Worth more than the Scriptures

I recently read a conversation between a group of people that I do not know on the internet. In this ongoing conversation they debated whether or not it is right for Christians to make a living by selling Christian books. Some used the same arguments to support the selling of books that Christians write as they use to claim that Christians should financially support preachers. Others said that if a Christian is writing a book about Scripture or their interpretation of Scripture that they should in no way make money off of it.

Both sides used Scripture to support their thoughts and beliefs. Ordinarily this conversation probably wouldn’t have gotten more than a quick scan from me but I came across it less than a week after having spoken with a man that writes a Reformed Christian blog. He told me how he has been asked to turn his writings into a book but doesn’t want to do that because it would take his writings from what he intended them and make them into something else.

As a writer I can understand what he was saying. I can also understand both sides of the conversation I found myself reading. You see…each and every one of these posts that I write take my time, they take study and learning on my part. Because they take my time, sometimes hours and hours of it, they take precious time away from my family and from other things I could be doing…maybe should be doing.

I can understand those that say its fine for the person writing anything to sell it for a profit. My writing is a gift I was given and yet it takes my time and it takes work on my part. But if I’m writing of Scriptural matters than it becomes something other than just my work.

When I write of Scriptural things my work becomes a gift from the Lord that is being used to share His gift.

Is it right to sell that?

That was the question being asked in the conversation I read online. And it was a very good question. My first thoughts go to Paul. What makes the gift of one person any different than the gift of another? If Paul’s life work of preaching and teaching is viewed in the light of being a gift that he was given by the Lord…a gift whose sole purpose was to further the kingdom of Christ…a gift that was to be used to share and spread the gospel…what makes someone today think that the gift they’ve been given is worth more than the gift Paul was given?

Paul was an apostle, specifically appointed to the task…to the gift…that was placed in him. If someone holding such a high calling offered his gift for free what makes someone today believe that their gift should be sold?

Just because today we have bookstores devoted to ‘Christian’ books and writings doesn’t mean that it’s okay to sell the gift we have been given. There is many a Christian that has and does just that. They write their ideas, their thoughts, their beliefs, and their interpretations into books and articles, using a gift they were given by the Lord and writing of the gift He gave us through Christ, and they sell their writings for a profit.

I have always enjoyed books. I not only enjoy reading them but I enjoy the very feel of a book in my hand. I’m one of the people that hasn’t changed over to ebook’s for the simple reason that for me you lose something when you can’t hold a book in your hands.

I regularly use online Bibles…because they are easier to use in my writing…but if I want to truly read or study the Bible I pick up a Bible in book form so that I can sit with it in hand. I want to feel it, to touch it, to…experience it. Holding it in book form is so much richer than reading it in digital format.

I see nothing wrong with printing books or with owning books. I do think there is a line we shouldn’t cross in the reading of and owning of books. Any book we have in our possession should be chosen based off the Biblical Truth’s that it upholds. Christians should never read horror or other sin filled books. I’ve heard of Christians that read just such books for the purpose of reviewing or commenting on them. I would have to question the need for that. Does one truly need to try out sin to be able to point out that it is sin?

But there’s a big difference in printing books and in selling them. There’s also a big difference in making just enough money from something to provide for the needs of yourself and your family and in getting rich off it.

I have in my possession right now a book I bought at the thrift store. The author of this book is Arminian but in the pages of this book, he wrote testimonies of ‘Christians’. I have only skimmed the pages of this book, reading bits and pieces here and there, but I have enjoyed hearing the testimonies of some of these ‘Christians.’ It’s those testimonies that have me still skimming through this book from time to time. I don’t want to read of how the author ‘brought many to Christ’ or how they ‘won souls’ but I enjoy reading of the man that had never heard of God and yet was drawn to him anyway. The man that expressed such joy at learning of Christ and such sorrow at hearing of his death. A man that as far as I can tell was drawn to Christ (John 6:44) despite having never been exposed to Him.

This book, I learned after buying it at the thrift store, is given away free by the organization that publishes it. They’ve been giving it away for decades. This same organization does solicit funds from people but they don’t do it through the distribution of this book. I’m not advocating this organization or speaking against them. I’m simply using this book as an example. Through this book they are in some way sharing the gospel and they are doing it free of charge. How many people have been edified through this book at no financial cost to themselves? They don’t even have to pay the postage.

There is another ‘Christian’ organization that has numerous books available for free. All a person needs to do is go to their website and request the books they want and they will be mailed out at no cost to the recipient. There are limits on the number of books you can order and on how often, there is also the option to help cover the cost of distribution but there is no price set on the books.

