Bible Reading: Matthew 21
Matthew 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Jesus did not tolerate the merchandizing that was taking place in the temple! He turned over tables and cast out those that bought and sold in the temple. These people had turned the house of God into a place to make money. Jesus called them thieves! When I think of this I always think of a few things I see sometimes in churches. We need to think hard about these things.
First, I think of the multilevel marketing businesses and schemes. How many times does a new multilevel marketer decide to try to sell their product or service to the members of their Sunday school class? I have actually seen a person who was just going around to couple after couple at a church fellowship dinner trying to get them to buy something. I wonder what Jesus thinks.
Second, I think of this when I go into a larger church and see a bookstore in the building. I realize they are selling Christian books and products, but… Isn’t that what the people were doing in the temple? Well maybe they were charging too much for the animals and not giving a good exchange rate for the money. This may be true, but is the house of God really the place to conduct business? The church is obviously benefiting from the sale of these products.
Third, I think of bake sales and fundraisers for activities. The worshippers have come to worship God, pray, learn from the Bible and fellowship with other believers. They are bringing their tithes and offerings to place into the church treasury for the purpose of kingdom work and ministry. Then as they are leaving the building, they are accosted by the youth or children’s groups to buy their products to ‘raise money’ for a trip or activity. Please show me the chapter and verse on fundraisers in Scripture?
Money is a big test of discipleship. They way a church handles money is very important. Jesus does not intend for the house of God to be a place of merchandise. It is to be a place of prayer and worship. Please prayerfully consider these practices in light of the fact that Jesus threw some people out of the temple for what they were doing.
In Christ,
Rody
