Many foreign countries have marketplaces. Shoppers in these marketplaces need to stay on their toes because many of the merchants use all kinds of tricks to sell their wares. Buyers make offers and merchants make counteroffers. The sellers will tell the buyers what they want to hear, but the truth is that the merchandise often consists of cheap fakes, rather than what the seller claims. Deceit is built into the system.
This practice provides the background for Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 2:17. He says that he does not peddle the Word of God but instead speaks with sincerity. This is the only place in the NT where the word peddling occurs. It describes a merchant who is playing tricks on his customer through false or deceptive practices. In the OT, Isa 1:22 employs a similar metaphor by describing a dishonest wine merchant who dilutes his wine with water. These business practices were done in order to make the most profit.
Paul says that he doesn’t deal that way; instead, he is sincere, which means that he has pure motives. In 2 Cor 4:2, Paul expands on this idea. He says that he is not crafty when he teaches the Scriptures. He does not deal deceitfully. He does not tell people what they want to hear, but speaks the truth.
If we closely read a book like 2 Corinthians, we can understand why Paul speaks this way. Paul taught that Gentiles did not have to follow the Law of Moses, be circumcised, or avoid the foods prohibited in the Law. These Gentiles did not have to keep the Jewish religious feasts or monetarily support the temple in Jerusalem.
Paul’s opponents accused him of being a huckster—of peddling God’s Word. They claimed that he was just telling people what they wanted to hear. He was tricking them in order to get their money or their applause, or to make more disciples. Paul, they charged, was simply trying to make a sale. He would water down his message if the situation called for it.
The truth was that when he taught the Word of God, Paul did not act like a dishonest merchant in the marketplace. But he could have. Any believer can. We need to be aware of the temptation.
As believers, we can desire the approval of man. We can desire successful and growing ministries. The love of money is always a temptation.
We might conclude that we can water down the teaching of God’s Word in order to obtain these things. If one group of people is not offended by certain truths in the Scriptures, we will teach those truths. But if another group is offended by the same truths, we‘ll not mention them. If we fear that we might lose monetary support by boldly proclaiming the teachings of the Word, we might decide to teach something else. It is easy to fall into that trap. We can convince ourselves that the ends justify the means. Our thinking might go something like this: If people will listen to us when we tell them what they want to hear about less significant things, this will give us the opportunity to win them over, and they will then listen when we speak of really important things. If we have a prosperous ministry, we can reach more people. Such temptations make it easy to justify peddling the Word of God.
I have seen this in my travels for GES. I have talked with American missionaries who say they change their message depending on the country they are in. I have had missionaries tell me that they withhold certain teachings if it will impact donations. Some have even said they will water down the message of eternal life by faith alone in Christ, which can never be lost, if the place where they minister finds such doctrine offensive. Missionaries can act that way. So can we in our interactions with others.
Whatever justification might be given, we must call such things what they are: peddling the Word of God. If you visit a foreign marketplace, you might find the huckster interactions quaint, funny, or interesting. However, we can be certain that when we claim to be teaching the Scriptures, God does not find it amusing if we do so in that manner.