I am not advocating this organization and if need be would have to say that I don’t share their beliefs but I must give them credit for not charging for the books they print. I know of many reformed preachers and ‘leaders’ that publish books and sell them for profit. Some of them even write commentaries on the Bible and sell them at high prices.  

I have to wonder if there’s any difference between preachers that make money standing in front of a congregation and delivering a sermon and in a writer that puts their thoughts, ideas, and beliefs on Scripture into a book and sells it for a profit.

Is it wrong for that author to make money off the gospel in any way? If they sell those books for only enough money to support themselves, is it wrong? What if they make millions off them?

Scripture tells us…

And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand…freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:7-8

I sit before my computer hours at a time sometimes writing my thoughts and understanding of Scripture. I place those writings online and share them with others by printing them. What if I put those same writings into a book and sold them to others for a profit?

Would that be wrong?

I truly had never given this any thought before. I have no goals of getting my writing into publication to sell them for a profit. I write because for myself and for my husband. From there…I place them in a public place where others can read them if they want to. But now that this idea has been brought to my attention I find myself truly wondering…

Is it right to sell anything one writes when the basis for what they wrote is Scripture?

I know many do it. I can’t see that there is anything definitely wrong in doing it. But I can see many verses that may lead us to at least question if selling anything we write, when Scripture is the basis for it, is wrong.

I read the different verses used in the conversation I read…

 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;  3 Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:2-3

Does selling anything that in any way speaks of the Lord fall into feeding the flock for filthy lucre? You may do it willing but if you’re doing it for money…are you gaining money through Christ?

I have now written two different posts called Peddling Christ, the second one is a follow up to the first and titled part two. In those posts I spoke of how preachers that are paid for their preaching are making a career of Christ, the Arminian and the reformed preachers. They are lining their pockets by using Christ to earn their money. And they aren’t working all that hard for the money they earn. Christ is big business these days. There’s money to be made off movies and books that can in any way be linked to the Lord. It doesn’t even need to really hold more than a passing connection to Scripture or the Lord and it can be labeled ‘Christian’ and sold for a tidy profit.

Preachers aren’t immune to cashing in on that business. Christ is big business in ‘church’ buildings too. They are given money for sharing the gospel…or a twisted form of it. They make Christ’s name serve them by turning him into a career and peddling Him to anyone that cares to listen…often with the expectation that the listener will give an offering to ‘God’ because God demands they tithe to Him.

This peddling of Christ can be seen in the big money that is made by authors who sell their Christian…or ‘Christian’…books to people willing to pay high dollars to learn more about ‘God’.

And I have to wonder if there’s any difference in the preacher that stands before his congregation ‘peddling’ Christ and the person that sits before a computer writing of Christ, or Scripture, and selling it through the publication of their books.

Are they feeding the flock for the purpose of feeding them or are they doing it for the purpose of filthy lucre?

But there are more verses that must be considered. What of…

"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!  For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.  What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. 1 Cor. 9:16-18

There is no way to say that anyone that writes of Scripture isn’t sharing the gospel, not someone that uses the Truths of Scripture as the basis for their writings. And there are some that preach in their writings. Are they not then abusing their power in the gospel when they share it by charging others?

Christ performed miracles and charged no one for them. He spread the gospel and asked nothing in return. Paul shared the gospel and charged nothing for the sharing he did. He worked to support himself even as he shared the gospel.

These are the examples we must look to.

And I must think of the men that wrote the sacred Scriptures for us. They did not charge for the things they wrote.

Should Christians of today do any differently? If the men that wrote the Scriptures didn’t put a price on them, didn’t charge for them, should the Christians of today think that what they have to say is of more value than the Scriptures?

I truly do not know where I fall in this. I can see where it might be impossible for someone to spend so many hours researching and writing out something. Even to write commentary on Scripture means the person writing it must study the Scriptures and spend great time and effort on what they write.

Some of them could not do that if they did not use the things they write to support themselves. And yet…

Paul found a way to work and support himself while not only preaching the gospel but also writing much of the New Testament…yes, some of that writing was done while he was in prison but that’s kind of beside the point.

And even as I can see where someone might not be able to write about Scripture, to make books, and edify Christians with their writings if they had to work aside from the writing they do…

I can’t help thinking that making a profit off Scripture in any way goes against those verses above. And that it is peddling Christ…making Christ serve them…turning Christ into a career that lines their pockets.

And I can’t help thinking that if the Scriptures were written down and shared without cost…how can any person think their words are worth more than the Scriptures?