Christian friends of mine in a chat recently voiced their concerns about charging for their writing on Substack, and I was taken aback by how many hesitate.
Almost every response was “I don’t want to paywall the Gospel” or “I don’t feel comfortable charging for Jesus” or “I want to keep everything accessible for readers” or “Jesus wouldn’t want me to charge money.”
If this is you, Christian, you’re thinking about it all wrong.
You’ve been given a gift, a talent. You’re commanded by Christ to multiply your talents, and that goes beyond mere skills.
The Greek word Jesus uses in the Parable of the Talents also means “money.”
Your skills and your bills matter. God wants you to invest in them and grow them. To increase them in your life same as he wants you to get married, be fruitful, and multiply. It’s all intertwined.
Below, I give you 5 reasons why charging money for your content is a most essential part of any ministry.
1. You Can’t Multitask Forever
The modern world sold you the fantasy that you have to work hard on a billion different tasks all the time to be productive. They lied.
Focus is the ultimate superpower.
Pick the priority that’s guaranteed to move the needle and shut out everything else until its done. You’ll be astonished how much you can accomplish.
But if you’re poor, you can’t choose your priorities. They get chosen for you.
You’re trapped in the cycle of survival.
Therefore, the poor man can’t direct his focus where it needs to go and can’t build a lasting legacy.
Monetary wealth is a tool that gives you freedom and time to become better, create better, build better, and help change others lives. To direct your focus beyond mere survival to great and greater charity.
When you refuse to sell, you refuse the tool of money, and that’s beyond foolish.
You’re also already selling when you write...
2. You Sell Everyday Whether You Believe It or Not
Creating and publishing articles and notes is a form of social persuasion. You’re making arguments, supplying evidence, applying lessons, giving calls to action.
Every day of every week.
So why do you draw the line at asking for money?
Why?
If God convicts you not to ask for money after you’ve prayed hard and consulted him about your hesitancy, that’s one thing.
But if he gives you no clear conviction not to sell and ask for money, then you’re doing a disservice to yourself, your ministry, your readers, and your God by not trying your hardest to earn wealth and freedom through your publication.
Mistaking cowardice for compassion. Simple as that.
Because if you really cared about your audience and were offering them solutions that would change their lives for the better, solve tangible problems they have in life and in faith, you would want to earn as much as you can to give yourself the capacity to solve even bigger problems and be even more generous.
Money used right is the gateway to unlimited giving...
3. You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have
If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t have the resources, energy, and availability to impact others. Not even your own family.
It’s not selfish to tend to the body, land, family, and resources God has given you.
You need food, shelter, community, health, sanity...all of which disappear in a flash when you’re poor and struggling for survival.
Anyone who has ever been poor can tell you. Or you can just turn on the news and learn about the lost souls out there on the streets single, desperate, high on drugs, plastered by alcohol, unable to think, decide, act in any beneficial way because they’ve failed to earn and be wise with money. Many are also purposeless because they don’t have God and give up on higher meaning.
But you haven’t. You’re here writing and have the highest meaning of all: To follow Christ and spread his truth far and wide.
He’s your mission, and he provides for his own.
Why reject a possible avenue for his provision to help you succeed in the mission to which he has called you?
If you don’t use the tool of money to advance his mission, the devil will use it to advance his own...
4. Evildoers Will Use Money If You Don’t
Satan’s already using money to advance his own causes in the world, and when Christians refuse to gain wealth and power to fight back, countries and souls are lost forever.
Make no mistake. God will not be pleasant toward your lukewarm, spinless, sideline Christianity in the last days.
He will SPIT YOU OUT OF HIS MOUTH!
Because you sat by and refused to get in the good fight in every way that you possibly could.
“But this world is not our home, and Satan won’t be crushed until Jesus returns.”
Stop it. Just stop.
Christ is ruler of all and builds his Kingdom everywhere, not just heaven. This world may not be your home now, but one day, when all is said and done, he’s going to renew everything in creation, the heavens and the Earth, and this place will be our home. The entire eternal cosmos belongs to the Christ and his Bride.
So get over yourself.
You’re commanded to multiply your talents and build his kingdom on earth...
5. You’re Commanded to Gain and Use Wealth
If for no other reason, gain and use wealth because your Lord commands you to.
That should be enough for you, Christian.
Read the full Parable of the Talents:
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
The point of the parable can’t be any clearer: If you refuse to multiply the talents God gives you, you’re just like someone who should be cast into hell for all eternity. That’s how seriously Christ takes your lack of obedience.
“But I don’t want to put a paywall on the Gospel.”
You can’t. The Gospel is free and spreads everywhere because of Christ. What he accomplished with the cross and his resurrection cannot be defeated or hindered in any way.
