In most churches, the pastor’s salary takes up roughly 50% of the church’s budget.

Scriptures:

Matthew 7: ¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are swindling (ἅρπαξ) wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Luke 18:11-13: ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers (ἅρπαξ), unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’”

1 Corinthians 5:9-11: ⁹ I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or swindlers (ἅρπαξ), or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler (ἅρπαξ)—not even to eat with such a person.

1 Corinthians 6:7-10: ⁷ Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? ⁸ No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! ⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers (ἅρπαξ) will inherit the kingdom of God.

Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion (ἅρπαξ) and self-indulgence.”

Mark 9:35: And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.

Matthew 8:19-22: Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Luke 12:29-34: ²⁹ “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. ³⁰ For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹ But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. ³² “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 19:8-9: Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” ⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; ¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke 16:9-15: ⁹ “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” ¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

John 2:13-17: ¹³ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” ¹⁷ Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

John 10: ⁷ So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³ He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

[Jesus says that a hired shepherd who gets paid with money doesn’t truly care about the sheep, but abandons them.]

Matthew 26:6-13: ⁶ And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, ⁷ a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. ⁸ But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? ⁹ For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” ¹⁰ But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. ¹¹ For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me with you. ¹² For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. ¹³ Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Mark 7:5-13 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” 6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” 9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Matthew 10:8-10: ⁸ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. ⁹ Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, ¹⁰ nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food (τροφή). ¹¹ “Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. ¹² And when you go into a household, greet it.

Luke 10:7: And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.

Acts 3:6: Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

1 Timothy 6:3-11: ³ If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, ⁴ he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, ⁵ useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. ⁶ Now godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ⁸ And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. ⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. ¹¹ But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Acts 20:33-35:  ³³ I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. ³⁴ Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me. ³⁵ I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

1 Thessalonians 2:8-9: ⁸ So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. ⁹ For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-12: ⁶ But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. ⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; ⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, ⁹ not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. ¹¹ For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. ¹² Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

[The pastor may eat if he labors in preaching the word, not preaching for 15 minutes a week. Even then, he gets food, not a fortune.]

Ephesians 4:28: Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

1 Corinthians 4:11-13: ¹¹ To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, ¹² and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

2 Corinthians 11:25-28: ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— ²⁸ besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.

Acts 3:6: ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

1 Peter 5: ² Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly; ³ nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; ⁴ and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

1 Timothy 3:3-9: 3 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ² A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for shameful gain, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵ (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); ⁶ not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁷ Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. ⁸ Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for shameful gain, ⁹ holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

Titus 1: ⁷ For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for shameful gain, ⁸ but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, ⁹ holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

Titus 1: ¹⁰ For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, ¹¹ whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of shameful gain.

2 Corinthians 12: ¹¹ I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. ¹² Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. ¹³ For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong! ¹⁴ Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵ And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. ¹⁶ But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning! ¹⁷ Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?

Titus 3:14: And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.

2 Corinthians 2:17: For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

[Some of these protestant pastors will say, “Well, we don’t have to be as extreme as Paul!” No, but you aren’t just barely missing the mark here. You’re the complete opposite of Paul! You’re the polar extreme on the other side of Paul! You follow neither Paul’s example nor Christ’s! You follow the example of no bishop in church history! You only follow the example of heretics.]

2 Peter 2:3: By their greed they will exploit you financially, using deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

2 Peter 2:13-16: They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, ¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. ¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; ¹⁶ but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

Micah 3:2-3: Her leaders judge for gifts, and her priests answer for a fee, and her prophets divine for money; and they rest upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No evil shall come upon us.” Therefore on account of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house [of the Lord] shall be as a thicket of the forest.

Isaiah 55:1: You that thirst, go to the water; and as many as have no money, go and buy, and drink wine and milk without money or price.

Isaiah 56:10-12 – “His watchmen are all blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. And the dogs are greedy, they know not satisfaction; and they are shepherds that know no understanding; they all look to their own ways, every one for his own gain, from his own quarter. Come, say they, I will take wine; and let us fill ourselves with strong drink: and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.”

Ezekiel 34:1-4 – 1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel! Prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatted sheep, but you do not feed the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, nor healed the sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back the straying, nor sought the lost; but with harshness you have ruled them.

Matthew 10:8 – “Freely you have received, freely give.”

Acts 8:20 – “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!”

John 2:16 – “And He said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’”

1 Timothy 6:3-5 – If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

4 Kingdoms 5:13-16, 19-27 – Then his servants approached and said to him, “If the prophet were to tell you to do something great, would you not complete it? But here the prophet said to you, ‘Bathe and be clean.’” So Naaman went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to Elisha’s instruction, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed. Then he, with all his aides, returned to Elisha and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I have come to know that in all the earth there is no God except the God of Israel. Now accept the gift of your servant.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” Again he urged him to take it, but he refused. ….. 19 Then Elisha said to Naaman, “Go in peace.” He departed from him but a short distance. Then Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, said, “Behold, my master spared this Syrian Naaman, yet from his hand he received nothing of what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something of his.” So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he turned from the chariot to meet him. And Gehazi said, “Peace. My master sent me saying, ‘Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets came to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.’” Then Naaman said, “Take two talents of silver.” So Gehazi took two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants. They left and carried them on ahead of him. As they entered into the darkness, he took them from their hands and stored them in the house. He then dismissed the men. Now he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, “From where have you come, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant did not go anywhere.” Then Elisha said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? And now you received the silver and the garments, and it shall happen that you shall receive from him gardens and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men-servants and handmaidens. And the leprosy of Naaman shall also cling to you and your seed forever.” Thus he went out from his presence leprous, like snow. 

[Hilarion in Jeromes book The Life of St. Hilarion uses this story and ties it with Simon Magus]

Jeremiah 6:13-14 – From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.

Micah 3:11 – Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.”

Revelation 22:17 – And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Matthew 21:12-13 – Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

2 Corinthians 4:2 – But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

Twisting Scriptures (backfires):

Romans 15:25-27: ²⁵ But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. ²⁶ For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. ²⁷ It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.

Philippians 4:14-16: ¹⁴ Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress. ¹⁵ Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. ¹⁶ For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities.

1 Corinthians 9:6-19: ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? ⁷ Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? ⁸ Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? ⁹ For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? ¹⁰ Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? ¹² If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. ¹³ Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? ¹⁴ Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. ¹⁵ But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. ¹⁸ What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel. 19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;

2 Corinthians 11:7-11: ⁷ Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? ⁸ I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. ⁹ And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. ¹⁰ As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!

1 Timothy 5:17-18: Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

Luke 8:1-3: Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, ² and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, ³ and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

Matthew 25: “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Galatians 6:6: Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Church Fathers:

The Didache:

Let every apostle that comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not remain except one day; but if there be need, also the next; but if he remain three days, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle goes away, let him take nothing but bread until he lodges; but if he ask money, he is a false prophet. … But whoever says in the Spirit, Give me money, or something else, you shall not listen to him; but if he says to you to give for others’ sake who are in need, let no one judge him. – The Didache, chapter 11

Therefore, appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proven; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers. – The Didache, chapter 15

The Apostle Peter:

Wherefore, let no one of you longer dissemble nor look backwards, but willingly approach to the Gospel of the kingdom of God. Let not the poor man say, “When I shall become rich, then I shall be converted.” God does not ask money of you, but a merciful heart and a pious mind. … You indeed do well to make haste; but He who is eternal, and from whom nothing is secret, inasmuch as He is without end, in the same proportion is His patience extended, and He regards not the swiftness of vengeance, but the causes of salvation. For He is not so much pleased with the death as with the conversion of a sinner [Ezekiel 18:33]. Therefore, in short, He has bestowed upon men holy baptism, to which, if any one makes haste to come, and for the future remains without stain, all his sins are thenceforth blotted out, which were committed in the time of his ignorance. — Peter, Recognitions of Clement, Book 10, chapter 45-49

Clement of Rome:

That the harvest is great, but the workmen are few, this also is well-known and manifest. Let us, therefore, ask of the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth workmen into the harvest (Matthew 9:37-38); such workmen as shall skilfully dispense the word of truth; workmen who shall not be ashamed; faithful workmen; workmen who shall be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14); workmen who work not for the food that perishes, but for that food which abides unto life eternal (John 6:27); workmen who shall be such as the apostles; workmen who imitate the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; who are concerned for the salvation of men; not hireling (John 10:12-13) workmen; not workmen to whom the fear of God and righteousness appear to be gain; not workmen who serve their belly; not workmen who with fair speeches and pleasant words mislead the hearts of the innocent (Romans 16:18); not workmen who imitate the children of light, while they are not light but darkness—men whose end is destruction (Philippians 3:19); not workmen who practise iniquity and wickedness and fraud; not crafty workmen (2 Corinthians 11:13); not workmen drunken and faithless; nor workmen who traffic in Christ; not misleaders; not lovers of money; not malevolent. – Clement of Rome, First Epistle on Virginity, Chapter 13

The Shepherd of Hermas:

