When an extraordinary son of a carpenter from Nazareth called his followers two thousand years ago, he did not promise them the Moon. His message was very simple: “I will make you fishers of men”. In one case he even issued the warning that “foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
Today, two thousand or so years later, there are millions of Jesus’ followers but under terms that are different from those set by the Master. Jesus was so straightforward as to tell his would be followers that the life they were being called to was anything but soft. Today’s followers are promised all the softies one would desire to have.
We seem to be obsessed with living a soft life, where everything should be provided by God while we idly wait to receive. Yes, in His Sovereignty God can provide anything, but He surely does not except His people to perpetually live on handouts.
When the Israelites left Egypt they were promised a land that flowed with milk and honey. This did not mean that they would be drawing milk and honey from rivers once they entered Canaan. On the contrary, despite being fed on manna during their sojourn, once they crossed the Jordan, the manna stopped. God intended that they should now work with their hands and minds to get their bread and butter. The manna in the wilderness had been a handout.
The prosperity gospel of today is breeding laziness among Christians. The early missionaries placed much emphasis on education, health and other fields of human activity in order to promote prosperity and well being among the people. They built schools and hospitals, carpentry shops and print works, among others, to achieve this. Most of the people that achieved something commendable in this country and elsewhere in Africa went through missionary institutions and establishments.
In his celebrated book, “I Will Try”, Legson Kayira states that the Livingstonia Mission “as well as running secondary and elementary classes, offered several other courses such as engineering, carpentry, teacher’s training, theological training, and medical training.”All this was in an effort to develop the people not just spiritually but also in terms of various skills, thereby giving them the means to support themselves without recourse to handouts, from fellow man or from God.
Commerce thrived as a result of the early missionary efforts. Some readers may not know this, but the first tea and coffee bushes in Malawi were planted at Blantyre Mission. They were introduced to Thyolo, Mulanje, Chiradzulu and other districts by commercial planters later. Therefore, the early church played a vital role in establishing commerce in this country, a far cry from the gospel of the prosperity mills that we hear today.
Joseph Booth introduced a number of missions in Malawi. The earliest one was called Zambezi INDUSTRIAL Mission. “Industrial” because the emphasis was on both the preaching of the Gospel as well as the development of people’s enterprise. John Chilembwe did not miss this out. When he eventually established his own church, he called it the Providence INDUSTRIAL Mission. The idea was that the people would be exposed to the word of God as well as to opportunities to work with their hands and their intellect. That way they would “prosper and be in health even as their souls prospered”. John Chilembwe added another dimension to the whole gamut of deliverables, namely attainment of political emancipation. And he knew that this could only be achieved through hard work.
Faith is the foundation on which Christianity thrives. But faith is not everything. Other ingredients are also important. The Apostle Peter said about faith: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” Commenting on every one of these values is beyond the scope of this article but it should suffice to say that knowledge entails intellectual activity, which we must all engage in. In other words, we must work with our intellect.
What we often hear today is that while your hands and your minds are idle, holy hands can be laid on you, and then you will fall, then a few moments later rise as a prosperous individual. I see no backing of this in the entire Scripture. Instead, what I see is a clear message of hard work. The Apostle Paul goes so far as saying those that do not work should not even begin to think about eating.