APPLICATION OF THE MONEY-CHANGER STORY
Churches are modeled after the temple. Not just the physical buildings called churches, but the entire religious system that is housed in the buildings. Thus churches should expect that sooner or later God will destroy all churches just like he destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. They can either wait for that to happen or they can voluntarily dismantle the religious system of which they are a part. Synagogues can do the same.
Short of dismantling the church system, there are other applications for churches and synagogues.
If it appears that a church often needs to exhort its members regarding tithing, the pastor and church leaders may be worrying about finances and striving to make something happen through sermons and other communications to inspire members to give more. When this happens, it is like they have effectively raised the price that members need to pay for the religious commodities (preaching, Sunday school, small groups, fellowship, etc.) the church offers. Of course members and adherents have a choice about how much they put in the offering plate, but the fact still remains that the church leadership has taken initiatives to increase giving. The way we see it, this constitutes striving.
Contrast that with being at rest and trusting that God would move the people to give by the power of His Spirit rather than by the pastor’s persuasive sermon on tithing. If you attend a church, it would be good to use adherence, or lack of it, to this scripture as an indicator of depth of the trust the church leaders have in God. If they seem to be striving on this account, what does that say about their general level of trust? And if their general trust seems to be below what God would expect, as you might predict from the above scripture, what kind of confidence do you have about what it is trying to teach you about trust?
A related issue for churches regarding the practice of exhorting members to give more in order to comply with what the Bible says about tithing is that this constitutes spiritual abuse. The concept of abuse exists when one party places some sort of pressure (physical, emotional, financial, guilt, shame, spiritual, etc.) on another party to do something that primarily, or exclusively, benefits the first party. Indeed the Bible does command the giving of tithes, but putting pressure on people to give more than what they have been giving when the church has greater need for funds goes beyond a sincere exhortation to be obedient. The exhortation may be couched in spiritual language that says that it is good for the giver to tithe. But the fact is that the occasion of the exhortation (i.e. when the church needs more money) indicates that the church is more concerned for its own benefit (i.e. more income) than it is for the spiritual benefit of tithing that accrues to the giver.
APPLICATION FOR PARACHURCH MINISTRIES
Parachurch ministries have the same choices that churches have regarding destroying the religious system of which they are a part. They can either wait for God to dismantle the system piece by piece or do it voluntarily. Short of doing it voluntarily, they must reckon with the lessons of the story of Jesus and the money-changers.
Name brand ministries, like most other non-profit organizations, have websites in which they report the activities in which they advertise and dispense their spiritual commodities (teaching, prophecy, books, dvds, worship, etc.) We have established elsewhere in this teaching that the very act of selling a product or service is in violation of what the Bible says about selling spiritual commodities. Beyond selling, however, these ministries also solicit donations through their websites and hardcopy newsletters.
It is very common for these ministries to make special appeals for donations at the end of the fiscal year when they will claim that they are running behind budget on donations received. It is also common to discount the prices of their products to entice people to purchase them. In this sense the ministry is no different from Walmart or any other business that advertises discounts in order to increase sales. These efforts to increase donations or sales constitute striving to increase income for the ministry. If they really trusted God, they would not be selling anything in the first place, but being disobedient on that account, they now add to their sin by striving to stimulate more income. It is much better to avoid all such sin opportunities by not selling any spiritual commodities.
The other thing to notice about this year-end practice of inspiring increased giving is that all ministries (churches included) have not been good stewards of the money they do have if they have indeed spent more than they took in. Not only is this not good management, it is presumptuous to place themselves in a position where they need God to make up the difference between their irresponsible spending and the income He has provided to date. Thus, by their negligence, they have placed themselves in a position where they must strive to get more. And, as we said above, striving is a litmus test for evidence of trust.
Finally, we must point out the absurdity of discounting the price of a spiritual commodity. First of all, how do you establish a fair price for spiritual truth? And if you later discount the price of that truth, what does that say about the value at all? What does that say about the value you place on the truth? If sellers of spiritual commodities later discount the price of the commodity, that is a clear indication that the value they first placed on the commodity was only relative to the cost of production and expected profit they would receive from selling it. If they later discount the price (i.e. put it on sale) they are doing what businesses do to recover something for their product. In other words, if it does not sell when it is new, it loses its value. Seriously, can we say that the value of spiritual truth diminishes with time?
To drive that point home with even more force, consider that Jesus died so that the truth of His life, death and resurrection could be made available to us. Think about it! How do you place a value on His life? And having done that once, how do you then discount that value to some new price that recover the cost of producing that life?
It all goes back to the truth that God is spirit. And so is Jesus. That being the case, how absurd to try to put a value on something you cannot see and cannot touch? If that is impossible, then we really need to ask: What is it that people are selling anyway? It is not God because God would not allow Himself to be reduced to a commodity. And if it is not God, it also is not Jesus. So what is it that religious entrepreneurs are selling?
The way we see it, if they are not selling life, they are selling death. We may be overstating that a bit, but what else could it be?
The best answer we can come up with is that they are selling themselves. They are selling their personalities, their creativity, their speech, their ideas, their performance, their looks, their charisma, scholarship, and so on. If they make a living from their work, they are doing it to advance and preserve themselves in a myriad of ways.
This is not the greatest love that Jesus was talking about in John 15:8-18. Religious business for income and profit is not laying down your life. It is advancing and preserving your life. You may look good, earn an income and receive praise from men for your religious business activities, but if you did not lay down your life you did not do it with the right motive: Love.
And if you did not do it with the same motive that Jesus had, you are not a true follower of Jesus.
Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. So in essence, when truth is sold as a commodity, it is Jesus that is sold. Think about that?
APPLICATION OF THE MONEY-CHANGERS STORY FOR ALL RELIGIOUS PEOPLE
The money-changer story does not only apply to people who sell commercial religious products and services. It applies equally as well to consumers of those products and services. We see this in the following scripture where both those that sold and bought were cast out of the temple.
Luke 19:45-47 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein , and them that bought ; 46 Saying unto them, It is written , My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,
The story therefore demands a response from people who purchase religious products and services. When individuals do the right thing for themselves, then the religious systems will be destroyed.
The way we see it, religious institutions will not be destroyed in a catastrophic event like the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. Rather, it will be destroyed little by little as individual religionists drift away from Old/First Covenant religion in favor of becoming New Covenant disciples. As this happens, the religious organizations will collapse for lack of financial support. It will be a fitting demise for organizations that depend on money instead of spirit to survive.
The end of Luke 12:22-33 says that we are not to strive but that we are to sell all and give alms, Alms can be defined as mercy, pity and charity, and can include both material and spiritual benefits for others. This is another litmus test for trust. Thus the real test of trust is not in how much you get, or how you get it. Rather, it is in how much you give away. So, if you give to an organization that keeps all that it receives for its own benefit (i.e. to maintain the organization) and does not give it all away it does not demonstrate the kind of trust that God is talking about in these scriptures
Luke 16:8-15 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
Luke 22:35-38 And He said to them, “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.”36 And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. 37 “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, `AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.” 38 They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.”
John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.