“So how, sir,” I asked, “will a person know which of them is a prophet and which is a false prophet?” “Hear,” he said, “about both the prophets, and on the basis of what I am going to tell you, you can test the prophet and false prophet. Determine the man who has the divine spirit by his life. …… “Now hear,” he said, “about the earthly and worthless spirit, which has no power but is foolish. In the first place, that person who seems to have a spirit exalts himself and wants to have a seat of honor, and immediately is arrogant and shameless and talkative and well-acquainted with many luxuries and with many other pleasures, and receives money for his prophesying, and if he does not receive money, he does not prophesy. Now, can a divine spirit receive money and still prophesy? It is impossible for a prophet of God to do this, but the spirit of such prophets who do so is earthly.” – The Shepherd of Hermas, Book 2, Commandment 11

Irenaeus:

“3. Since, therefore, there exist among them error and misleading influences, and magical illusions are impiously wrought in the sight of men; but in the Church, sympathy, and compassion, and steadfastness, and truth, for the aid and encouragement of mankind, are not only displayed without fee or reward, but we ourselves lay out for the benefit of others our own means; and inasmuch as those who are cured very frequently do not possess the things which they require, they receive them from us—[since such is the case,] these men are in this way undoubtedly proved to be utter aliens from the divine nature, the beneficence of God, and all spiritual excellence” – Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, chapter 31

“It is not possible to name the number of the gifts which the Church, [scattered] throughout the whole world, has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and which she exerts day by day for the benefit of the Gentiles, neither practising deception upon any, nor taking any reward Acts 8:9, 18 from them [on account of such miraculous interpositions]. For as she has received freely Matthew 10:8 from God, freely also does she minister [to others].” – Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, chapter 32

Clement of Alexandria: 

“Thence praise-worthy works descend to us, and fly with us on the wing of truth. This is the inheritance with which the eternal covenant of God invests us, conveying the everlasting gift of grace; and thus our loving Father — the true Father — ceases not to exhort, admonish, train, love us. For He ceases not to save, and advises the best course: Become righteous, says the Lord. You that thirst, come to the water; and you that have no money, come, and buy and drink without money. He invites to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, all but crying out and saying, The land I give you, and the sea, my child, and heaven too; and all the living creatures in them I freely bestow upon you. Only, O child, thirst for your Father; God shall be revealed to you without price; the truth is not made merchandise of“- Clement of Alexandria, An Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 10

Tertullian:

Well, but how great is the force of perversity for so shaking the faith or entirely preventing its reception, that it impugns it on the very principles of which the faith consists! There is absolutely nothing which makes men’s minds more obdurate than the simplicity of the divine works which are visible in the act, when compared with the grandeur which is promised thereto in the effect; so that from the very fact, that with so great simplicity, without pomp, without any considerable novelty of preparation, finally, without expense, a man is dipped in water, and amid the utterance of some few words, is sprinkled, and then rises again, not much (or not at all) the cleaner, the consequent attainment of eternity is esteemed the more incredible. I am a deceiver if, on the contrary, it is not from their circumstance, and preparation, and expense, that idols’ solemnities or mysteries get their credit and authority built up. Oh, miserable incredulity, which quite denies to God His own properties, simplicity and power! – Tertullian, On Baptism, chapter 2

The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety’s deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God’s Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. – Tertullian, The Apology, chapter 39

“In the case of the gods, on the other hand, the sacredness is great in proportion to the tribute which they yield; nay, the more sacred is a god, the larger is the tax he pays. Majesty is made a source of gain. Religion goes about the taverns begging. You demand a price for the privilege of standing on temple ground, for access to the sacred services; there is no gratuitous knowledge of your divinities permitted — you must buy their favours with a price. What honours in any way do you render to them that you do not render to the dead? You have temples in the one case just as in the other; you have altars in the one case as in the other. Their statues have the same dress, the same insignia. As the dead man had his age, his art, his occupation, so it is with the deity.” – Tertullian, The Apology, chapter 13

Hippolytus of Rome:

A testimony of Saint Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, from his commentary on Ruth: Boaz says to Ruth, “You shall dip your morsel in the vinegar” (Ruth 2:14), and, “It shall be, if you thirst, that you shall go to the vessels and drink from whatever the young men draw” (Ruth 2:9). For the Church first had to be taught the Passion, and then in this way receive baptism through the apostles. For the “young men” would be none other than the prophets and apostles, who, having become “chosen and precious vessels,” drew from the ever-flowing fountain the drink of immortality, so that, having received the grace that comes from Christ, they might be able to give drink to the thirsty nations. As Isaiah also says, “You who thirst, go to the water; and all who have no money, go, buy freely without price” (Isaiah 55:1). For the faithful, when they approach the Gospel, receive grace from God freely, not purchasing it with money, as some of the foolish now attempt to do, bringing “a judgment of death” upon both themselves and those who receive from them. For they did not understand what was said by the blessed Peter to Simon: “Your silver be with you unto destruction, because you wished to acquire the grace and gift of God with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter” (Acts 8:20–21). Therefore, all who attempt either to buy or to sell cannot “have a part with Christ,” since they are not “faithful stewards,” but Christ-sellers, selling their own Master every day. Judas, having sold Christ once, “fell headlong and burst open in the middle” (Acts 1:18); but these, doing worse than Judas, suppose that they will “escape the judgment of God” (Romans 2:3). – Hippolytus of Rome, Fragment from Commentary on Ruth (Source: Achelis, H. (ed.), Hippolyt’s kleinere exegetische und homiletische Schriften [Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 1.2] Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897: page 120.)

Cyprian:

Those selling doves—that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit—are cast out of the temple. — He entered the temple, that is, the Church, by the entrance of the preaching delivered by Himself. And first, by rightful authority, He expels from it all the vices of the priestly ministry: for He had commanded that all things freely received should be freely given, and liberty in the giving of gifts should admit neither the buying nor selling of anything through priestly corruption. He overturned, moreover, the seats—especially of those selling doves. And what dignity is there in the marketplace of doves? Or what privilege is reserved in the trade of these birds, that those selling them should claim for themselves the honor of seats? But we always remind that the deeper meaning of words must be discerned in such signs. In the dove, according to the pattern of prophecy, we understand the Holy Spirit; in the seat, the office of the priesthood. Therefore, He overthrows the seats of those who treat the gift of the Holy Spirit as merchandise—those for whom the ministry committed by God has become a matter of commerce—recalling the authority of His warning, which is held in the prophet. For it is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. But it must not be thought that the Jews in the synagogue were truly able either to sell or to buy the Holy Spirit. For they had nothing whereby they might sell, nor was there anything that could be bought: but the words concern a foreshadowing of things to come, indicating that the vices of the Church must be purged at the very coming of the Lord’s glory. — Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on Matthew, chapter 21, section 4. PL 9.1036C–1037A

Apollonius of Ephesus:

1. As the so-called Phrygian heresy was still flourishing in Phrygia in his time, Apollonius also, an ecclesiastical writer, undertook its refutation, and wrote a special work against it, correcting in detail the false prophecies current among them and reproving the life of the founders of the heresy. But hear his own words respecting Montanus: 2. His actions and his teaching show who this new teacher is. This is he who taught the dissolution of marriage; who made laws for fasting; who named Pepuza and Tymion, small towns in Phrygia, Jerusalem, wishing to gather people to them from all directions; who appointed collectors of money; who contrived the receiving of gifts under the name of offerings; who provided salaries for those who preached his doctrine, that its teaching might prevail through gluttony. 3. He writes thus concerning Montanus; and a little farther on he writes as follows concerning his prophetesses: We show that these first prophetesses themselves, as soon as they were filled with the Spirit, abandoned their husbands. How falsely therefore they speak who call Prisca a virgin.

4. Afterwards he says: Does not all Scripture seem to you to forbid a prophet to receive gifts and money? When therefore I see the prophetess receiving gold and silver and costly garments, how can I avoid reproving her? 5. And again a little farther on he speaks thus concerning one of their confessors: So also Themiso, who was clothed with plausible covetousness, could not endure the sign of confession, but threw aside bonds for an abundance of possessions. Yet, though he should have been humble on this account, he dared to boast as a martyr, and in imitation of the apostle, he wrote a certain catholic epistle, to instruct those whose faith was better than his own, contending for words of empty sound, and blaspheming against the Lord and the apostles and the holy Church.

6. And again concerning others of those honored among them as martyrs, he writes as follows: Not to speak of many, let the prophetess herself tell us of Alexander, who called himself a martyr, with whom she is in the habit of banqueting, and who is worshipped by many. We need not mention his robberies and other daring deeds for which he was punished, but the archives contain them. 7. Which of these forgives the sins of the other? Does the prophet the robberies of the martyr, or the martyr the covetousness of the prophet? For although the Lord said, ‘Provide neither gold, nor silver, neither two coats’ (Matthew 10:9-10), these men, in complete opposition, transgress in respect to the possession of the forbidden things. For we will show that those whom they call prophets and martyrs gather their gain not only from rich men, but also from the poor, and orphans, and widows. 8. But if they are confident, let them stand up and discuss these matters, that if convicted they may hereafter cease transgressing. For the fruits of the prophet must be tried; ‘for the tree is known by its fruit’ (Matthew 12:33).

