What Price? (3)

 

Do we all have a price at which we can be bought? In a society which has been monetized, is everyone for sale?

 

It does seem as if the highest levels of our government, in all three branches, are fueled and influenced (if not worse than influenced) by money and gifts. I recall being a member of a PAC for my firm on the state level and considering a piece of legislation. Our executive director told us, “Of course, if you want state senator so-and-so to consider this, you’ll need to make a contribution to his reelection campaign.”

 

Our government is a reflection upon us, it is a mirror of who we are as a people, representative of our way of life. Our government is often for sale because we are often for sale. Our institutions, whether business or health care or educational or religious or sports, we seem to have a price for everything…but are we really all for sale? Could my friend’s friend have been right? Does everyone have a price?

 

The prophet Amos speaks of those in Israel “who turn justice into wormwood, and cast righteousness down to earth…and they abhor him who speaks with integrity…You who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor…” (See Amos Chapter 5).

 

Isaiah says concerning the faithful person, “He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil…” (Isaiah 33:15).

 

Jim Thompson is a pastor in Chesterfield, VA. Jim’s church is small in numbers, but it is great in integrity. It is great in integrity and in faithfulness to Jesus because of Jim. I have admired Jim for many years.

 

Because Jim’s church is small, there was a time when an infusion of cash would have been quite welcomed. During this time Jim was approached by a woman who wanted to meet with him to discuss a large donation to the church. At the meeting she made it clear that the donation was contingent on Jim agreeing to teach certain things, things which were not centered on the Christ of the Cross.

 

Jim’s response was, “I’ve been bought once, and it was with the blood of Jesus, and I ain’t going to be bought again.”

 

A few years after this happened, I was approached by a woman who wanted to meet with me about a substantial donation to our church in Becket, MA. I asked one of our matriarchs, Elizabeth Furlong, to be with me at the meeting – Elizabeth was a key ministry partner with me in our parish.

 

The woman who met with us told us that her donation was contingent on us introducing some teachings to the church which were not centered on the Christ of the Cross. I looked at the woman and said, “Well, as a friend of mine once said, we’ve been bought with the blood of Jesus and we are not going to be bought again.” That was the end of the meeting. I wonder if the woman found a pastor and a church that were for sale?

 

Paul tells us that we “have been bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). He told the Ephesian elders that Christ purchased “the church of God” with “His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Peter writes that we have been redeemed with “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18 – 19).

 

The song of the heavens includes, “You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9).

 

If we have been purchased by Jesus, then we no longer belong to ourselves, we are the property of Another. And frankly, if we decide to sell ourselves after Jesus has purchased us, then we not only prostitute ourselves, but we prostitute the Body of Christ, the Church of God…and there is probably already enough of that, we don’t need to add to it.

 

There is no sphere of life in which we belong to ourselves, there is no place or circumstance where those whom Christ has purchased can say, “I am my own, I can do what I want.”

 

Which brings me back to my thoughts when my friend was sharing about his other friend who thinks that everyone has a price.

 

I thought, “Well, there are people who can’t be bought, and the people who can’t be bought are those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.”

 

This seems like a perfect conclusion, but I want to share a bit more.

 

Is this how we live?

 

If we don’t intentionally live as men and women who no longer belong to themselves but belong to Jesus, then the likelihood that we will sell ourselves is increased. In fact, we may already be selling ourselves and don’t know it. Or we may know it and make excuses for it – everyone does it, I’m doing it for my family, it’s the only way to get ahead – we are pretty good at justifying our sin and disobedience.

 

Jesus is clear that we are to lose our lives for Him, denying ourselves, daily taking up our cross and following Him, faithfully witnessing to Him as our way of life (Mark 8:34 – 38). It is essential that our days are lived in this conscious commitment to Jesus Christ, that from the time we awake to the time we return to bed, that we follow Jesus, always follow Jesus – loving Him and loving others in obedience to Him and in koinonia with Him.

 

It is essential that we are not bought with little things or with big things, for if we are not faithful in little things then we will most certainly be unfaithful in big things – we will not have the track record and habit of obedience to turn away from the pressure of compromise and the selling of ourselves. We are no match for the insidiousness of the world, the flesh, and the devil – Jesus Christ must always be our refuge and we must live in the knowledge that we belong to Him; not to ourselves and not to the world.

 

We can sell ourselves in any number of ways. We do it when we engage in gossip, whether we are speaking or listening to it. We do it when we lie in word or deed or go along with those who do; this includes falsifying records. We sell ourselves when we do not practice fairness and equity with coworkers, customers, and clients. Pastors and church leaders sell themselves when they cater to cliques and pay attention to some folks and not to others. Pastors sell themselves when they avoid passages of Scripture so as not to offend people, and they sell themselves when they do not call their people to accountability to God’s Word. When our advertising and marketing are not honest, we sell ourselves. When our pricing in business is not fair, we sell ourselves. When our pay scales are not equitable, we sell ourselves. When we discriminate, we sell ourselves.

But you see, when we live as men and women who belong to Jesus we cannot do any of these things, we cannot sell ourselves, because we belong to Another. We are safe in Christ and others are safe with us, others will always be safe with us, for we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

 

Can you say, do you say, in your daily life, along with Jim Thompson, “I’ve been bought once, and it was with the blood of Jesus, and I ain’t going to be bought again”?