Selling Jesus

Although this article was not originally written for a podcast, we offer it here for those who don't have time to read it. If you prefer to read it, you can do that here. See the timestamps below to skip to different sections: 00:00 BIBLICAL CONTENT + BIBLICAL CONTEXT 03:29 BIBLICAL TIMES 04:06 MINISTRY, MOTIVES, AND MONEY 08:27 GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS LEADERS 14:16 OTHER BIBLICAL EVIDENCE 19:57 WHO IS THE “COUNSELEE”? 21:20 WORLDLY MODEL 25:07 LEGAL LIABILITY 29:54 COUNSELING OR DISCIPLESHIP? 30:28 CONCLUSION - “COME TO THE WATERS” Should a ministry relationship, either in its initiation or continuation, ever be conditioned on the payment of a fee? Should the fulfillment of a biblical responsibility to care for God’s people ever be conditioned on the payment of a fee? In recent years, many churches and Christians have started to question modern psychotherapy and return to God’s Word as sufficient for counseling other believers. Although we rejoice at this development, a related question lurks in the background. Is it biblical to charge fees for biblical counseling? Is this question quickly answered “yes” by a simple reference to scriptures saying the “laborer is worthy of his wages”? (See Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:15, Luke 10:7, Matthew 10:10, 1 Timothy 5:18, 1 Corinthians 9:14.) Knowing this topic may generate heated debate and disagreement, I begin with some personal observations as a former psychologized counselee. My journey through the maze of psychotherapy ran nearly thirty years. I was much like the sick woman who came to touch the garment of Jesus after spending all she had and suffering under the care of doctors who could not heal her (Mark 5:25-34). I poured out thousands of dollars to psychiatrists and psychologists who had no answers. The church sent me away, referring me to “greener” counseling pastures. Just having a “friend” cost dearly. Is this how God intends for His undershepherds to care for His sheep? Jesus told John three times to “feed My lambs” (John 21:15-17). Did He intend for His lambs to be charged for the meal? This was originally published by Christian Discernment Publications Ministry, Inc. (© 2007) and has been republished by permission, due to its valuable insights. ⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

Read the article here. "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:17, ESV). This highly technical discussion is not an easy listen, and it's recommended that you complement it with the visuals in the written version of the article. That said, the primary source of interest in this verse is the word translated by the ESV as “peddlers” (καπηλεύοντες, from καπηλεύω). Commentators and translations divide over recognizing this word as indicating an adulteration or commercialization of the gospel. Furthermore, they differ on whether or not this word necessarily implies a motive of profit. Thus, as we will see below, some translations add “for profit” to the verse because they believe it to be implicit information from the context that needs to be made explicit to the reader, even though the words “for profit” are not found in the Greek. This matters because there are those who would argue that 2 Corinthians 2:17 does not confront the Jesus trade, but rather speaks merely of those who make too much profit from selling Jesus. Or they claim that this verse has nothing to do with selling, but rather with "corrupting" God's Word. Is there really a loophole here for Jesus sellers to avoid Paul's condemnation, or does it simply mean: "we are not commercializing God’s Word like so many others"? sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

