I need money for tuition, transportation, lodging, and food. We don’t have enough money to buy food for our students. My motorcycle’s broken, and I can’t minister to my people. My son is sick, and I don’t have money to take him to the doctor. I can teach the gospel, but you need to help them eat. And on and on it goes. Why? As a missionary in SE Asia said, “Foreigners have a big ‘P’ on their forehead the moment they step off the airplane. They can choose to ignore it, but everyone else still sees them as a patron.” For many, patronage is the only way to gain the resources they need for life. In reality, requests for money may be requests for deeper relationships and mutual honor.

The system of patronage involves two unequal parties, both of whom have responsibilities to the relationship. The patron provides access to goods, protection, money, and connections. In a collectivist, honor/shame culture, the wealthy are honor-bound to share their resources. Hoarding brings shame. In response to the patron’s gift, the grateful client repays his patron with honor, praise, obedience, and loyalty. He may also communicate his gratitude through small gifts or acts of service. Patronage creates social debt. Failure to repay would bring shame to the client. Acquiring goods through relationships is the primary socioeconomic system in developing countries, as it was in the ancient world.

Patronage in the Bible

We can find the patron-client relationship referenced throughout the Bible. We’ll look at two instances.

Patronage in the Old Testament

God invited Abraham into a patronage relationship. As the patron, God promised Abraham descendants, divine favor, protection, land, and a life of honor (Genesis 12:1-7). He also assured Abraham that he and his descendants would have the honor of being co-benefactors with God in blessing all people. As the client, Abraham responded with obedience, praise, loyalty, and trust even when God told him to do the unthinkable. 

How did Abraham respond when God told him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-18)? He neither argued nor tarried but got up early the next morning and started toward Moriah. As the writer of Hebrews said:

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead…

Hebrews 11:17-19

God had been Abraham’s trustworthy patron for 40+ years, and Abraham had learned to be a faithful client, to obey and trust his patron. God reiterated his earlier promise to Abraham:

 … because you have done this and have not withheld your son… I will surely bless you… and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

Genesis 22:16, 17, 18

Patronage in the New Testament

When Paul used the word “grace,” it meant something different from it does today. As Daniel DeSilva shows, it was a secular word used when talking about patronage to speak of reciprocity among human beings and between humans and God. “Grace” had three meanings: (1) the willingness of a patron to grant a gift, (2) the gift itself, and (3) the response of the client to the gift.

… it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God… For we are… created in Christ Jesus to do good works…

Ephesians 2:8-9,10

God’s grace—his willingness to grant us salvation, results in grace—the gift of salvation. Our response? Grace—the grateful response of doing what God has prepared us to do.

Conclusion

Yes, the gift of grace is free; we cannot earn it. But that doesn’t mean receiving it is obligation-free. New Testament Christians would never imagine accepting their Patron’s generous gift without responding with praise and honor, both in words and deeds. To do otherwise would bring tremendous shame.

What about us? Do we behave as grateful clients? In the first century, knowing how to be a grateful client was in effect your credit rating. What’s your gratitude credit rating?