The teaching I sit under says that if I give and believe hard enough, God will make me wealthy. It has not happened, and I am starting to wonder who is wrong here.

“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

Jeremiah prophesied through Jerusalem's final decades, and his sharpest anger is reserved not for the openly wicked but for the religious professionals. He accuses prophets and priests of covetousness, and of telling people whatever soothed them while disaster walked toward the city. Peace, peace, when there is no peace. The pattern he names is old and specific: teaching quietly shaped by what the teacher gains from it.

“But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.”

Simon had been a well known figure in Samaria before he believed, and when he saw the apostles convey the Spirit he offered them money for the ability. Peter's response is scalding, and it is aimed at one idea in particular: that God's gifts operate as a transaction. The first recorded encounter between the church and a purchasable blessing ends with an apostle refusing it outright.