Recently, I was asked for my advice about a certain question. I thought that it might be good if we provided the answer to this question for everyone. Preacher, I need some advice. When Jesus ran the crowd out of the Temple for selling , does that mean its wrong for someone to sell stuff like CDs or books in the Church? I always thought if it was to help ministry and to help Gods people grow, it was OK. Also, just say someone owes you 5 dollars and they give it to you at church inside the building, is that wrong? I know this may seem like odd questions but Ive had these questions come up and I want to make sure I am not leading people wrong. Thanks brother. Certainly, I dont claim to have all the answers, but this one seems to be pretty clear cut. I believe you may have been referring to the money changers, and to them that bought and sold animals in the Temple. “ And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,” Mt. 21:12. These were, of course, two different groups of people: The Buyers and Sellers, and The Money Changers. The money changers knew that at the Temple Treasury the only kind of coins which were accepted were Hebrew coins. That was Jewish money. They also knew that most people of the day used Greek money or Roman money. That was Gentile money. Before anyone could go up to put an offering in at the Temple the Gentile money had to be traded or exchanged for Jewish money. (The same thing happens today when we travel from one country to another. We have to exchange our currency for theirs.) There was nothing wrong with exchanging money, except that these money changers were charging a large fee for providing this service. They were taking advantage of the people, often very poor people, in order to make a lot of money. The other case involved men at the Temple who provided animals for sacrifice for a price. They knew that it was not practical and sometimes not even possible for people to bring sacrificial animals over long distances as they made the trip up to the Temple.Their solution to the problem was that worshippers could purchase a sacrificial animal once they arrived at the Temple. Again, there was nothing wrong with providing these animals. The problem was, they were operating their business on the Temple grounds, and like the money changers, they were charging a large price for the animals. To make it even worse, sometimes the animals, may have even been blind,or lame, or sick or deformed. To the sellers it didnt really matter. They had no convictions about giving God the best. Their only purpose was to make as much money as possible off of something which cost them as little as possible. This was what Jesus condemned. Both groups were taking advantage of people in order to make money, and doing it with complete disregard to, and without any respect for the Law of God, the House of God, and God Himself. It is my opinion that this has nothing to do with making Preaching, Teaching, Gospel Music and Bible study books available to your congregation for a reasonable price which covers the cost of its production. I used to carry preaching tapes with me to meetings and make them available. At that time the going price was about $ 3.00 each. I used to tell folks, if you want tapes, they are $ 3.00 each. If you dont have $ 3.00, you can have them for $2.00. If you dont have $2.00, you can have them for $1.00. If you dont have $ 1.00, you can have them for free. The point is, we are not supposed to take advantage of people in order to make money. This is true at the House of God, or anywhere else. As far as paying someone back money which you someone, I don’t see why it would matter where or how you did it, as long as you paid them back. I never knew this was an issue. Don Farmer, Jr. November 20, 2014
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 02:38:24 +0000
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