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Earlier I said I had more to comment on the whole Christmas deal. Here it is . . The idea that there are those seeking to “make merchandise” of the Body of Christ really frosts me because I’m convinced it’s a large part of the motivation that moved Jesus to clear the temple. The major factor was the terrible way God was being misrepresented. But HOW He was being defamed was in the way the religious leaders were taking advantage of the worship of the sincere who came to the temple.
It might be more accurate to change the phrase “making merchandise” of the flock of God to making merchandise of the THINGS of God and trying to “market” them to believers. It isn’t people who are being bought and sold so much as items that are being packaged and presented as “enhancements” to godliness. It comes through music, books, clothing, and entertainment. The proliferation in Bible versions over the last ten years can be attributed to one thing – publishers desire for profit. But the avenue that most disturbs me is the recent trend of Hollywood to use the Church as a marketing tool for films. It began in earnest with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. That campaign proved so successful Disney used it to promote The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Then just a short time later, churches were again blitzed with request to promote the movie version of the story told in the book Gates of Splendor. The movie is titled The End of the Spear and tells the story of the courageous missionaries who were martyred in seeking to take the Gospel to a South American tribe. The furor over the movie due to its lead actor, who is a homosexual activist, as well as the fact that no clear reference is made to Jesus throughout the movie, has been intense. Others have dealt with these issues from both sides, so I’ll not do so here. My concern lies in another realm – that so many churches are willingly making themselves accomplices of the world. What are we doing promoting movies? I admit it – I made a massive error when CCO bought out a night’s showing of Gibson’s movie. What was I thinking? Looking back, I guess I wasn’t thinking – that was the problem. I jumped on the band-wagon of men I respect who were lauding the movie and sharing their plans to buy out theater times. I have no problem recommending a good movie or book to someone. It doesn’t even have to be “Christian” – whatever that means anyway. (I’ll share in a later piece why I detest the use of the word “Christian” as an adjective.) The criteria Paul gives us in Philippians 4 for what we ought to dwell on is that which is noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, has any virtue or anything praiseworthy. He says WHATEVER things possess these qualities. Note that no where is the qualifier “Christian” given there. (I don’t think Paul liked the word being used as an adjective either!) So, while it’s one thing for us to recommend such things to one another personally and individually, the Church ought not get caught up in promoting ANYTHING other than the Kingdom of God.
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