10. Exposing him, through him we expose also the pretense of the prophet. We could show the same thing of many others. But if they are confident, let them endure the test. 11. Again, in another part of his work he speaks as follows of the prophets of whom they boast: If they deny that their prophets have received gifts, let them acknowledge this: that if they are convicted of receiving them, they are not prophets. And we will bring a multitude of proofs of this. But it is necessary that all the fruits of a prophet should be examined. Tell me, does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet stain his eyelids? Does a prophet delight in adornment? Does a prophet play with tables and dice? Does a prophet lend on usury? Let them confess whether these things are lawful or not; but I will show that they have been done by them. 12. This same Apollonius states in the same work that, at the time of his writing, it was the fortieth year since Montanus had begun his pretended prophecy.  – Apollonius, bishop of Ephesus, cited by Eusebius, Church History, book 5, chapter XVIII

Athanasius of Alexandria:

Such were the iniquities practised by the Arians; and as to their further deeds of impiety, who could hear the account of them without shuddering? They had caused these venerable old men and aged Bishops to be sent into banishment; they now appointed in their stead profligate heathen youths, whom they thought to raise at once to the highest dignity, though they were not even Catechumens. And others who were accused of bigamy , and even of worse crimes, they nominated Bishops on account of the wealth and civil power which they possessed, and sent them out as it were from a market, upon their giving them gold. And now more dreadful calamities befell the people. For when they rejected these mercenary dependents of the Arians, so alien from themselves, they were scourged, they were proscribed, they were shut up in prison by the General (who did all this readily, being a Manichee), in order that they might no longer seek after their own Bishops, but be forced to accept those whom they abominated, men who were now guilty of the same mockeries as they had before practised among their idols. – Athanasius, History of the Arians, Part 7, Section 73

This was an easy proposition for the Meletians to comply with; for the greater part, or rather the whole of them, have never had a religious education, nor are they acquainted with the ‘sound faith ‘ in Christ, nor do they know at all what Christianity is, or what writings we Christians possess. For having come out, some of them from the worship of idols, and others from the senate, or from the first civil offices, for the sake of the miserable exemption from duty and for the patronage they gained, and having bribed the Meletians who preceded them, they have been advanced to this dignity even before they had been under instruction. And even if they pretended to have been such, yet what kind of instruction is to be obtained among the Meletians? But indeed without even pretending to be under instruction, they came at once, and immediately were called Bishops, just as children receive a name. Being then persons of this description, they thought the thing of no great consequence, nor even supposed that piety was different from impiety. – Athanasius, History of the Arians, Part 8, Section 78

Apostolic Constitutions:

For when Philip our fellow-apostle, by the gift of the Lord and the energy of His Spirit, performed the miracles of healing in Samaria, insomuch that the Samaritans were affected, and embraced the faith of the God of the universe, and of the Lord Jesus, and were baptized into His name; nay, and that Simon himself, when he saw the signs and wonders which were done without any magic ceremonies, fell into admiration, and believed, and was baptized, and continued in fasting and prayer — we heard of the grace of God which was among the Samaritans by Philip, and came down to them; and enlarging much upon the word of doctrine, we laid our hands upon all that were baptized, and we conferred upon them the participation of the Spirit. But when Simon saw that the Spirit was given to believers by the imposition of our hands, he took money, and offered it to us, saying, Give me also the power, that on whomsoever I also shall lay my hand, he may receive the Holy Ghost; Acts 8:19 being desirous that as the devil deprived Adam by his tasting of the tree of that immortality which was promised him, so also that Simon might entice us by the receiving of money, and might thereby cut us off from the gift of God, that so by exchange we might sell to him for money the inestimable gift of the Spirit. But as we were all troubled at this offer, I Peter, with a fixed attention on that malicious serpent which was in him, said to Simon: Let your money go with you to perdition, because you have thought to purchase the gift of God with money. You have no part in this matter, nor lot in this faith; for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray to the Lord, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. But then Simon was terrified, and said: I entreat you, pray to the Lord for me, that none of those things which you have spoken come upon me. Acts 8:24 – Apostolic Constitutions, Book 6, section 2, chapter 7

Tyconius:

Didymus the Blind:

You yourselves know that in my needs and in the matters concerning me, these hands have served alongside me. In every way I showed you that by working hard one must help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, who Himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” [Acts 20:34-35] These things are said to those governing the Church, so that, in addition to the other things, they may abstain from receiving money, deciding to be imitators of the One speaking [to them]. For he indicates this inference next: “In every way I showed you that by working hard one must help the weak,” aiding them. And provision will be made for this, if through recollection the words of the Lord who has said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” should abide; hence, let giving be preferred by bishops. – Didymus the Blind (Source: A Fragment of Didymus the Blind in the Pandects of Nikon of the Black Mountain)

For indeed, in all the things previously said about the divine Spirit, nothing is found that belongs to creatures, nor was He ever counted together with the heavenly powers when it came to divine gift, or operation, or doxology with God 39.749 and the Father, and the Son. The things that do not belong to creatures clearly belong solely to God; and God is not a creature. But those who call Him a creature or a servant (for it is the same thing), and do not speak of Him as God and glorify Him, are cast out together with the slavery of Hagar and are condemned with Ham, hearing: “Cursed is Ham; he shall be a servant to his brothers.” And they are listed together with Simon the Magician, who thought he could purchase with silver the unbuyable gift of the Holy Spirit; and through the book of the Acts of the Apostles they hear: “For you have no part or share in this matter.” — Didymus the Blind, On the Trinity, Book 2, chapter 25 (PG 39.748, 749)

Basil the Great:

Ambrose of Milan:

But riches are hardly to be found among the saints of the Lord, so as to become objects of contempt to them. – Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy, Book 2, Chapter 25

136. It is a very great incentive to mercy to share in others’ misfortunes, to help the needs of others as far as our means allow, and sometimes even beyond them. For it is better for mercy’s sake to take up a case, or to suffer odium rather than to show hard feeling. So I once brought odium on myself because I broke up the sacred vessels to redeem captives — a fact that could displease the Arians. Not that it displeased them as an act, but as being a thing in which they could take hold of something for which to blame me. Who can be so hard, cruel, iron-hearted, as to be displeased because a man is redeemed from death, or a woman from barbarian impurities, things that are worse than death, or boys and girls and infants from the pollution of idols, whereby through fear of death they were defiled? 137. Although we did not act thus without good reason, yet we have followed it up among the people so as to confess and to add again and again that it was far better to preserve souls than gold for the Lord. For He Who sent the apostles without gold Matthew 10:9 also brought together the churches without gold. The Church has gold, not to store up, but to lay out, and to spend on those who need. What necessity is there to guard what is of no good? Do we not know how much gold and silver the Assyrians took out of the temple of the Lord? Is it not much better that the priests should melt it down for the sustenance of the poor, if other supplies fail, than that a sacrilegious enemy should carry it off and defile it? Would not the Lord Himself say: Why did you suffer so many needy to die of hunger? Surely you had gold? Thou should have given them sustenance. Why are so many captives brought on the slave market, and why are so many unredeemed left to be slain by the enemy? It had been better to preserve living vessels than gold ones. 138. To this no answer could be given. For what would you say: I feared that the temple of God would need its ornaments? He would answer: The sacraments need not gold, nor are they proper to gold only — for they are not bought with gold. The glory of the sacraments is the redemption of captives. Truly they are precious vessels, for they redeem men from death. That, indeed, is the true treasure of the Lord which effects what His blood effected. Then, indeed, is the vessel of the Lord’s blood recognized, when one sees in either redemption, so that the chalice redeems from the enemy those whom His blood redeemed from sin. How beautifully it is said, when long lines of captives are redeemed by the Church: These Christ has redeemed. Behold the gold that can be tried, behold the useful gold, behold the gold of Christ which frees from death, behold the gold whereby modesty is redeemed and chastity is preserved. 139. These, then, I preferred to hand over to you as free men, rather than to store up the gold. This crowd of captives, this company surely is more glorious than the sight of cups. The gold of the Redeemer ought to contribute to this work so as to redeem those in danger. I recognize the fact that the blood of Christ not only glows in cups of gold, but also by the office of redemption has impressed upon them the power of the divine operation. 140. Such gold the holy martyr Lawrence preserved for the Lord. For when the treasures of the Church were demanded from him, he promised that he would show them. On the following day he brought the poor together. When asked where the treasures were which he had promised, he pointed to the poor, saying: “These are the treasures of the Church.” And truly they were treasures, in whom Christ lives, in whom there is faith in Him. So, too, the Apostle says: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” 2 Corinthians 4:7 What greater treasures has Christ than those in whom He says He Himself lives? For thus it is written: “I was hungry and you gave Me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in.” Matthew 25:35 And again: “What you did to one of these, you did it unto Me.” Matthew 25:40 What better treasures has Jesus than those in which He loves to be seen? 141. These treasures Lawrence pointed out, and prevailed, for the persecutors could not take them away. Jehoiachim, who preserved his gold during the siege and spent it not in providing food, saw his gold carried off, and himself led into captivity. Lawrence, who preferred to spend the gold of the Church on the poor, rather than to keep it in hand for the persecutor, received the sacred crown of martyrdom for the unique and deep-sighted vigour of his meaning. Or was it perhaps said to holy Lawrence: “Thou should not spend the treasures of the Church, or sell the sacred vessels”? 142. It is necessary that every one should fill this office, with genuine good faith and clear-sighted forethought. If any one derives profit from it for himself it is a crime, but if he spends the treasures on the poor, or redeems captives, he shows mercy. For no one can say: Why does the poor man live? None can complain that captives are redeemed, none can find fault because a temple of the Lord is built, none can be angry because a plot of ground has been enlarged for the burial of the bodies of the faithful, none can be vexed because in the tombs of the Christians there is rest for the dead. In these three ways it is allowable to break up, melt down, or sell even the sacred vessels of the Church. 143. It is necessary to see that the mystic cup does not go out of the Church, lest the service of the sacred chalice should be turned over to base uses. Therefore vessels were first sought for in the Church which had not been consecrated to such holy uses. Then broken up and afterwards melted down, they were given to the poor in small payments, and were also used for the ransom of captives. But if new vessels fail, or those which never seem to have been used for such a holy purpose, then, as I have already said, I think that all might be put to this use without irreverence. – Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy, Book 2, Chapter 28.