Our Master has commanded us to “teach and admonish one another” (Col. 3:16) and to “warn those that are unruly” (1 Thess. 5:14) as part of our Christian duty. Yet rather than speaking truth and wisdom to others freely, as they received it from God, some sell their biblical counsel as though it had originated from themselves. By God’s grace, this is not the practice of a majority of biblical counselors, but it is unfortunately widespread, even among highly reputable biblical counseling organizations such as the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), as this episode will demonstrate. One of the hallmarks of the biblical counseling movement is the firm conviction that Scripture is sufficient for all non-medical problems. If this is so, God’s Word should also be sufficient for answering the question as to whether counseling should be supported or sold. We believe that the Bible is crystal clear that Christian ministry should never be sold, but rather freely supported by the Body of Christ, and we want to encourage the biblical counseling movement to embrace this scriptural truth. As long as biblical counselors teach and function as though the Bible is insufficient to answer this question, they unintentionally undermine their foundational premise. The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) is an esteemed organization, devoted to counseling according to God’s Word. I myself am an ACBC certified counselor, and greatly appreciate and admire the work they have done in equipping both pastors and laymen to rightly handle God’s Word in counseling. However, when it comes to Jesus’s teaching that the ministry of the gospel should be offered freely (Mat 10:8), this organization has opted to turn a blind eye. Rather than take the position of its founder Jay Adams, who clearly assumed that biblical counseling would be offered for free, ACBC leaves the door open for individual counselors to decide whether or not they will charge, and how much: “The Bible is clear that ministers of the gospel of Jesus are entitled to earn their living from the gospel…. Biblical counselors … must seek to love their counselees in discerning whether to charge fees and how much to charge.” Notice that they wrongly assume that earning a living “from the gospel” means charging people for speaking truth in love, putting a price tag on wisdom, and requiring people “obtain the gift of God with money” (Acts 8:20). Also, they imply that it can be loving to charge people for healing, for pointing them to Jesus, and for other spiritual gifts that are involved in biblical counseling. But it is never loving to disobey God by selling access to the ministry of his Word and Spirit. As we’ll see in the data presented below, this confusing stance regarding money and ministry has created a biblical counseling landscape in which everyone simply does what is right in their own eyes. Read the article here. ⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

This series on "⁠⁠⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠⁠⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. Luke is a gifted preacher and speaker. Some of the biggest summer camps book him years in advance, and large churches love to invite him to present at conferences. In the early years of his preaching ministry he would only receive honorariums as a free gift that churches might give him to help cover expenses. But now he receives more requests than he can commit to. At one point an old pastor told him that he needed to think about charging upfront for speaking engagements. This would help limit the amount of requests and enable him to start a college fund for his kids. His family agreed that this was a wise idea, and after considering it prayerfully, Luke began making it clear that he would require X amount in payment in addition to all of his travel expenses before agreeing to speak at an event. At first he didn’t like how this exchange felt, especially when smaller, likable churches couldn’t afford what he asked. But as the money started to flow, after a while he got used to it. Now and then, when Luke has quieted his heart and is out on an evening walk with God, conflicted sentiments crowd his thoughts, and his conscience wonders whether he’s doing the right thing by putting a price tag on sharing what God has freely given him. But he’s quick to tell himself, “At least you don’t charge as much as your friend David does. He charges twice as much and doesn’t even have the greatest things to say. Most respected Christian celebrities charge for speaking. Besides, how else could you help your kids with their college expenses? God wants you to care for your family.” Luke is a classic example of a man who bases his pursuit of holiness on people around him instead of on the standard of God’s Word. As long as he’s a little better than “that other guy,” he feels justified. He has believed a few lies: 1) putting his kids through college is more important than obeying God, 2) God is incapable of providing for his children through any other means than the ill-gotten gain of peddling God’s Word, 3) as long as his sin is not as extreme as those around him, God is pleased and honored, 4) widely-respected, famous evangelicals are a better standard to live by than Scripture. While Luke is not actively trying to do evil, he has become complacent with the default state of affairs around him and is content to go with the flow. He’s comfortable with worldly ways of thinking about money and ministry, so why rock the boat? ⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music: "Amazing" by Liborio Conti, https://www.no-copyright-music.com

Read the article and footnotes here. Let’s imagine that your pastor gets up one Sunday morning and announces: “If anyone wants to share passages from the Bible they need to ask me for permission first. I have to do this in order to carefully steward God’s Word, because people might abuse it. That said, I’ll be very generous in giving permission. I’ll even let you share it for free if you’re only using small portions. But if you use large portions, I’ll expect some payment to cover the costs of carefully stewarding God’s Word.” How would you feel? This episode confronts the uncomfortable reality that modern translations are heavily copyrighted and commercialized. Jon unpacks the strict legal limits on quoting Scripture, the for-profit interests driving many publishers, and the burdensome barriers to getting permission to share God's Word. Challenging common myths, he evaluates whether publishers are as generous, protecting, and well-intentioned as claimed. The conclusions are unsettling. Should Christians forbid freely sharing Scripture? Does charging for access align with the gospel? Join us as we envision reform where God's Word belongs to believers again. ⁠⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

