Increasingly in America, we witness the commercialization of the Church—where sacred spaces are entangled with business interests and market-driven, denominalized traditions. This stands in stark contrast to Jesus’ rebuke in the temple: “Stop making My Father’s house a place of business!” (John 2:16).
When the pursuit of profit displaces prayer, and God’s house is hijacked for worldly gain by various denominations of men, judgment draws near. This poem asks plainly: has the house of God become a marketplace—and will Christ again take up a whip?
Is Your Church a Place of Business?
Is your church a place of business?Is it incorporated in your state?
Is it liable to the government
Every time you pass the plate?
Are your business meetings cheerful?
No dissension, no one riled?
Left and right hands always knowing?
All contributions reconciled?
Does your church pay for lyrics
No prophet of God would pen?
Does it purchase lesson books
That teach the mandates of men?
To those within His Father’s House;
Making it a robber’s den,
Jesus made a whip of cords
And drove out the businessmen.
There He let no one carry
Any form of merchandise.
“Take these things away from here!”
Prayer has no purchase price!
You who profit from the churches;
Who in them buy and sell,
Will Jesus make a whip for you
And drive you out towards hell?
What good will be your profits
Then as a seller or a buyer,
If the place that be your part
Be in the lake that burns with fire?
Next poem: His Kingdom is Not of This World
Author: Jerry Dan Deutschendorf
from: Warnings to the 'Christian' Church in America