Is it right or wrong to sell inside the church?<\/p>\n\t
Before I can answer the main question, I must address a miscomprehension. In the New Testament, the word church refers to the people called out of the world to serve the Christ. The church, in the universal sense, refers to all Christians past, present, and future. In a local sense, the church is the group of Christians who work together to serve the Lord in a particular area. The Bible never<\/strong>\u00a0refers to a physical structure as a church.<\/p>\n To see this, look at this portion of a command on how to resolve problems between Christians. “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector<\/em>” (Matthew 18:17). Obviously, “church” does not refer to a building, but a group of people acting as a unit.<\/p>\n Buildings are owned by churches to help the churches fulfill their duties to the Lord. In the raising of funds for the operation of a local congregation, the only method given in the New Testament is to raise funds by the voluntary contributions of its members:<\/p>\n “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come<\/em>” (I Corinthians 16:1-2).<\/p>\n “Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver<\/em>” (II Corinthians 9:5-7).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Since God is very clear that His teachings are not to be altered, we are not allowed to implement other schemes for raising funds for the church.<\/p>\n “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 1:6-10).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Is it right or wrong to sell inside the church? Answer: Before I can answer the main question, I must address a miscomprehension. In the New Testament, the word church refers to the people called out of the world to serve the Christ. The church, in the universal sense, refers to all Christians past,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-6858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2383,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-scriptural-to-join-a-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":0},"title":"Is it scriptural to “join” a church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about joining a church. I'm a bit at a loss to know how to go forward. This is all rather new to me as my family left \"going to church\" decades ago and have since worshiped with other Christians in homes or fellowships. One of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2658,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-consist-of-just-one-person\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":1},"title":"Can a church consist of just one person?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a church consist of just one person? Answer: A church is an entity separate and distinguishable from a single individual Christian. This can be seen in the separation of responsibility seen in\u00a0I Timothy 5:16, \"If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-sell-food-books-candy-drinks-etc-in-gods-house-to-raise-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":2},"title":"Is it wrong to sell food, books, candy, drinks, etc. in God’s house to raise money?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong to sell food, books, candy, drinks, etc. in God's house to raise money to go on trips or to help buy the things the church needs? Answer: Your question is actually backward. You should be asking if it is right to do those things. Since God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-church-used-for-in-the-14th-century-besides-religious-activities\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":3},"title":"What was the church used for in the 14th century besides religious activities?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the 14th century in Europe, apart from religious activities what did the public and nobles use the church for? Answer: My first inclination was to dismiss the question since it wasn't biblically based, but I realized there is a small point that should be made. The question, from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1995,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-spiritual-work-that-an-individual-christian-may-do-that-the-church-may-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":4},"title":"Is there any spiritual work that an individual Christian may do that the church may not?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Comment: The following is taken from a list of questions sent to me by my request. The author is from a more liberally-minded group who is preparing lessons on the issues that separate some churches of Christ. He was interested in the other side's point of view and I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26985,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-elders-keep-secrets-from-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":6858,"position":5},"title":"Do the elders keep secrets from the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do the elders keep secrets from the church? Matthew 18:15-17 seems to be full disclosure. My thoughts are to disclose the sin, but the absolute details are not necessary. Answer: \"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}