It can be dismissed. The world can even try to kill the messengers, but they can’t stop the song.
Putting a paywall on some of your writings, offering a course for a sum, or hosting a conference and selling tickets won’t stop the gospel at all. In fact, it will most likely attract the right people. Hungry souls desperate for solutions. Ones willing to listen.
Freeloaders, despite what you may think, are not usually desperate poor people who can’t afford your offers. Some might be, but many are just cheap and disingenuous.
It’s true.
They’re the least likely to take you seriously and see any value you in your words.
But someone who buys what you have to sell gives you their stamp of approval. Sees you as a reliable authority and will become a true fan if you let them. Such buyers become your best circle of support and lead to growth. New problems, better solutions, lifetime friends. Giving you not just wealth and resources but a reliable community to assist you, build you up, give you ideas, and critique you so you become a better servant of Christ and humanity.
You’re not paywalling the Gospel.
You’re filtering out the ears that won’t hear you and shaking the dust from your feet, while at the same time providing yourself with more time and freedom to keep on fulfilling the mission God has assigned you.
What About the Rich Young Ruler?
The most cited passage Christians cite to show they should give away everything for free is the story of the rich young ruler.
And it means nothing of the sort. Here’s what really goes down:
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
As you can see, the ruler comes to Jesus asking what he must do to attain eternal life, and Jesus tells him love the Lord God and abide his commandments, sell everything he has, and follow Jesus. Nothing is more important than following the Savior.
A message the ruler sorely needed to hear because he WORSHIPPED MONEY. We know this because the passage then tells us he went away in sorrow since he had great possessions.
He was GREEDY, and money was his IDOL.
The ruler tried to worship both God and Mammon, violating Jesus’s own words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). You cannot worship two masters, God and money, for one will own you. Either God or your worldly obsessions.
It all goes back to the delusion of autonomy I talk about in The Atheist Conversion Manual: The only autonomy you have is over your choices, whom you will serve. You must choose your master, or one will be chosen for you because of your propensity to worship. We were made to worship God Most High, Chris Jesus, but in our cursed state of sin, we go after other gods instead and erect images to them. The gods and their images become our idols, some we refuse to acknowledge.
Such was the case for the ruler and anyone else who adores money itself. A corruption of the heart. One Jesus sees right through.
The problem is when money becomes your obsession and is no longer seen as a tool to live for and advance the kingdom of God on earth. You shall have no other gods before him.
Earning money is expected. Worshipping it is rejected.
That’s the consistent view of Christ Jesus throughout the gospels.
Did some followers of Christ choose to give everything up for his sake? Most certainly. But none of them were forced or coerced to give up their wealth and belongings, except the young ruler. Because Jesus knew the condition of his heart.
He chose to reject the Savior instead of this world.
“Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also” becomes manifested through his story.
Conclusion: Earn Your Keep, Flee from Greed
Aside from the rich young ruler, other examples of Christ followers staying wealthy and using their wealth generously to support the cause of Christ can be cited.
Zaccheus
Nichodemus
Simon of Antioch
James and John (their father a wealthy fisherman)
So on and so forth, everywhere.
For every rich young ruler and every greedy Judas, there are three or four honest disciples who see money as a tool to help and serve Christ, his flock, and the world, and nowhere in Scripture are those figures condemned for their wealth. Ever.
Jesus warns that it will be hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, yes. But not that they can’t.
They have it harder because the rich have a greater responsibility to be generous and advance the kingdom with their means. As Uncle Ben says to Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
The rich Christian must use his wealth for the sake of the Gospel. And that isn’t a bad thing. It’s admirable. Desirable, even. Since the whole point of the Gospel is that Christ lay down his own life to save us from sin and death and commands us to lay down our own lives in return. To sacrifice in emulation of the ultimate sacrifice.
Our lives are not our own.
So activate those paid subscriptions. Sell those offers. Help people. It’s your duty.
Just never get caught up in the money itself because it’s a mere means to the end, which is Christ’s eternal kingdom.
Earn relentlessly, give generously.
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There’s nothing wrong with charging for your work. In fact, it’s important to give people the opportunity to compensate you for the value you provide. Looking forward to the new courses!
It’s very frustrating to deal with people who get paid to do their work but assume Christians who write or teach should work for free. And they couch it in “the Bible/gospel should be free” type claims.
No, actually, it has never been free. It’s just been paid for by someone else to make it free. And if you have a hoard of donors behind you, awesome! Make your stuff free! But if you don’t, then charge for it…your readers are your supporters.
Also, every Christian book, seminary class, and conference costs money to attend. They provide intangible value in exchange for monetary value. But because blogs and videos are digital, people think they should be given away for free.