to answer the question, should missionaries get involved in business or wealth-building?
Spirituality and wealth concerning Seventh Day Adventist missionaries.
As we see in Luke 14:26-27, Such verse and many others seem to indicate that becoming a Christian is about getting detached from everything connected to the world, so many conclude that being a missionary is accepting a life of poverty, no worldly gains or riches, giving everything you own and dwelling on God’s providences alone.
To understand the concept of wealth building and mission work, we need to understand and differentiate between what wealth means Biblically and what it means from the world perspective. From a Worldly perspective, Wealth is the measure of the value of all the assets of worth owned by a person, community, company, or country. It is determined by taking the total market value of all physical and intangible assets owned and subtracting all debts. Essentially, wealth is the accumulation of scarce resources. From the worldly perspective, wealth is about everything owned on earth as material goods.
How about the Bible, does the Bible describe for us what wealth means? As much as it may be of surprise, the Bible also views wealth just as the world views it, however, the Bible adds eternal goods, in other words, wealth is not just about material goods but also character development. The material possessions being defined as wealth in the Bible is affirmed in some of the following verses.
Ruth_2:1
And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. (KJV Bible).”
Speaking of Boaz, He is defined as a man of wealth, which means a man with riches, and earthly material goods. Another example is that of Solomon, in response to his prayer, the Bible records.
“2Ch_1:11-12 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king:12 Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. (KJV Bible)”
In this, the Lord refers to wealth obtained through this world. From the Bible indeed Solomon was a wealthy man in this world. Wealth both Biblically and world offers the same thing, If this is correct, then how do we harmonize the Bible verse that seems to call to leave everything behind for the sake of advancing the work of God? For us to understand this we need to answer several questions. Is it Biblical to be wealthy? Were the Biblical characters wealthy? What is the use of wealth in the Bible? Let’s take a deeper look at these questions.
The use of wealth in the Bible.
The Bible allows an individual to possess any amount of wealth, as we study the Hebrew economy, we see a capitalist kind of government, a capitalist type of government according to Webster’s new elementary dictionary, much of the property in land and other possessions the biggest percentage belongs to the private sector. In other words, the riches are more in the hands of the people than powers. We trace and see all this through the type of education the children of Israel had.
The type of education involved educating the children to be more independent, many were trained to have a trade, now we may be asking ourselves, how is the education of Israel connected to Biblical wealth and mission work? The right answer to this question can be found by understanding the purpose of God calling Israel.
If we understand God’s call or purpose for establishing Israel for the world, then we can try to understand why God gave them the type of education they received. There has been a misconception of who the Israelites were, as we look from the Bible, the nation of Israel is traced to a man called Jacob, after He ran away from home because of His seen, Jacob bitterly repented of His sins, and as a result, God forgave his sin and changed his name from Jacob to Israel.
Names in the Bible are not just names, they describe the character of the individual who possesses them. Jacob was named Jacob meaning thief because we see in his actions towards his brother but not only even before birth, Jacob came out attaching the brother’s heel. “Gen_25:26”.The name Israel was a description of the new character that God would give him, it was a heaven Culture, “Gen_32:28” .God through ages had been trying to help the world witness and understand His character but none could comprehend it, from this He (God) built a nation that would portray His character unto the word.
Through the twelve sons of Jacob, he brought a nation mighty and strong into the world, this nation would be a light to the world and through them many people would know God, In describing Israel, Jesus Referred to them as the light of the world, They were known as the vein set at a hill, bearing good fruit. Many would look at them and accept to be part of the name, in other words, Israel was an evangelistic nation that the Lord had set in the world, it was a missionary nation to reach the world.
The education they received and all its training, was connected to the calling that the Lord had given unto them, understanding the education of Israel would help us know how originally God wished us to carry out mission work.
The education of Israel.
So what made the education of the children of Israel so different? Here are some of the characteristics we find in the education of Israel.
It involved a practical work.
They were tillers of the ground, they were cattle rears
“In Israel industrial training was regarded as a duty. Every father was required to teach his sons some useful trade. The greatest men in Israel were trained to industrial pursuits. Various industries were taught in the schools of the prophets (I wonder if this is still going on today, could it be the cause of too much poverty in the church?), and many of the students sustained themselves by manual labor. (White, 1905)“
Everybody learned a trade.
