What does it mean to “peddle the Word of God”?

Well, hi everyone. Our sermon question today comes out of 2 Corinthians 2:17, where the Apostle Paul says, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” So he says, “Unlike many of Paul’s day,” Paul is saying that he and his particular ministry colleagues do not peddle, p-e-d-d-l-e, the word of God for profit.

Apparently, this was an issue in Paul’s day. And in the Corinthian church, they had a number of people coming in that were causing the Corinthian church to begin to question Paul and his colleagues and their motives and their credentials for ministry. So Paul is saying, “Look, we are different than these others who are coming in and are through slick advertising and marketing giving you an inferior product.

We don’t do that with the word of God. We do not peddle the word of God, and we’re certainly not looking for any financial gain or other kinds of gain.” So what, what did this actually mean in Paul’s day? And I want to briefly then touch on what could this idea of peddling God’s word mean in our day?

What does it mean to peddle the word of God for profit? In Paul’s day, one of the connotations of the Greek word that Paul uses there for peddling has to do with dilution. And Paul was speaking about people who would take wine and they would water it down so that they would get the highest possible return for an inferior product.

So you can kind of begin to put together what he might be talking about here about peddling the word of God. He’s talking about diluting it. He’s talking about people who water it down and rob it of its full potential and power. Another connotation in Paul’s day of this idea of peddling the word of God, that Greek word for peddle, also has to do with merchandising.

And so Paul is describing people who are just always trying to sell you something. It doesn’t matter how they go about doing it. It doesn’t matter who they hurt in the process. All they’re trying to do is to get one over on someone else in order to merchandise something and to make a profit and benefit from it.

So those two connotations kind of give us a pretty good understanding of what Paul might be talking about in terms of the people in Paul’s day who were diluting the word of God and were robbing it of its potential and power and were trying to sell it. And Paul is saying, “We don’t do that. I don’t do that.” Paul is saying, “This was a problem among many, unlike many,” he says. In Paul’s day, this was an issue.

And Paul’s saying, “I have been entrusted with the word of God, and I am giving it to you full strength here. I’m not trying to rob it of its power or its potential. I’m not trying to make you feel better by watering down the power of its message. We don’t do that.” Paul says, “I don’t do that. I’m giving you the word of God.” Now, what might this mean then in our day?

This is not simply a first-century issue. This is something that exists. And Paul is saying this problem exists not out in the world. This is something that exists within churches. And and churches can have this happen. Ministries can have this happen if we’re not careful. And I want to suggest to you that this can come up in a very subtle way.

Sometimes it’s not very overt. I know when people think about peddling the word of God, the image might come up of some flashy televangelist or someone on TV who is saying, “If you invest in my ministry, then God will bless you.” Sometimes it’s not that obvious, though. Sometimes it subtly infiltrates a ministry.

But ultimately, what it means in our day to peddle the word of God for profit, if we take what it meant in Paul’s day and apply it to today, would be anyone or any ministry or any church that takes the gospel, the message about Jesus or God’s word, and sees it and uses it as a means to some other type of end, rather than seeing the gospel and the word of God as an end in and of itself. So for instance, one of the applications would be is when the goal shifts for a minister or for a church or a ministry,

when the goal shifts from making Christ known to making myself known, building up followers, my image really, really matters, that applause matters. When the shift begins towards, what am I getting out of this? And how can I make myself known and give myself a platform? Then we begin to start moving towards this idea of, I believe, peddling the word of God for profit in the way that Paul is sort of describing.

That’s not to say that people with a high-profile ministry are all corrupt and they’re peddling the word of God for profit. Again, this is subtle. This can happen where a person is saying, “Yes, I want to elevate Jesus’ name, but I’d also kind of like to elevate my name at any cost. And I’m going to measure my own success as a minister or as a ministry by the number of people who come to my church or the number of people who endorse my ministry.” That is a subtle way, I believe, that we might start

moving then towards, um, peddling the word of God. And it’s a dangerous area. Another possible application that we could see would be when truth is diluted, okay, in order to gain popularity or in order to gain followers. So this is people who might use the word of God and water it down so that people aren’t upset when we talk about sin or when we talk about hell or when we talk about God’s judgment or God’s wrath.

These are uncomfortable topics for people to talk about. And so it is very easy then for a person who is delivering the word of God, teaching it in any format, no matter how many people they have, to begin to water it down to make God’s word say something else. And what we’re doing then at that point is we’re robbing the cross and the gospel of its power if we start moving in that direction.

And so the danger is that a person would begin to see the gospel of Jesus as some kind of moral improvement plan or some kind of self-fulfillment plan or being all about my happiness. And that’s not what the gospel is simply about. Paul is saying, “Let’s not do that, friends.” Another, uh, application here is when we treat the, again, the gospel as a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself, is whenever faith is used for financial or political gain.

So when might that happen? Well, this is when we manipulate people for perhaps donations or we use God’s word to advance a political agenda. Again, this is not always so overt. This can be very, very subtle within any of us, myself, any church, any ministry can fall prey to doing this. So what do we say about this?

What is the opposite of peddling the word of God for profit? The opposite would be faithfully and sincerely, um, not peddling the word of God for profit, but instead speaking truthfully, speaking sincerely, not manipulatively, not trying to manipulate people, refusing to twist scripture to fit our own personal agendas. Not peddling the word of God and being a faithful ministry and a faithful church would involve serving sincerely, but not transactionally, loving people even when it brings no personal

gain or reward. It also means following the example of Jesus. Jesus didn’t try to market himself. Jesus, taking the word of God, sought to explain the word of God. He was the word of God. He embodied the word of God rather than trying to advance his own personal agenda. He was there, sent on assignment by the Heavenly Father, and that’s what Jesus was about. And so we need to take a position like that of John the Baptist and others who would say, “May Jesus increase and may we decrease.” It’s not

simply that we want to make much of him and then also make much of ourself. It is saying, “We need to fade into the background and get out of the way so that Jesus, uh, his ministry, his greatness, who he is, his character, his integrity is what is seen and not us.” He is who is on display, the gospel, the power of the gospel to save us, to rescue us, to reconcile us to God.

That is what matters more than anything else. Well, I hope that this has been helpful to you. I know I’m going to take it and think about it regarding my own ministry and guarding against peddling the word of God. I don’t want to water down the message of the gospel, and I know that you don’t as well.

So thanks so much for joining us for this important question.