51. Why is one commanded to be submerged in the mystic number? Why is the river Jordan chosen? Isn’t it true that the good rivers of Abana and Pharphar in Damascus are preferred over the Jordan (Ibid., 12)? But in anger, He preferred these; meditating, He chose Jordan. For anger does not know mystery, faith knows. Learn the grace of saving baptism: one who was submerged as a leper emerges as faithful. Learn to recognize the spiritual sacraments: bodily healing is sought, spiritual transformation is acquired. The flesh is washed, the affections are washed. For I see that not only the leprosy of the body, but also that of the mind, has been cleansed; since, after baptism, the filth of former error being washed away, he denies that he will offer sacrifices to foreign gods, which he had promised to the Lord. Also learn the appropriate precepts of virtue: he who refuses rewards has proven his faith. Learn from both the teaching and the deeds what you should follow. You have the commandment of the Lord, the example of the prophet, to receive freely, to give freely: not to sell the ministry, but to offer it (Matthew 10:8). For the grace of God is not assessed by a price, nor is profit sought in the sacraments, but obedience to the priest. 53. However, it is not enough if you do not seek profit for yourself: your hands must also be restrained for the sake of your family. And we do not demand only this, that you alone keep yourself chaste and undefiled. For the Apostle did not say, ‘yourself alone’ but ‘keep yourself chaste’ (I Tim. V, 22). Therefore, not only your chastity from these kinds of business dealings is sought, but also the chastity of your household. For it is necessary that a blameless priest be appointed to his own household, having obedient children, with all chastity. But if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for the Church of God? Therefore, instruct your family, encourage them, and watch over them. And if a servant deceives you (for I do not consider human ability), let him be rejected as an example of prophecy. Quickly, a shameful leprosy follows a wicked reward, and ill-gotten money stains both the body and the soul. You have received, it says, money, and you will possess from it land, vineyards, olive groves, and flocks. And Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and your descendants forever. (4 Kingdoms 5:13-27) You see that the succession of the doer is damned by the heir. For the guilt of the sold mystery is inexpiable, and the heavenly punishment of grace passes to future generations. Finally, the Moabites and others will not enter into the Church of God until the third and fourth generation (Deut. XXIII, 3): that is, until (to interpret it more simply) the succession of the guilt of the doers of many generations is abolished. 54. But when those who have erred in the error of idolatry against God seem to be punished unto the fourth generation: surely, the sentence by which the offspring of Gehazi is condemned by prophetic authority forever (4 Kingdoms 5:13-27) for the desire of possession seems to be harsh, especially since our Lord Jesus Christ has granted forgiveness of sins to all through the regeneration of baptism; unless you understand it as the seed of vices rather than of lineage. For just as those who are children of the promise are regarded as good seed, so also those who are children of error are regarded as bad seed. For even the Jews, not by the succession of the flesh but by their crimes, are children of the devil. Therefore, all the greedy, all the covetous, possess leprosy along with their riches; and with ill-gotten wages, they have accumulated not so much an inheritance of wealth as a treasury of crimes, deserving eternal punishment and short-lived gain. For since riches are temporary, the punishment is eternal; because neither the greedy, nor the drunkard, nor the idolater will inherit the kingdom of God. – Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on Luke 4:27, Book 4, section 51-54

As regards the literal sense of turning over the chairs of the sellers of doves, I am at a loss to understand why our Lord should do this. The chairs occupied by people who sell birds in the market place can hardly be looked on as conferring any dignity on the holder! Do the doves, then, confer some sort of dignity? One would not think so. However, if you consider the Lord’s Baptism – when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a Dove – you will hear something: we are being warned, by the example of these vendors chased from the Temple, that those who traffic in the grace of the Holy Spirit should have no place in the Church of God. For, “freely you have received”, says our Lord, “and freely you should give” (Mt 10:8). Simon thought he could buy with money the gift of sanctification. Peter replied to him: “Keep your money to yourself, to perish with you: because you thought God’s gift could be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20). — Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on Luke, Book 9, chapter 19

Happy is she who out of her treasure brings forth the perfect image of the King. Your treasure is wisdom, your treasure is chastity and righteousness, your treasure is a good understanding, such as was that treasure from which the Magi, when they worshipped the Lord, brought forth gold, frankincense, and myrrh; Matthew 2:11 setting forth by gold the power of a king, venerating God by the frankincense, and by myrrh acknowledging the resurrection of the body. You too have this treasure if you look into yourself: For we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). You have gold which you can give, for God does not exact of you the precious gift of shining metal, but that gold which at the day of judgment the fire shall be unable to consume. Nor does He require precious gifts, but the good odour of faith, which the altars of your heart send forth and the disposition of a religious mind exhales. – Ambrose, Concerning Widows, chapter 5

Palladius:

John Chrysostom:

Let us cleanse the eyes of our souls of all filth. For just as filth and mud blind the eyes of the flesh, so too worldly concerns and discussions about moneymaking can dull the hearing of our minds more effectively than any filth, and not only corrupt them but do wicked things as well. – John Chrysostom, On James 3:16, From the Catena

“For we are not as the rest, which corrupt the word of God.” 2 Corinthians 2:17 ‘For even if we use great sounding words, yet we declared nothing to be our own that we achieved, but all Christ’s. For we will not imitate the false apostles; the men who say that most is of themselves. For this is “to corrupt,” when one adulterates the wine; when one sells for money what he ought to give freely. For he seems to me to be here both taunting them in respect to money, and again hinting at the very thing I have said, as that they mingle their own things with God’s; which is the charge Isaiah brings when he said, “Your vintners mingle wine with water:” Isaiah 1:22 for even if this was said of wine, yet one would not err in expounding it of doctrine too. “But we,” says he, “do not so: but such as we have been entrusted with, such do we offer you, pouring out the word undiluted.” Whence he added, “But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” – John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on Second Corinthians

“Do you not know that those who perform the sacred services eat from the temple, and those who attend continually at the altar share with the altar? So also the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13–14). He is very earnest to show that receiving support is not forbidden. Therefore, after saying so many things before, he was not satisfied, but goes on also to the law, bringing forward an example more fitting than the former one. For it was not the same thing to bring oxen into the discussion and to bring forward a law expressly laid down concerning priests. And observe here too, I ask you, the wisdom of Paul, how magnificently he mentions the matter. For he did not say, Those who perform the sacred services receive from those who make the offerings, but what? “They eat from the temple,” so that neither those who receive may be reproached, nor those who provide become puffed up. Therefore he has also set the next phrase in this way. For here too he did not say, Those who attend continually at the altar receive from those who offer the sacrifices, but, They share with the altar. For what was offered no longer belonged to those who offered it, but to the temple and to the altar. And he did not say, They receive the holy things, but, “They eat from the temple,” again showing moderation, and that they ought neither to make a trade of it nor grow rich. And if he says, They share with the altar, he does not mean an equal distribution, but the consolation given to them as something owed. And yet the things belonging to the apostles were far greater. For there it was an honor, the priesthood; but here there were dangers and slaughters and murders. Therefore, far greater than all the other examples was the saying, “If we sowed spiritual things among you” (1 Corinthians 9:11). For when he says, We sowed, he shows the storms and dangers and plots and unspeakable evils which they endured while preaching. But even though the superiority was so great, he did not wish either to belittle the things of the Old Testament or to exalt his own; rather, he also restrains his own claim, grounding the superiority not in the dangers, but in the greatness of the gift. For he did not say, If we faced dangers or plots, but, “If we sowed spiritual things among you.” And he also exalts the things belonging to the priests, as far as possible, saying, “Those who perform the sacred services,” and, “those who attend continually at the altar,” wishing by these words to show their unceasing service and endurance. And by mentioning the priests among the Jews, both the Levites and the high priests, he indicated both ranks, both the lesser and the greater: the lesser by saying, “those who perform the sacred services,” and the greater by saying, “those who attend continually at the altar.” For not all had one and the same task assigned to them, but some had been entrusted with the lower duties, and others with the higher. Therefore, after including them all, lest anyone should say, What is it to us that you mention the Old Testament? Do you not know that this is a time for more perfect commandments?—after all that he set down what was strongest of all, saying: “So also the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). And here too he does not say that they are fed from men, but just as in the case of the priests he said, “from the temple” and “from the altar,” so here also, he says, “from the gospel”; and just as there he said, “eat,” so here, “live”—not to trade, nor to store up treasure. For, he says, “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10:7). – John Chrysostom, Homily 22 on 1 Corinthians, Migne PG 61.181-182