Many of them were businessmen and it was a must for every person to at least be able to do a business, even Jesus our very own Savior was not only known as the computer’s son but was a chapter and through this way, He supported Himself and the family.This fact that many of the Biblical characters were rich people, to name but a few include. Abraham, Noah, Jacob, and Isaac not to forget Job.
Biblical characters and wealth.
Tracing out throughout the entire Bible, there is but one fact we can all agree with, No man that faithfully served the Lord suffered and lacked, this is testified by David when He said, I have been Young and old yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor beg bread. The education of Israel created such a strong economy amidst them. This brings us to an important question, why did God involve trading or business in the education of the children of Israel?
Since almost all did farming excluding the Levites, then it makes no sense that everybody had to learn a trade also, it seems every family was just independent. The concept that God intended for Israel was to be a light to the world, everyone starting their trade somewhere and reaching people’s needs, the light would be shunned in many people’s hearts. This kind of missionary work was God’s original method. This prominently found the Spirit of prophecy.
“Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me.” page. 143
The Question to be asked from this widely quoted paragraph is what does it mean to minister to their needs? Ministering to their needs is not giving them a pound of rice or a basket of corn, we note the wording is ministered. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines minister this way. min·is·ter [ˈminəstər] noun.
- a member of the clergy, especially in Protestant churches. (The superior of some religious orders.)
- (in certain countries) a head of a government department: (a diplomatic agent, usually ranking below an ambassador, representing a state or sovereign in a foreign country.)
- Archaic (a person or thing used to achieve or convey something: “The Angels are ministers of the Divine Will”) (Oxford University, n.d.)
From the above three definitions at least, we can get to a conclusion. Ministering has to offer a permanent solution to the existing problem, when the ministers of the government are ministering to people, they are not offering a short-term solution to the existing problem of sin, the doctors in ministering seek the aim to bring about an everlasting or permanent solution to the disease. The aim is not to produce short-term goals, now we may look at the ministry of Christ and not see him almost establishing any industries hospitals, or schools to offer permanent solutions. From a superficial look, this was true in every aspect, but, then that contradicts the fact that Christ established the educational system of Israel traced back from the garden of Eden was intended to be carried out unto the ends of the world not just for the Israelis but even after Christ. Ellen G White in her book Education says.
“The system of education instituted at the beginning of the world was to be a model for man throughout all aftertime. {Ed 20.1}.
If this is true, then how do we harmonize the fact that Christ did not establish any industries? Because He didn’t, doesn’t mean that we should not, Christ didn’t baptize, so does this mean we should not baptize? But to answer our question, why didn’t Christ establish any industries? I will tell you why. Christ’s small ministry had a vision of growing into a worldwide movement. Christ trained educators, teachers, and men of influence, and these were to recruit as many disciples as possible, and as the numbers would grow different branches of work would be formed. A good example is Dorcas. Paul and many others. As they coped with the kind of system of reaching people’s needs permanently with various industries, the work expanded, and this was the Testimony of Paul. The Economy of Israel update is a taste of the results and facts of what God wanted to accomplish which has been used for evil. In the book The Israeli Economy: A Story of Success and Costs by Joseph Zeira
We read,” In other words, Israel has been a unique laboratory, with many natural experiments, which enable us to examine economic mechanisms fascinatingly. (Zeira, November 23, 2021)”
The work ethic that was established from the very beginning helped most of the Israelites to survive and prosper in the desert life, as seventh-day adventist, our movement began as both an interparental and prophetic movement.
In conclusion, we can now answer our question, should missionaries get involved in business and wealth building? The answer is yes, only that many do not use wealth to minister to the needs of the people but to provide themselves with a comfortable home and life. In this context, Jesus calls us to leave everything and be saved. We should have riches but not love riches. And if don’t love riches, giving to those in need won’t be as hard as it seems. The selfish heart is a sign that we love wealth more than the giver.
2 Responses
I really thank God for using you bro Victor, continue with that spirit and in the end a crown👑 is waiting for you.
I have really loved and understood the message Should missionaries be involved in business and wealthy building? God bless you.
it’s my pleasure, am glad you were blessed by this article, share with others too to be blessed