A SPIRITUAL STRONGHOLD
The way we see it, the system of mixing business and religion is so long standing and so entrenched that it has become a spiritual stronghold in both Judaism and Christianity. That is bad enough, but when we consider the issue of mixing government and religion, the scope and seriousness of the problem expands greatly.

To understand how the stronghold evolved and how it maintains it power and effectiveness, it is helpful to understand the benefits the system yields to each party. Stronghold or not, the system cannot endure or grow unless there are real benefits to the each party involved.

The following are our perceptions of the various ways that the system of mixing religion, business and government may apply to anyone who earns his or her income in whole or in part through involvement in activities that are commonly considered to be spiritual in nature. This includes clergy (pastors, priests), itinerant teachers and preachers (prophets, apostles, evangelists), missionaries (local or overseas), providers of spiritual services (counselors), creators and sellers of spiritual products (books, musics, art, trinkets, etc.) and support staff for any of these types of ministries and organizations.

For convenience, we will use the term “religious professional” to include people who fit into one of these categories. We do not claim that all these benefits apply to all religious professionals. We are saying, however, that some of these benefits will apply to some clergy and some apply to all religious people.

The curious thing about the religious/business/government paradigm is that, even though it is clearly not Biblical, God allows the system to exist. Even though the system is not God’s best,  people receive real help from religious professionals who, for whatever reasons, have violated God’s principle of not mixing religion and business. We should not be surprised at this because we know that He has chosen to use broken vessels to accomplish His work on earth. Therefore, we want to be very clear that, even though the system is broken, and even though the system uses broken individuals, God is still at work doing good through it all.

Even though God redeems the work of misguided servants, we can’t help but wonder what God might do if His servants did not mix business and religion. For example, consider that God says about how He deals with proud people (Matthew 23:12;1 Peter 5:5;James 4:6).

Having a measure of pride, whether a little or a lot, is common to all believers. It is also common for all believers to be deceived about what is in their hearts (Jeremiah 17:9).

With these truths in view, we do not criticize religious professionals for being more prideful than anyone else. They are different, however, in the fact that some of their pride comes from being in ministry and for receiving income from their ministry work.

STUDY TIP: See Pride, Arrogance, Power and Humility.