[The Priesthood is not for anybody to make a trade of it or grow rich]

“And, in general, prophecy is of four kinds: one is spiritual, another diabolical, another intermediate between these—some natural or technical kind—and a fourth is common and ordinary. Spiritual prophecy belongs primarily to the saints, though by dispensation it is also given to those who are not such, as to Nebuchadnezzar, and Pharaoh, and Balaam, and Caiaphas. Diabolical prophecy belongs only to the servants of that power. Such are the diviners by meal, and the Pythia who gives oracles through her frenzied possession, and the priestess of Dodona through the oak, and the divination by entrails, by flights of birds, by cries, by omens and sneezes, by chance sounds and thunder, by hands, by mice and weasels, by creakings and the ringing of the ears, by the twitchings of the body, by pebbles, rods, and bark, by the dead and by the belly, by names and stars, by bowls, and by ten thousand other such things. For divination through dreams also belongs among these, and among us too this happens through possession. But their foreknowledge comes not through virtue, as with us, but through some evil art. And they prophesy about money, diseases, and wars, with no virtue or vice at all being required of them; but among us prophecy is for the correction of character and for change to the better. And those predictions must necessarily come to pass, but ours not in every case. For what profit would there be in a prediction spoken for the benefit of souls, if the things foretold were bound to happen no matter what, allowing no change from what lies within our power? For when God foretells, He also sets forth the way of deliverance from evils, if we are willing to repent. And this is the profit of prophecy. And when men do not change, these things certainly come to pass. But those others, though by chance they may have spoken truly in some matters, in most things they failed. And they need instruments, and places, and seasons, and they speak for money; but God is free from all these things. Such, then, is the difference between divine prophecy and diabolical prophecy. Natural prophecy is that of irrational creatures; for swallows perceive the coming of winter from other swallows, and cranes from cranes, and ants likewise, as do hedgehogs and kingfishers, having this by nature. Technical prophecy is found among physicians, counselors, and pilots: some foretell sicknesses, others the remedies for them; some predict changes in the winds, and others by skill make a reasoned estimate of what is coming.” – John Chrysostom, Fragments on Jeremiah, Migne PG 64.741

For you are called faithful on this account, because you have faith in God, and yourself art entrusted from Him with righteousness, sanctification, cleansing of soul, adoption, the kingdom of heaven…. Do thou too who hast been called to a spiritual marriage, and to a royal banquet, consider what kind of raiment it would be right for you to buy, but rather there is not even need to purchase, yea he himself who calls you gives it you gratis, [i.e. without payment] in order that you may not be able to plead poverty in excuse. Keep, therefore, the raiment which you received. For if you lose it, you will not be able to use it henceforth, or to buy it. For this kind of raiment is nowhere sold. – John Chrysostom, Instructions to Catechumens, First Instruction, paragraph 2

“Therefore let no Judas approach this Table, and let no Simon approach it either; for both of these men perished through love of money (φιλαργυρίαν).” – John Chrysostom, Homily 50.4 on Matthew

So if anyone were seeking the high priesthood as though it were a position of protection and power, no one would readily accept it. But now, just as we pursue secular offices, so we pursue this one too. In order that we may be glorified, in order that we may be honored by men, we destroy ourselves before God. What profit is there in honor? How clearly it has been shown to be nothing! Whenever you desire the priesthood, set Gehenna before yourself; set before yourself the account you will have to give there; set before yourself the life free from such responsibilities; set before yourself the measure of the punishment. For even if you sin as a private person, you will not suffer anything like this; but if you sin while being a priest, you are ruined. …… I say these things not because I wish to shame you, but to restrain your desire. For with what conscience will you become a bishop if you have eagerly sought it, whether through yourself or through another? With what eyes will you look at the man who helped you? What defense will you have to make? For the one who is unwilling, who is compelled and does not want it, might have some defense—even though even he is very far from being altogether excused; nevertheless, on this account he has some defense. Consider what happened to Simon. For what difference does it make if you do not give money, but instead of money you flatter (κολακεύεις), arrange many things (κατασκευάζεις πολλά), and scheme (μηχανᾷ)? “May your silver be with you unto destruction” (Acts 8:20). He said this to that man, and He will say to these also: “May your effort be with you unto destruction, because you thought that the gift of God could be acquired through human maneuvering.” – John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on the Acts of the Apostles, Migne PG 60:40-41

Jerome:

And a scribe approached and said to him: “Teacher, I shall follow you wherever you go” And Jesus said to him: “Foxes have holes and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to recline his head” (Matthew 8:19-20). If this scribe of the Law, who knew only the dying letter, had said: “Lord, I shall follow you wherever you go,” he would not have been rebuffed by the Lord. But because he regarded him as a teacher, one among many, and because he was a man of letters (which is expressed more clearly in Greek by γραμματεύς) and not a spiritual hearer, therefore he has no place where Jesus can recline his head. But it is also shown to us why the scribe was repudiated, because when he saw the greatness of the signs, he wanted to follow the Savior in order to acquire a profit from the miraculous works. He was longing for the same thing that Simon Magus had also wanted to purchase from Peter. Such faith, then, is rightly condemned by the pronouncement of the Lord. It is said to him: Why do you desire to follow me for the sake of riches and worldly gain, when I am one of such great poverty that I do not even have a little shelter, and I do not even use my roof? – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 1

10.7–8. “Now as you go, preach, saying that the kingdom of heaven is at hand; cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give.” Lest it turn out that no one believe these rustic men, unschooled and illiterate, and lacking the charm of eloquence, who are promising the kingdom of heaven, he gives them power: “Cure the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” Thus the greatness of the signs will prove the greatness of the promises. And because spiritual gifts are always demeaned if wages intervene, he adds a condemnation of avarice: “Freely you have received, freely give.” I, your Teacher and Lord, gave this to you free of charge, and you are to give free of charge, lest the grace of the Gospel be corrupted. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 1

10.9–10. “Do not possess gold or silver or money in your belts, no wallet for the journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff in your hand; for the worker is worthy of his food.” This command is consistent with what he had previously said to the evangelizers of the truth: “Freely you have received, freely give.” For if they preach in such a way that they do not accept pay, the possession of gold and silver coins is superfluous. For if they had gold and silver, they would seem to be preaching not for the sake of human salvation but rather for the sake of gain. “Nor copper in your sacks.” He who decapitates wealth practically cuts off what is necessary for life. Thus the apostles, the teachers of the true religion, who were instructing that all things are governed by providence, show that they themselves take no thought for tomorrow. “No wallet for the journey.” By this precept he convicts the philosophers who are commonly called “Bactroperitae,” because, as despisers of the world, they considered all things as nothing and took the pantry along with them. We should have one set of clothes and should not keep another set for ourselves out of fear for the future. “Nor sandals.” Even Plato commands that the two extremities of the body are not to be covered nor should they be accustomed to the softness of cap and shoes. For when these are tough, the other parts are tougher. “Nor staff.” Since we have the Lord’s help, why should we seek the aid of a staff? He had sent the apostles to preach when they were stripped, so to speak, and unencumbered, so that the condition of the teachers seemed to be hard. Now he has tempered the severity of the command with the following judgment, saying: “The worker is worthy of his food.” Receive, he says, only as much as is necessary for yourselves by way of food and clothing. For this reason the apostle also repeats this: “Having food and clothes, we are content with these”; and in another passage: “But let the one who is instructed share in every good thing with him who instructs.” Thus as the disciples reap spiritual things, they make their teachers sharers in their own material things. This is done not out of greed but out of necessity. We have said these things at the level of historical interpretation. But there is a lesson at the level of the anagogical interpretation. He says that it is not permitted to teachers to possess gold, silver, and money in their belts. Now we often read “gold” for “thought,” “silver” for “speech,” and “copper” for “voice.” It is not permitted to us to receive these things from others. Rather, they should be possessed as things given from the Lord. Nor is it permitted to take up the disciplines of perverted teaching from the heretics and philosophers; nor to be weighed down by a secular paycheck, nor to be double- minded. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 1

But even the literal understanding edifies the hearer, namely, the point that the Lord was a man of such great poverty that he had no means of rendering the tribute for himself and the apostle. But if someone wants to object: But how is it that Judas carried money in a purse? We will respond that [Judas, at one time] thought it a crime to convert for private use what was meant for the poor, and likewise he set an example for us. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 3.17.27

