If a recovery of Old Testament patterns of religious life brings into focus the church’s responsibility to be an authentic and effective ‘light to the nations’, we should also expect to find a renewed interest in ‘prosperity’. This, of course, needs to be properly understood. The main point to be made here is that if we have in some sense (not absolutely) moved beyond the eschatological crisis that was so determinative for the teaching of Jesus and the early church, we may find that there is less need to cling to ideals of austerity and self-denial. In the New Testament there are two fundamental problems with wealth: one is that it was seen to be a major factor in the drift towards injustice (eg. the rich man and Lazarus: Lk.16:19-31); the other is that wealth was likely to keep people from following Jesus (eg. the rich young ruler: Matt.19:21-22; Mk.10:21-22; Lk.18:22-23). Although these problems remain, we must take into account two things. First, we cannot pretend that we face anything like the level of insecurity and uncertainty that made the possession of wealth problematic for the early disciples. Secondly, there are no good reasons for thinking that the renewal of the covenant excluded a renewal of material life. Outside of the eschatological context, and with the law now written on the hearts of the people rather than on tablets of stone, the dynamic of prosperity becomes a significant aspect of life in the Spirit.
Prosperity, however, is never an end in itself and must be dissociated from greed. Prosperity is more than, and may be other than, wealth: it is shalom, wholeness, the well-being of an individual or community reconciled to the creator. No less importantly, if we receive from God, we are under obligation to give.
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