Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11
A recent sermon I heard epitomised everything that drove me to create this blog in the first place. The message focused on Matthew 6:11, part of The Lord’s Prayer, and specifically the verse that says, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
The core message was sound — we should depend on God alone for our daily sustenance. This should be an ongoing daily dependence and we should never put our faith in anything or anyone else for our daily bread, so to speak. I have no problem with that. All true and anyone who teaches this from the pulpit will get no argument from me.
From there the sermon deviated, offering a practical example. The speaker pointed to an acquaintance of his — an entrepreneur who had started a company which he sold in his mid-thirties for a significant amount of cash. The sale earned this man enough so that he has never worked since. In fact, that entrepreneur will never have to work another day in his life, so successful was his business sale. The preacher was careful to point out that there was no judgment on his part. He merely asked the question, ‘Is this truly God’s best for believers?’ The contrast was clear. Since this entrepreneur now has all the money he will ever need, he can comfortably rely on his stockpile of cash for his daily bread rather than on God directly. Unlike the vast majority of believers who need to go out to work each day, forced to put their trust in God for their daily bread.
Now let’s face it; no sermon can stand without the underlying scripture to back it up. The preacher supported his stance with a reference to Luke 12:16-20 — the parable of the rich fool. This was a good choice as the liquidity event described in this parable bears remarkable similarities to the wealthy entrepreneur’s own windfall. That said, the preacher was quick to qualify his assertion with a nod to the fact that the Bible does not specifically forbid us from being wealthy. Sadly, he offered no corresponding scripture to support that counterpoint.
That is a pity, for there are any number of suitable verses to choose from. Let’s start with…
Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.
Proverbs 21:20
It pains me to do these brutal sermon critiques as I truly respect the pastors and teachers who equip us to go out and share the gospel. However, our preachers are not infallible, no matter how much we love and respect them — and when they deviate from scripture, someone needs to call it out. I have devoted a significant amount of time to studying what the Bible really says about money — not what we assume or wish it says but, rather, what it actually says. As such, when I hear an error being preached in this context, no matter how small, I feel compelled to speak up.
The issue I have with this type of message is that, by weighting the primary assertion with two underlying passages of scripture (Matthew 6:11 and Luke 12:16-20) and then offering a placebo counterpoint with zero supporting scripture, we cement our own misinterpretation or misunderstanding as an irrefutable Biblical truth.
Taking the sermon’s assertions along with its corresponding references to scripture, there is only one logical conclusion the listener can draw. That the most noble path in our walk with God is one in which we wake up every morning with no choice but to go out and work so that come the evening we can return home with a day’s wage in our pockets. Just enough to feed our family and pay for the roof over our head that night so that tomorrow, we are compelled wake up and do the same thing — over and over again. In this way, we are wholly reliant on God to provide us with our daily bread.
Any alternative lifestyle — for example, one that draws its income from savings and investments like the entrepreneur in the preacher’s example — must, by contrast, be at least a little ungodly as it robs us of our dependency on God and renders us unable to pray the words in Matthew 6:11 with any sincerity, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
This is simply not true!
Pause for Thought — a Sermon Critique
Let’s start with the core message; reliance on God. One can easily argue that placing trust in a job is no different from placing trust in a pile of cash. Anyone who earns their living by going to work each day can be tempted to rely on that job, rather than on God, for their daily bread. Imagine someone who has no stockpile of cash but rather works a steady job his whole life. We’ll call him Joe Average. In this regard, only the source of Joe’s reliance is different from that of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur relies on his stockpile of cash for his daily bread where Joe relies on his job. In this scenario, neither Joe nor the entrepreneur is actually reliant on God; neither can pray the words in all sincerity, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
Both are prone to the same weakness and both are at risk of falling into the same trap. Joe has zero spiritual advantage over the entrepreneur in this context.
Conversely, let’s assume that both Joe Average and the entrepreneur have a heart after God. They both rely wholly on God and both pray sincerely, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’
In Joe’s case, God provides for him and his family via a steady job. Conversely, in the entrepreneur’s case, God provides from the stockpile of cash generated at that major liquidity event in his early thirties. Or do we assume that God had nothing to do with that? Each will rely on God in their own way. Joe has to rely on God daily to provide him with an ongoing income stream from his employment. He could lose his job and would then have to trust God to provide him with an alternative. The entrepreneur has to rely on God daily in the management of his assets. Stock markets crash. Investments go bad, tax laws change, thieves line up to steal and inflation erodes what he has earned. He has to trust God to make wise decisions daily so that his investment portfolio remains strong and continues to provide him with his daily bread.
In this context, both Joe and the entrepreneur have the same opportunity to trust in God as their provider rather than trusting the vehicle through which God chooses to provide for their day to day needs.
In short, Joe and the entrepreneur are no different, contrary to the quiet, unspoken implication in the sermon. So why offer the illustration in the first place? I guess only the preacher can answer that. All I can offer is conjecture. What I will say is that I don’t believe the preacher was intentionally misleading. He made a sincere attempt to teach the Biblical truth that we should rely on God for our daily provision, just as the Lord’s Prayer teaches.
Understanding What the Bible Really Says
The preacher himself acknowledged that there is no sin in being wealthy. He just did not offer any scripture to support that assertion as he did when offering two passages of scripture to support his opposing primary viewpoint. My best guess is that he simply doesn’t know and has never heard or read any scriptures that support the value of managing money and indeed wealth in a Godly and Biblical context. He is not alone!
Sadly, that sermon is the product of a massive blind spot in modern Christendom. Let me illustrate this with a question. Ask yourself… What is the best-known Bible verse on the subject of money?
I would be surprised if you didn’t go with:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:10
Next question. What is the second-best known Bible verse on the subject of money?
This is when I usually hear crickets…
If you were unable to answer the second question with any degree of confidence, you are a victim of the same blind spot as the preacher above. Why not spend some time navigating this site? It contains over 120 articles all focused on specific Bible verses that talk clearly about money and how we should view and manage it as believers. You may not agree with every article or viewpoint, and that is okay. Like the preacher, I am fallible and prone to error in my thinking. However, I have taken a sincere stab at understanding money from a Biblical viewpoint and have found a few verses that surprised and challenged my thinking on the subject. They may do the same for you.
Here are a few to get you started: