Make my house a house of prayer for the nations and do not make it into a market or a den of thieves.
And he said to them, “It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.” Matthew 21:13
Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’? But you have made it a den of thieves.” Mark 11:17
And to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” John 2:16
It is one thing to recover expenses when charging for goods and services related to the Kingdom, but there is a lot of profit made through the sale of “spiritual” products. I believe we should be VERY careful about this. All we have, all our knowledge and insight and experience and resources are from God. Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8b) It is also a severe indictment that the VAST majority of the income of the Church is spent on herself in one way or another. That is in addition to a tremendous amount of graft.