In the first place, we need to know that in accordance with the commandments of the Law, especially on feast days, innumerable sacrifices of bulls, rams, and goats were offered in the Temple of the Lord, which was the most venerated in the whole world. This took place when the Jewish people gathered there from nearly all countries. The poor offered the chicks of doves and turtle-doves,275 lest they should be without a sacrifice. Very often it came to pass that those who had come from afar did not have victims to sacrifice. Therefore, the priests thought out how they could plunder the people. They sold all kinds of sacrificial animals to anyone who needed them, that these people in turn could sell to those who did not have any. Thus they would receive back again what had been bought. The frequent lack of resources of those who came caused this contrivance of theirs to spread more widely. For the people lacked money for their expenses. Not only did they not have sacrifices, but they lacked the means to buy even birds and common small gifts. Consequently [the priests] stationed money-changers who exchanged the money at a high rate. Now it had been commanded in the Law that no one should take interest.276 Yet there was no advantage in loaning money that brought no profit, since sometimes it lost its capital. So they thought out another technique to make bankers (collybistas) out of the money-changers. The Latin language does not express the proper meaning of this word. Among the Jews collyba refers to what we call desserts, or common little gifts, for example, chilled chickpea and raisins and fruit of various kinds. Well, since the collybistae, who had lent money at interest, were unable to receive interest, they received various kinds of things in place of interest. Their aim was to exact by means of these things that are purchased with coins that which was not lawful to exact in coin. As if Ezekiel had not warned in advance about this very thing when he said: “You will not receive interest and superabundance”!277 The Lord, seeing this kind of business, or rather thievery, going on in the Father’s house, was stirred up by the ardor of his spirit in accordance with what was written in the sixty-eighth Psalm: “The zeal of your house has consumed me.”278 He made a whip for himself from cords,279 and he ejected from the Temple a very great multitude of men, saying: “It is written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” For a man is a thief, and converts the Temple of God into a den of thieves, who seeks after financial gain from religion. His worship is not so much the worship of God as a pretext for business. – Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 3.21.12–13

“The zeal of your house has consumed me.” He made a whip for himself from cords, and he ejected from the Temple a very great multitude of men, saying: “It is written: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” For a man is a thief, and converts the Temple of God into a den of thieves, who seeks after financial gain from religion. His worship is not so much the worship of God as a pretext for business. The foregoing has been said as pertaining to the historical narrative. But according to the mystical understanding, Jesus daily enters the Temple of the Father and expels from his own Church all such bishops, priests, and deacons, as well as laymen and the whole crowd. He holds them all guilty of a single crime, namely, of selling and buying. For it is written: “Freely you have received, freely give.” He also overturns the tables of the money-changers. Observe that on account of the greed of the priests the altars of God are called the tables of the money-changers. And he overturns the seats of those selling doves, that is, of those who sell the grace of the Holy Spirit and who do everything in order to devour the people subject to them. Of these it is said: “Those who devour my people as they eat bread.” According to the simple understanding, the doves were not on the seats but in cages, unless perhaps the salesmen of the doves were sitting on the seats, which is completely absurd, since in the “seats” of the teachers, greater dignity is indicated. But this dignity is reduced to nothing since it is mixed with profits. Now let each one understand also concerning himself what we have said about the churches. For the apostle Paul says: “You are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.” May there not be business in the house of our heart. May there not be the commerce of selling and buying. May there not be desire for donations, lest an angry and stern Jesus enter and cleanse his own temple in no other way but with a whip that he administers in order to make a house of prayer out of a den of thieves and a house of business. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 3.21.12–13

“Those who should have converted to repentance and sought the risen Jesus persevere in their malice. They convert the money that had been given for the Temple’s use into a payment for a falsehood, just as they had previously given thirty pieces of silver to Judas the betrayer. Therefore, all who misappropriate the donations of the Temple and those that are given for church use for other matters by which they satisfy their own will, are like the scribes and priests who purchased a falsehood and who paid money for the Savior’s blood.” Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, Book 4.28.12-14

“But let him who is instructed in the word share with him who instructs him in all good things” (Galatians 6:6). … Above, he had commanded to the spiritual that they should instruct those who had been caught in some transgression in a spirit of gentleness and should carry the burdens of one another, fulfilling the law of Christ. Now, on the other hand, he commands those who were still rather weak, who were both disciples and fleshly, that just as they reap spiritual things from their teachers, so they should supply fleshly things to their teachers (1 Corinthians 9:11). For the teachers devote themselves completely to study and divine learning and are in need of the necessities of this life. Therefore, let what is written about the manna be done: “He [that gathered] much had nothing over, and he [that gathered] little had no lack” (Exodus 16:18). Now in the present passage the “good things” he is speaking of are food and clothing and other things that men count among their “goods” by common usage and common custom. “For having food and clothing, we are content with these” (1 Timothy 6:8). — Jerome, Commentary on Galatians 3.6.6

He who will be a bishop ought to be estranged too from being a seeker after “disgraceful gain” (Titus 1:7). For there are many who teach what is not fitting for the sake of “disgraceful gain,” who subvert entire households and think that piety is profit (1 Timothy 6:5). But according to Solomon “a modest acceptance is better with justice than much produce with iniquity” (Proverbs 16:8). And one should rather choose a good name with poverty than an evil name with riches (Proverbs 22:1). A bishop who desires to be an imitator of the apostle, “having food and clothing,” ought to be content with these alone. Those who serve at the altar live from the altar (1 Corinthians 9:13). They do not live, he says, who become rich. This is why copper is shaken out of our belts, we wear only one tunic (Matthew 10:9–10); we do not think about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). The appetite for “disgraceful gain” indicates that one is thinking more about the present. — Jerome, Commentary on Titus 1.7

… But we have taught that the heretics are indicated in Hosea under the name of Israel, Samaria, Ephraim and the sons of Joseph—the tribe from which Jeroboam came, who separated the people from the kingdom of David and Jerusalem and from the temple of God. Even now, after Judah and Jerusalem, we should understand that the prophetic speech is directed to heretics, who sell the holy and just man, but also the poor man, for money. (Amos 2:6). The poor and just man is the man of the church who does not have knowledge of the Scriptures but, content with his simplicity, does the commands that have been ordered. About him it is written: “A poor man does not endure a threat.” (Proverbs 13:8). And to the Galatians he says: “only that we should be mindful of the poor.” (Galatians 2:10). The heretics do all these things for riches and for “shoes with which to tread on the dust of the earth,” (Amos 2:6) for since they are not able to stand with bare feet on the holy ground on which Moses and Joshua the son of Nun stood; (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15) for this reason, the apostles also are commanded to walk with bare feet, in order not to have any death and hides, which pertain to the flesh. (Matthew 10:10). Therefore they “strike the poor on the head.” (Amos 2:7). And the Savior commanded his disciples to shake off the dust from their feet, in case something mortal had stuck to their works, since they were still dwelling on earth. (Matthew 10:14). The heretics “strike the heads of the poor” because they have “turned aside the way of the humble” (Amos 2:7) (though this is not read in the Hebrew text). “The way of the humble” is that which says “I am the way, and the life and the truth,” (John 14:6) which invites us to walk through it and says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will restore you.” (Matthew 11:28). But all of the leaders of the heretics become puffed up with pride. The apostle speaks about them in these words: “Lest as one puffed up he fall into the devil’s judgment.” (1 Timothy 3:6). … – Jerome, Commentary on Amos 2:6-8

The saint smiled and said, “Be quiet, and let me have my rival in the wrestling match to myself.” Then he bent back his hand over his shoulder till he touched the man’s head, seized his hair and drew him round so as to be foot to foot with him; he then stretched both his hands in a straight line, and trod on his two feet with both his own, while he cried out again and again, “To torment with you! You crowd of demons, to torment!” The sufferer shouted aloud and bent back his neck till his head touched the ground, while the saint said, “Lord Jesus, release this wretched man, release this captive. Yours it is to conquer many, no less than one.” What I now relate is unparalleled: from one man’s lips were heard different voices and as it were the confused shouts of a multitude. Well, he too was cured, and not long after came with his wife and children to the monastery bringing many gifts expressive of his gratitude. The saint thus addressed him — “Have you not read what befell Gehazi and Simon, one of whom took a reward (2 Kings 5:20–27), the other offered it, the former in order to sell grace, the latter to buy it?” – Jerome, The Life of St. Hilarion, chapter 18

Asterius of Amasea:

Such was his [Paul’s] teaching. And what about the other philosophy of his life—what a man he was? Always and constantly devoted to the word and enslaved to the Gospel, he did not even get the bread he ate as a gift from someone else. By day he fought the contest against countless enemies; by night he had his awl and leather and the work of his trade—so that from that he might get his food and appear to all an unburdensome apostle, a costless herald, sparing even his hosts the cost of bread. Let us priests hear these words—we who not only share in the altars but get rich from them, live in luxury, turn the sacred property into private wealth, and issue harsh commands to our subjects for Christ as if they were slaves. Priesthood is not lordship; for the one who understands, it is rather servitude. It is not a rank for overbearing pride, but the stewardship of reverent service. – Asterius of Amasea, Sermon 8, chapter 31.1-31.2

Chromatius of Aquileia:

1. When our Lord and Savior entered into the temple of the Jews and saw the illicit business being carried out, namely the selling of sheep, oxen, and doves, and money changers sitting there, as your love has heard in today’s reading [see Matt 21:12–13; John 2:13–15], he made a whip out of cords21 and expelled them all, and he overturned the chairs of those selling, saying to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a house of merchandise” [Matt 21:13; John 2:16]. The Jews were unmindful of the divine religion and faith. They made the temple of God a house of merchandise, and that is why they were all expelled. But they were expelled with a whip made of cords. Solomon plainly shows what is signified in the whip made of cords when he says, “And a threefold rope is not easily broken” [Eccl 4:12]. Doubtless in the threefold rope the Trinity is shown, which cannot be broken apart, since faith in the Trinity is incorruptible.22 Frequently the heretics have attempted to corrupt this faith, as far as lies within them; but they have corrupted only themselves. But the faith in the Trinity necessarily should abide incorrupt. And on that account Solomon says well, “A threefold rope will not be corrupted” [Eccl 4:12].

