RELIGIOUS LEADERS BUILD REPUTATIONS WHILE NEGLECTING MINISTRY

Jeremiah 22:13-17 13 “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness And his upper rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay And does not give him his wages, 14 Who says, ‘I will build {it} bright red.’ 15 “Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. 16 “He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it means to know Me?” Declares the LORD. 17 “But your eyes and your heart Are {intent} only upon your own dishonest gain, And on shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression and extortion.”

COMMENTARY: This scripture is difficult to understand. It is about spiritual leaders who build a house (assembly of people who follow them and provide financially for them). It is the equivalent of the Babylonians building a tower to reach heaven while creating a name for themselves on the backs of the people they should be serving. (Click on this link for a detailed discussion of the Tower of Babylon.)

In the world, a person’s reputation grows with income. The same is true in ministry. Religious leaders’ reputations increases as the people give them money, praise them for their ministry, and submit to their leadership. In the terms quoted in Jeremiah 22:13-17, the leaders use their neighbor’s services without pay. The followers are in effect building the house (reputation, income, even buildings in some cases) for the religious leaders. The followers are doing the work and they are paying the bills.

Because the followers do not know that God does not approve of commercial religion, they blindly and willingly contribute to the wealth of the spiritual leaders. They are deceived into thinking they are being righteous, but in fact they are being used and oppressed. Religious leaders use fine sounding arguments and scripture to convince people to give them money. They are deceived into believing that God will somehow bless them as they bless the spiritual leader. They also believe that it is a credit to their personal righteousness if they give their hard-earned money to people who are in professional ministry. They do not consider that whatever God has said his people should do (help the poor, evangelism, preach, etc.) means that they should do it personally. There is a belief that with their money they can in effect purchase the proxy services of a religious professional to do what God wants them to do by giving money to that professional. In effect, they are buying their righteousness and thinking it is the right thing to do. The religious professionals, of course, contribute to this deception aggressively. It is not too strong to say that the people giving the money are victims of extortion.

Religious leaders should concentrate on doing justice and righteousness instead of building a reputation through oppression and extortion (promising spiritual blessings in exchange for money and support).

It is a common practice in the religious community for laypeople to honor religious leaders with various kinds of gifts and services. It is bad enough that they are in effect bribing the spiritual leader for some kind of spiritual favor, but here God is complaining that the religious leaders receive the services without paying for them. God calls this dishonest gain, oppression and extortion. Those are hard words for any religious leader who would welcome a so-called gift as a feature of the privilege of being a spiritual leader.

Religious leaders should focus on their ministry to the afflicted and needy. If they would simply do that, things would go well for them.