This series on "⁠⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. James is a worship leader. When he was single he wrote some of his best worship songs in the evenings while working at a bookstore to make ends meet. His heart’s passion is to serve the Church with Bible-saturated, God-centered, beautiful music that will point people to Christ. In the days of MySpace he was happy to post his songs for free for people to stream, and some of them started going viral. Eventually a Christian record label approached him and laid out a plan to turn his passion into a “career.” James trusted them because they seemed like sincere believers and were obviously “professionals” who had been in the worship business for decades. They convinced him that the best way to bless the most Christians with his music would be to join them and use his gifts to generate a full-time income. Now James leads worship events for large conferences and usually charges an upfront fee of tens of thousands of dollars for each event. His songs are now sung in churches around the world and bring in a steady stream of income through royalties and CCLI. He’s happy that more people than he ever imagined are being touched by his music and encounter the presence of God. His recordings are no longer free to listen to, but every now and then he’ll release one at no cost to download, which makes him feel good that he has done his part to be generous. James has been deceived by the “professionals” into believing that the worship of God can be sold as a commodity. He also has bought into the lie that reaching large numbers of people means that God must automatically approve of the way one is doing ministry. God must be happy and honored with the means, if the outcome is large. Unfortunately he has failed to take seriously the account of Jesus cleansing the temple because the place of worship and prayer had been turned into a marketplace. If James is honest with himself, he remembers being happier before he turned his passion into a full time career that denies people access to his music unless they pay. Although his former way of life proved that he could write amazing songs for the Church without treating it as a full time business, he now tries to convince himself that it’s the only way for him to make it “sustainable.” He has already signed contracts and feels trapped in a corporate landscape that feels nothing like a real ministry. But everyone he respects is doing the same thing, and older, wiser Christians assure him that he’s doing what’s sensible, and that God is using him powerfully. And so, in his heart, the lie that the Jesus trade is respectable and inevitable has prevailed. Ending song by Andrew Case, freely given here. ⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church⁠⁠⁠⁠ Intro music: "Amazing" by Liborio Conti, https://www.no-copyright-music.com

The 1998 movie The Truman Show is a film about a man named Truman Burbank who—unaware—lived his entire life inside a simulated reality TV show. In order to pay for the show, the producers filled Truman’s world with cleverly placed ads of all kinds, even within conversations that Truman had with his wife (who was really a paid actress). At one point Truman and his wife are in the middle of an intense conversation, and she suddenly holds up a product and says with fake chipperness: “Why don’t you let me fix you some of this new Mococoa drink. All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua, no artificial sweeteners!” This would be unsettling to most of us, especially in the context of something sacred like a marriage relationship. We instinctively feel that there are certain things too holy to pollute with ads of any kind. Some things in life require honor and respect, but when those things are turned into advertising opportunities, honor and respect are stripped away. Christian ministries face enormous pressure to monetize their content through advertisements. YouTubers in particular often face the question of whether they should monetize their channel or not. The logic often goes like this: “Ad revenue will help provide regular income to grow the ministry, so we don’t have to rely just on donations from supporters.” I want to make the case from biblical principles that running ads on ministry content is wrong. Truth, holy things, the work of the Spirit of God, and all kinds of Christian edification are like marriage or friendship–too sacred to exploit with advertising. Read the article ⁠here⁠. Article mentioned: Giving out of Obligation to God, Not Man. ⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