2. All then who act contrary to law are expelled from the temple with a whip of this sort made of cords because all who conduct themselves illicitly are condemned by no other judgment than that of the Trinity. And this is why the chairs of those selling doves are overturned, who seemed to be teaching the people while sitting on chairs, as if occupying the priestly rank. The chairs of the synagogue were overturned so that the chairs of the church would be sanctified in Christ. For the priestly office was taken away from the synagogue and given to the church. For the synagogue no longer deserved to possess the priestly office because it did not receive the chief priest himself, Christ the Lord. But let us see, or rather, beware lest any among us be found to be like this, who distributes sheep or oxen or doves in the Lord’s temple. He sells sheep, who judges innocent one who pays coin. He sells oxen, who disperses the grace of God for an accepted price, though it is written, “Freely you have received, freely give” [Matt 10:8]. Whence even now money changers, namely those who reckon that God’s work must be done for a wage, are shown to be overturned in the temple.

3. The church indeed is called a “house of merchandise,” but of spiritual merchandise, where not earthly but heavenly money is lent on interest; it is not the interest of earthly coin that is acquired but interest of the heavenly kingdom. After all, we read the statement of the Lord in the gospel: “And why did you not give the money to the table of the money changers and I would have come and surely collected it back with interest” [Matt 25:27]. Daily therefore the money of the divine word, heavenly doctrine, is lent to us on interest in the Lord’s church, and we do business with it well if we return it to the Lord with the profit of salvation and faith. In fact the apostles traded solely with this money, so that they gained the entire world for God.  – Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermon 4, chapters 1-3

Isidore of Pelusium:

If you were advanced unwillingly to the oversight of the Church, compelled by votes, by the people, and by force, you will have God as your helper, making everything prosper before you that contributes to the heavenly state. But if, as is commonly reported, you pursued with money the treasure that must not be bought, and desired to acquire the priesthood as Simon did, then “you have neither part nor portion in this matter” (Acts 8:21). For I will pass over what follows out of consideration for you, observing only this one thing: Caiaphas bought the priesthood when he armed it against Christ. Therefore, everyone who purchases the priesthood is found to be a Christ-killing Caiaphas. For what he cannot be entrusted with on account of his deeds, he obtains by impious gifts. – Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 1, Epistle 315, To Leontius the Bishop (420 AD), Migne PG 78:364-65 [Also see Book 3, Letter 387]

I have no reason to disbelieve you; but I advise you not to be scandalized, but to wait for the impartial judgment. For after giving such advice, I also restrained another man who hated wickedness, who had said the same things to you and had spoken strongly against it, saying: “The apostles, since they had been made wise by the Holy Spirit, adorned the Church as the Bride of the Master in such a way that nothing inferior should trouble her, nor should anything more beautiful need to be added to the ordinance. But some of those who have now somehow been entrusted with the teacher’s throne dare to introduce innovations; and after dishonoring the ordinance which was established by them in an orderly and pious manner, they prefer their own arrangements, supposing by what they do that the original order is less honorable. For, passing over the other things, I will mention one thing toward which all the rest tends. When that man hoped to purchase the apostolic dignity with money, they rebuked him and said, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be acquired through money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter’ (Acts 8:20–21). Yet these men have especially entrusted the priesthood to men of precisely this sort—to those who have bought it as though from a marketplace. ….” – Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 3, Epistle 394, To Dorotheus, Migne PG 78:1033

You are building, as they say, a church in Pelusium, splendid in its construction, but wicked in the practices by which it is being built: through payments for ordinations, injustices, insults, oppression of the poor, and expenditures taken from the poor. This is nothing other than “building Zion with blood and Jerusalem with injustice” (Micah 3:10). But God does not need a sacrifice made from what belongs to others; rather, He abhors such a sacrifice as though someone were sacrificing a dog (Isaiah 66:3). Therefore stop both building and committing injustice, lest that house be found by God as a testimony against you—standing high, yet crying out against you forever because of the evils from which it was built, confronting you with the wages of those who were deprived of them, and demanding vengeance for those who were harmed. – Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 1, Epistle 37, To Eusebius, Migne PG 78:205

Many mock you as one who entrusts the laying on of hands for the sacred ministry to money rather than to the Spirit. And if they are slandering you, they have drawn the punishment upon themselves, since “the Lord will destroy all who speak falsehood” (Psalm 5:6). But if they are speaking the truth, then understand where this evil ends: you have exchanged insulting God for a small profit. And who will pray for you, since in the case of Hophni and Phinehas, when they sinned against God and against His priesthood, no one was found to intercede for them, but they were handed over to utter destruction because they treated the privilege of the priesthood as something to be enjoyed beforehand? – Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 1, Epistle 26, To Eusebius, Migne PG 78:197, 200

“Therefore I too, putting an end to the introduction, will now proceed in my discourse to the drama itself. Only let me say this first: do not measure what happened by my words—for we could never find words equal to the deeds, since every tongue is defeated by the truth of the events—but behold with the sleepless eyes of your understanding the things that were acted out. As for the fact that the Divine has been blasphemed, the city devastated, the priesthood sold, and the Church subjected to tyranny—with the zealous being banished, while those who ought not even to have crossed her thresholds were admitted and entrusted with her divine and ineffable mysteries; for they did not think that souls had been entrusted to them, but that they had inherited a hereditary tyranny—and as for the fact that they had no concern at all for the poor, but plundered the Church’s funds and spent them on their own displays of extravagance; and that they punished even to the point of blood those who dared to speak out on behalf of virtue, and all such things—I will pass over these, thereby showing that it was unwillingly that I was driven to speak these words against them. But as for what has now been wickedly perpetrated, since silence would not be safe even for one who wished to remain silent, I will relate it briefly and dimly, as far as I am able—for I would not say clearly. Martinianus, who was ordained presbyter to the ruin of the most divine religion—if indeed one ought to call “presbyter” a man who used the name of the priesthood as a means of being able to commit the greatest crimes, crimes beyond forgiveness—I cannot say from what people he was descended or from what city he came. For I will pass over the fact that, though he was a slave and had not lived honorably in his early life, he had run away, even though this is true. For I have not come to speak evil of him, but to show how he wronged the Church. This man, then, came to Pelusium while living in extreme poverty and receiving help from many. He put on the monastic habit and pretended to live chastely, while hunting after the clerical office—an office that is really a ministry, though it appeared to him to be a position of authority. But when the memorable Ammonius, the bishop of that place, a man filled with divine wisdom, perceived his hypocrisy with the keenest eyes of his understanding and left him no hope of obtaining the position, Martinianus realized that he was wasting his time, since the superior was exceedingly discerning, and decided to weave these nets elsewhere. But when he was detected there also and failed in his hope, he eventually learned that that all-wise man had fallen asleep and entered the heavenly dwelling places, and that Eusebius had been ordained. So he flew back again to Pelusium, thinking that he could easily take advantage of his cleverness—not to say his folly. And indeed, he very quickly attained his aim. There is no need to speak at length. For surely no one is unaware that the one who supplies the seed is responsible for the plants. Having therefore obtained ordination and touched the holy mysteries with defiled hands, he gave birth to the disease with which he had long been in labor. …. For in conducting affairs he employed deceit and schemes, fraud and perjury. He did nothing straightforward or just, but defined wickedness as prudence, and set himself against those who had chosen to live nobly and reverently. He called lovers of truth simpletons, but those who handled affairs wickedly intelligent; those who pursued philosophy he called fools, but double-dealers he called energetic men. And he did not merely say these things without doing them; rather, by his deeds he made his words pale in comparison. For he appropriated the Church’s money, sold ordinations, expelled those who loved virtue, and gathered around himself those who did the same things as he did. For he thought he would have no security there otherwise—for he had not the slightest thought of judgment—unless he banished every form of virtue. And he did these things after somehow making the bishop subject to himself. For he had enslaved the bishop to himself to such an extent—let the truth be spoken openly, for I could not speak otherwise—that he had him ordained as though he were some cheap slave bought with money, so that he would do whatever Martinianus commanded. For he drove him into such madness—for now the climax of his evils and the chief point of the tragedy must be told—by baiting him with those promises which the bishop now openly proclaims, publicly exposing his own folly, either forcing him or persuading him—for because of the outrageousness of the matter I do not know what to call it—to go so far as to sign the Church’s accounts and declare the wronged Church to be in debt. For he did not think he could securely retain what he had acquired unjustly unless he also made the Church appear indebted—not because he expected to demand back from her what he had plundered, but because he sought to prevent her from demanding it back from him. And when the wretched city realized that he was plotting these things—for they were not hidden; I will not mention that, because of the enormity of what he was doing, he was even accused of sorcery, nor that he had been caught in shameful and unlawful offenses—it was often moved even to kill him, but nevertheless restrained its impulse. And when he was being denounced and accused by everyone, he slandered the bishop to everyone, and everyone to the bishop: stirring the bishop up against those who loved virtue, so that he might extinguish everyone’s freedom of speech; while teaching the others that it was the bishop himself who was selling ordinations, plotting against the virtuous, and appropriating the property of the Church. ….. Like a man who had bought something—and bought it unlawfully—he resolved to make still more unlawful use of what he had acquired, hastening to cure one evil with another evil. For after pocketing all the Church’s money—or, as he himself said, dividing it with the man who had entrusted the stewardship to him and had furnished the occasion for this whole tragedy—he recently sent gold ahead to Alexandria, seeking a bishopric, though he had not even been able to govern himself. When your Holiness learned this, although you ought to have repudiated him outright, you threatened him by letter and declared that, if he attempted the same things again, he would be publicly repudiated throughout the whole Egyptian administration as one who was bringing such disgrace upon the most divine religion. But now, despising both the letters and the threats, as soon as he learned of Alexandria, he set out for it, seeking to obtain a bishopric for himself, while damaging your reputation by making it appear that you ordain men for money.” – Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 2, Epistle 127, To Cyril of Alexandria, Migne PG 78:566-572

