Malachi 1:10
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
Shutting the doors and kindling fire on the altar were even menial temple tasks, yet they are portrayed as work people were unwilling to do without payment or personal advantage. God has no pleasure in worship, service, or offering given grudgingly or for payment and selfish gain, and he will not accept an offering at the hand of those who serve in that spirit. The same rejection falls on worship and offerings given with little care, stinted and defective, rather than freely and at real cost.
Ministers and other workers who labor with wages or expected pay as their motive rather than devotion to God's cause and deep, wholehearted concern for the salvation of lost souls offer service that does not please God. Sacred work is not ordinarily done without compensation, but payment must not be the reason for doing it. Those who under financial necessity refuse to work for small wages to carry out God's purposes unless they can gain all the benefit they desire and put their own interest first are reproved as revealing selfishness and covetousness. They see no difference between the sacred and the common, and treat the Lord's work as no more sacred than a common business enterprise.
An offering must not be stinted, defective, grudging, or given with little care and without real sacrifice, but must be the best, without blemish, and freely given. Applied to houses of worship, means spent to provide a suitable and comfortable place for God should not be regarded as wasted, but his people should offer their best. Withholding a suitable share brings loss and affliction on families and possessions rather than God's blessing. Stinted offerings and lame sacrifices reveal a selfish and covetous heart and deny a professed faith in Christ's coming, for a person's works show the faith that person lives by.
A sacrifice that has cost neither study nor prayer is unacceptable to God, for he requires sincere effort and true devotion. Neglecting prayer because entertainment or guests have left everyone too tired is like presenting God a lame offering. In the wider setting of Malachi 1:8-14, money raised through corrupt, self-serving practices such as feasting, gambling, lotteries, and similar worldly amusements is a defective offering, and using it for church purposes does not make it acceptable.