This chapter is one of the most, if not the most, offensive chapters of this book. Before plunging into Nee's teachings on the topic of money, I want to share two things for clarification's sake.
First, when Jesus said in Matthew 6 that you "cannot serve God and mammon", I believe it was another way of saying what the apostle Paul says to Timothy - that the root of all evil is the love of money. Both Jesus and Paul recognized the seductive power of money in the hands of fallen people and speak of it as "the other god" that vies for our loyalty and allegiance. Nee points out in this chapter that in most other areas of our lives we can get away with being theoretical, but the issue of money brings our walk with God into the very practical. This is where "the rubber meets the road".
Secondly, once again just a reminder of the context from which Nee is teaching. He is speaking from the house church paradigm, and this book is a recording of his discipling of apostolic leaders (or "workers" as he often refers to them). These are men and women on whom the hand of God rests for establishing churches and who are engaged in this as a full-time calling. So keep in mind that Nee's admonitions concerning finances are directed to those who are truly "sent ones" by God.
Having said this, I believe it's worthwhile for those of us who do not have this particular calling to pay attention to what he teaches for understanding of God's intention for church leadership and for our role as those who share in the blessings of apostolic leadership. Although we in the West are still a long way away from this, we can get a rough picture from the early church of what God's intentions and desires are for His Body. (This chapter, as the others, bears out how far away the present-day Church is from God's design as seen in the New Testament.)
For the sake of brevity, I'll skip much of the explanations of his points so if you have questions, I would encourage you to look at his complete book (see Google books where it's available in its entirety) for more material.
Nee begins by pointing out that while the New Testament goes into detail about other facets of the work of the apostle, there is nothing said about how the personal needs and the ministry needs of the worker were provided..."This is certainly amazing! What men consider of supreme importance, the apostles regarded of least consequence. In the early days of the Church, God's sent ones went out under the constraint of divine love...In grace God is the greatest power, but in the world mammon is the greatest. If God's servants do not clearly settle the question of finance, then they leave a vast number of other questions unsettled too.
"If the work is of God, it will be spiritual; and if the work is spiritual, the way of supply will be spiritual. If supplies are not on a spiritual plane, then the work itself will speedily drift on to the plane of secular business. If spirituality does not characterize the financial side of the work, then the spirituality of its other departments is merely theoretical...
"That God's servants should look to human sources for the supply of their needs has no precedent in Scripture...If they (temporal needs) can be met by the labor of his own hands, or from a private income, well and good. Otherwise, he should be directly dependent on God alone for their supply, as were the early apostles. The twelve apostles sent out by the Lord had no fixed salary, nor had any of the apostles sent out by the Spirit...
"There is an idea prevalent that if a worker has a settled income he can be more at leisure for the work, and consequently will do it better; but...in spiritual work there is need for an unsettled income, because that necessitates intimate fellowship with God, constant clear revelation of His will, and direct divine support...God wishes His workers to be cast on Him alone for financial supplies, so that they cannot but walk in close communion with Him and learn to trust Him continually...
"If a worker receives a definite salary from man, the work produced can never be purely divine...He who holds the purse hold authority...It is only to be expected that if we receive an income from a certain source, we should have to account for our doings to such a source...If we are supported by men, then we must seek to please men, and it is often impossible at the same time both to please men and God."
Nee proceeds to speak of what it means to "live from the gospel" (I Cor. 9:14), saying that Paul is not referring to our "modern system of paid service in the work of God" but that it is all a "matter of freewill. As the hearts of believers are touched by God, they give gifts to His servants, so that while these servants receive gifts through men, their trust is still entirely in God." There is no definite period of time nor definite sum of money nor definite responsibility attached to giving.
"But in Corinth Paul did not live from the gospel; he made tents with his own hands. So there are evidently two ways by which the needs of God's servants may be met - either they look to God to touch the hearts of His children to give or they earn it by doing part-time secular work..."
Regarding the financial responsibility of the churches, Nee says that the Scriptures indicate three different ways that money collected by the churches was used:
- For the poor saints among them.
- For the elders of the local church (when circumstances required that elders give up their ordinary business to tend to the interests of the church - in such a case, the local brothers should seek to help at least in some measure to supply what is needed.
- For the workers/apostles and their work. "This must be regarded as an offering to God, not as a salary paid to them." (II Cor. 11:8,9; Phil. 4:15,18)
"On the one hand, workers should be careful to disclose their needs to none but God; on the other hand, the churches should be faithful in remembering the needs both of the workers and their work..."
Nee concludes the chapter with comments about why he personally does not believe in organized faith missions (this is worth your looking at), but he graciously allows that some feel led by God to do this and only desires that "we all do not seek the increase or extension of the companies in which we work, but make it our one aim to work exclusively for the founding and building up of the local churches."
Lord, continue to open our eyes and understanding of Your great desire for weak humans; would You do whatever You need to do to make Your Bride pure and unadulterated in our love and devotion to You even if it means that You must remove all of the props that artificially hold us up that we are not aware of...for the sake of Your name in the nations, dear Lord!
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