SEE ALSO: Isidore of Pelusium, Letters, Book 1:29, 30, 119, 130, Book 2:71, 121, 151, 177, 185, 215, 341, 425, 492

“You are building the church fabric with useless stones, with lawless or rather with your impious resources. For you received the price of priesthood, as one who sells priestly office, and you gave this to Zosimos. The news is thus being spread throughout the entire area, so that both ears of all who hear it are buzzing.” – Isidore of Pelusium, LETTER 113 – To the Same, That he has sold the priesthood for payment.

You will need to reply to the searching enquirer. For he speaks, it is said, to the ears of those who hear. Also “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. Our Lord said, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” to the sellers of doves, but with the priests who sell off the gifts of the Holy Spirit in mind. Since the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, this is an insult to those who trade in God. As for ‘’Take these away from here”, he means that there is no longer any need for blood (sacrifices); for I grant bloodless forgiveness of sins; from now on I wish the Spirit alone to make propitiation. The law of flesh is fulfilled, let the law of the Spirit prevail, and that of salvation commence. – Isidore of Pelusium, LETTER 106 – To Timothy the Reader. On the saying, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade”

Cyril of Alexandria:

What happened was a figure: that, once the Jews were cast out of the temple along with their typological sacrifices, the blind and the lame were healed—those who represented the Gentiles. But let those who sell know also—those who trade in the gifts of the Spirit and the priesthood—that the Lord drove out from the temple those selling doves, whipping them, and let them cease amassing wealth for themselves from ordinations. — Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Matthew 21:14

An Encyclical Letter of the Fifth Synod (Chalcedon):

Gildas:

Britain hath priests, but they are unwise; very many that minister, but many of them impudent; clerks she hath, but certain of them are deceitful raveners; pastors (as they are called) but rather wolves prepared for the slaughter of souls (for they provide not for the good of the common people, but covet rather the gluttony of their own bellies) possessing the houses of the church, but obtaining them for filthy lucre’s sake; instructing the laity, but showing withal most depraved examples, vices, and evil manners; seldom sacrificing, and seldom with clean hearts, standing at the altars; not correcting the commonality for their offences, while they commit the same sins themselves; despising the commandments of Christ, and being careful with their whole hearts to fulfil their own lustful desires, some of them usurping with unclean feet the seat of the apostle Peter; but for the demerit of their covetousness falling down into the pestilent chair of the traitor Judas; detracting often, and seldom speaking truly; hating verity as an open enemy, and favouring falsehoods, as their most beloved brethren; looking on the just, the poor, and the impotent, with stern countenances, as if they were detested serpents, and reverencing the sinful rich men without any respect of shame, as if they were heavenly angels, preaching with their outward lips that alms are to be disbursed upon the needy, but of themselves not bestowing one halfpenny; concealing the horrible sins of the people, and amplifying injuries offered unto themselves, as if they were done against our Saviour Christ; expelling out of their houses their religious mother, perhaps, or sisters, and familiarly and indecently entertaining strange women, as if it were for some more secret office, or rather, to speak truly, though fondly (and yet not fondly to me, but to such as commit these matters), debasing themselves unto such bad creatures; and after all these seeking rather ambitiously for ecclesiastical dignities, than for the kingdom of heaven; and defending after a tyrannical fashion their achieved preferments, nor even labouring with lawful manners, to adorn the same; negligent and dull to listen to the precepts of the holy saints (if ever they did so much as once hear that which full often they ought to hear), but diligent and attentive to the plays and foolish fables of secular men, as if they were the very ways to life, which indeed are but the passages to death; being hoarse, after the fashion of bulls, with the abundance of fatness, and miserably prompt to all unlawful actions; bearing their countenances arrogantly aloft, and having nevertheless their inward senses, with tormenting and gnawing consciences; depressed down to the bottom or rather to the bottomless pit; glad at the gaining of one penny, and at the loss of the like value sad; slothful and dumb in the apostolical decrees (be it for ignorance or rather the burden of their offences), and stopping also the mouths of the learned, but singularly experienced in the deceitful shifts of worldly affairs ; and many of this sort and wicked conversation, violently intruding themselves into the preferments of the church ; yea, rather buying the same at a high rate, than being any way drawn thereunto, and moreover as unworthy wretches, wallowing, after the fashion of swine, in their old and unhappy puddle of intolerable wickedness, after they have attained unto the seat of the priesthood or episcopal dignity (who neither have been installed, or resident on the same), for usurping only the name of priesthood, they have not received the orders or apostolical preeminence ; but how can they who are not as yet fully instructed in faith, nor have done penance for their sins, be any way supposed meet and convenient to ascend unto any ecclesiastical degree (that I may not speak of the highest) which none but holy and perfect men, and followers of the apostles, and, to use the words of the teacher of the Gentiles, persons free from reprehension, can lawfully and without the foul offence of sacrilege undertake. For what is so wicked and so sinful as after the example of Simon Magus (even if with other faults he had not been defiled before), for any man with earthly price to purchase the office of a bishop or priest, which with holiness and righteous life alone ought lawfully to be obtained ; but herein they do more wilfully and desperately err, in that they buy their deceitful and unprofitable ecclesiastical degrees, not of the apostles or their successors, but of tyrannical princes, and their father the devil ; yea, rather they raise this as a certain roof and covering of all offences, over the frame of their former serious life, that being protected under the shadow thereof, no man should lightly hereafter lay to their charge their old or new wickedness ; and hereupon they build their desires of covetousness and gluttony, for that being now the rulers of many they may more freely make havoc at their pleasure. For if truly any such offer of purchasing ecclesiastical promotions were made by these impudent sinners (I will not say with St. Peter), but to any holy priest, or godly king, they would no doubt receive the same answer which their father Simon Magus had from the mouth of the apostle Peter, saying: “Thy money perish with thee” (Acts 8:20). But, alas ! perhaps they who order and advance these ambitious aspirers, yea, they who rather throw them under foot, and for a blessing give them a cursing, whilst of sinners they make them not penitents (which were more consonant to reason), but sacrilegious and desperate offenders, and in a sort install Judas, that traitor to his Master, in the chair of Peter, and Nicholas, the author of that foul heresy, in the seat of St. Stephen the martyr, it may be, at first obtained their own priesthood by the same means, and therefore do not greatly dislike in their children, but rather respect the course, that they their fathers did before follow. And also, if finding resistance, in obtaining their dioceses at home, and some who severely renounce this chaffering of church-livings, they cannot there attain to such a precious pearl, then it doth not so much loath as delight them (after they have carefully sent their messengers beforehand) to cross the seas, and travel over most large countries, that so, in the end, yea even with the sale of their whole substance, they may win and compass such a pomp, and such an incomparable glory, or to speak more truly, such a dirty and base deceit and illusion. And afterwards with great show and magnificent ostentation, or rather madness, returning back to their own native soil, they grow from stoutness to stateliness, and from being used to level their looks to the tops of the mountains, they now lift up their drowsy eyes into the air, even to the highest clouds, and as Novatus, that foul hog, and persecutor of our Lord’s precious jewel, did once at Rome, so do these intrude themselves again into their own country, as creatures of a new mould, or rather as instruments of the devil, being even ready in this state and fashion to stretch out violently their hands (not so worthy of the holy altars as of the avenging flames of hell) upon Christ’s most holy sacrifices. – The Works of Gildas, paragraph 66, 67 [510-540 AD] (J. A. Giles Six Old English Chronicles, pp. 343-46)

Second Council of Braga (572):

Andreas of Caesarea:

Apringius of Beja:

Salvation is given without any price and without any barter. Rather, he who desires to be saved, he will enter and will either receive free of charge the regeneration of baptism, or he will receive the remedy of repentance without cost or charge. The prophet spoke in a similar manner: “All who thirst, come to the waters; and you who have no money, hasten, come, buy and eat.” Isaiah 55:1  — Apringius of Beja, Tractate on the Apocalypse 22:17 [600 AD]

Bede:

Second Council of Nicea, Canon 4: