Selling Jesus

Read the article. When someone needs a blood transfusion, should you sell your blood to them, or give it freely? How much is blood worth? What is the price of human life? These are questions most haven’t thought much about, but the landmark 1970 book  The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy  explores them deeply. The author, British sociologist Richard Titmuss, carefully considers...

In this episode (which is the audio of the video version ) we will see that while Christians should glorify God in all aspects of life, not all work can be classified as ministry. We’ll look at how misinterpretations of biblical passages often lead to the misconception that “everything is ministry.” From a careful examination of Scripture we’ll show that Christian ministry should be understood as...

Read the article. For those interested in disseminating ministry materials at no cost, Creative Commons licenses have provided a standard alternative to full copyright. Any license in this suite of licenses ensures that material may be distributed to anyone without royalties. In particular, the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA)  has been a favorite among many. Unlike many...

This episode discusses how the sin of Judas has a modern-day parallel in the practice of selling Christian teaching for profit. Those who trade the things of God for material gain are committing a sin akin to Judas's betrayal. Despite the good intentions behind selling Christian teaching, Conley warns that it is a serious sin with grave spiritual consequences, urging repentance and a return to...

Eric is the leader of a prominent publisher of valuable resources in the field of biblical studies. He loves God with all his heart, and wants to see the Church edified and grow in the knowledge of Christ through the amazing things he publishes. In spite of knowing the Bible better than just about anyone, he still has not considered whether commercializing the truth of Scripture is something God c...

Here at  Selling Jesus , we advocate that ministries  release their content into the public domain . Among other reasons, we believe this to be  the most consistent approach  to Jesus’s command to “freely give” in Matthew 10:8. However, a question occasionally arises at this point:  Couldn’t another party republish that content and claim it as their own?  Further, couldn’t they then take legal act...

This episode offers practical guidance and wisdom on how to share the principle of freely giving, along with its implications and applications. It can be a sensitive topic, and people often avoid sharing it with others out of fear of offending someone. Our goal is to encourage you to spread the biblical truth that ministry should be supported but not sold, so that individuals and churches can see...

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. Julia is a well-known Christian YouTuber and blogger. Her mission is to leverage the reach of the internet to edify believers with God-centered, Christ-exalting content. She’s particularly ca...

Many feel intimidated when it comes to making their book available free of cost or hindrance. And if you’ve listened to our conversation about Joe the Author , you may have lots of practical questions about where to start. This guide is for you. A common misconception is that you need a legacy publisher to typeset, format, and publish your book in order for it to be successful, beautiful, and prof...

In this episode ( which you can read on sellingJesus.org ) Jon explores how the Christian music industry exploits church worship for commercial gain, despite religious exemptions for churches. Churches are required to pay annual licensing fees to use modern worship songs in their services, and most of the money goes to a select few artists who charge exorbitant fees and have questionable practices...

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. Mandy is an Old Testament scholar and the author of some of the best commentaries on Job and Amos. Both are published by Zondervan and don’t cost more than other commentaries. She’s also employ...

What do you do when you've invested years working for a particular ministry that's part of the Jesus Trade, but then become convicted that selling ministry is wrong? We received an email from a listener along these lines. She finds herself in a dilemma. She wants to give Christian teaching freely and reach more people, but the organization she works under requires her to charge people a se...

Our guest in this episode, ⁠Joseph Jacowitz⁠ , has been the pastor of Christ Bible Church, in Pleasanton, CA since 1990. He and his wife Sherry have been married since 1978 and have five children and eight grandchildren. Most importantly, for this podcast, Joe is the president of ⁠FirstLove Ministries⁠ , which is one of the few ministries that truly lives out the ⁠Dorean Principle⁠ of freely givin...

"When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. 'Give me this power as well,' he said, 'so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 8:18-19). The sale of religious instruction is rightly labeled simony. As such, it should be readily condemned. The contemporary church is saturate...

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than watch a long video, this episode is for you. Watch the original video here , which also includes subtitles for the limited parts in Spanish. This is part 3, so if you haven't watched the previous episodes, make sure to watch part one and part two . Now that we’ve spent some time laying the biblical foundations for freely giving ministry, it’s s...

Read the profile here . 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. Chris has a timely message and warning for the Church. He’s filled with a passionate and prophetic urgency to admonish evangelicals about the dangers he sees looming ahe...

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...

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...

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 counse...

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 preac...

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...

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...

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 int...

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...

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 s...