The biblical counseling movement was founded on the conviction that the Bible is sufficient for solving all non-medical problems that humans face. The central figure behind this return to Scripture was Jay Adams, who shocked the world with a bold and controversial claim “that the task of counseling was a theological enterprise that should be primarily informed by a commitment to God’s Word.” While this claim draws fire from both inside and outside the Church, its truth has been proven by both Scripture and experience. Biblical counseling continues to bring hope, peace, freedom, healing, and joy to thousands of suffering people through the power of Christ and his Word–people with conditions like anorexia, bipolar disorder, postpartum depression, and dissociative identity disorder. People who struggle with homosexuality, anxiety, rage, and much more. Commenting on 2 Peter 1:3-5, Ed Bulkley writes:  "A necessary presupposition of biblical counseling is that God has indeed provided every essential truth the believer needs for a happy, fulfilling life in Christ Jesus. It is the belief that God has not left us lacking in any sense. The apostle Peter states it emphatically. . . . ['His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…'] Note the word everything. God has provided absolutely everything man needs for physical and spiritual life. This is a primary consideration. If Peter is correct, then God has given us all the information we need to function successfully in this life. Every essential truth, every essential principle, every essential technique for solving human problems has been delivered in God’s Word." In light of such an inviolable allegiance to the Bible, biblical counseling practice should be expected to operate according to biblical principles. And this means that it would be appropriate to look to Scripture to answer a simple, practical concern: Should biblical counseling be offered for a fee? Read the article here. Help foster change by sending this article to ACBC and CCEF. ⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

Conley Owens argues that the Bible is clear that ministers should be financially supported. In the same context that Jesus commanded the disciples to “freely give” their message, he acknowledged that the worker is “worthy of his food” (Matt. 10:10). Paul also argued for the right of a minister to earn a living as he does ministry (1 Cor. 9:1-14). Ministry should be supported, but it shouldn’t be sold. So long as the gospel worker makes no exchange for his message, he is free to receive support. Conley walks us through several implications of this distinction. Read the article here. sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠copy.church

This series on "⁠Christians Who Sell Jesus⁠" takes profiles that represent real-world scenarios wherein well-meaning individuals are actively engaged in the Jesus trade, often unwittingly. Recommended reading (even though, sadly, none of these books are free): Competent to Counsel The Biblical Counseling Movement after Adams Counseling the Hard Cases Speaking Truth in Love Check out this article: Charging Fees for Biblical Counseling? by Deborah Dewart Steve is a biblical counselor. He believes that God has called him to minister to the broken in spirit, and he sincerely wants to help people be healed and whole, walking in victory over sin through the power of the gospel. But he’s concerned that if he charges the same rates for counseling sessions as other prominent biblical counselors in his area, he’ll end up alienating the poor. During times of prayer he believes that God has placed a desire within him to simply give counsel for free, but older, more experienced counselors have talked him out of it. “God gave you common sense, and you need to be responsible and provide for your family,” they say. “Besides, if people don’t pay you for your counsel, they won’t value it.” So Steve has reluctantly decided to charge half of what most people usually charge. Although Steve believes that the Bible is sufficient for godly wisdom, he has failed to turn to it for answers to the simple question as to whether he should require payment for “speaking truth in love” to broken people. He has failed to heed Jesus’ command to give freely (Matt 10:8), and allowed the conventional, worldly wisdom of his superiors to eclipse the sincere desire God has placed on his heart. He has also believed the lie that biblical counselors are somehow “above” raising support (as most missionaries do) to be able to minister freely and without compromising their sincerity. Steve is a tragic example of someone with an honest desire to honor God, but who was derailed by the blindness, complacency, and carnal pragmatism around him. He’s trapped in a fog of confusion. In the end, biblical counselors are offering to lead people to Jesus through the Scriptures, with wisdom, truth, and sincere friendship–things that cannot and should never be sold. But Steve is unable to see this fact. ⁠⁠sellingjesus.org⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠thedoreanprinciple.org⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠copy.church⁠⁠⁠ Music: "Amazing" by Liborio Conti, https://www.no-copyright-music.com