Should Christians participate in MLMs Like Amway & Mary Kay?

Should Christians participate in multilevel marketing companies like Amway or Mary Kay? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can leave us a voicemail anytime on our voicemail system at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also email us at questions at corechristianity.com. We would love to hear from you. First up today, let's go to Amy calling in from Missouri. Amy, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, hi, y'all. Good afternoon.

I enjoy your program. Thank you for your ministry, Dr. Adriel. So, my question is, what does the Bible say about surrogacy, you know, carrying a child for another woman or, you know, another couple? Amy, thanks for that question.

Thank you for your encouragement. So, there, generally, when Christian theologians and ethicists have talked about this issue in particular, because the Bible, there are some examples in the Old Testament, right, and I'm thinking of the book of Genesis, for example, but those aren't really positive examples. That's not really given to us as something to follow. And actually, there was a lot of problems with those examples.

I'm thinking of Abraham and Hagar and Sarah. And so, it doesn't speak to this specifically, this specific issue. Of course, as technology has advanced, you know, we have all of these new bioethical issues that we have to think through. One, by the way, just a plug for a particular book that does speak about this topic in particular, and I think is going to give a longer answer, the kind of answer that I just can't provide on the broadcast.

It's called Bioethics and the Christian Life by David van Droonen, who is a theologian, a lawyer, and an ethicist. And that's just a helpful resource, talks about a number of these issues. But I would say that insofar as, you know, surrogacy introduces a third party into the marriage covenant, this relation, even though it's the sort of roundabout way, that it's something that ought not to be pursued. Now, I know that there's a lot of difficulty here. I mean, we're talking about things like infertility and the weight of infertility and the difficulty that that is for so many couples who long to have a child. And so there's more to say. But as far as it's introducing a third party, and then also, if we're talking about using IVF and the amount of embryos that are discarded, that's another issue. And we're thinking through, you know, pro-life issues and what is a life? What is a human life? And how should we treat life? That's another thing that needs to be considered in this whole discussion. And sometimes when people are thinking about this topic in particular, that's another relevant piece of information. And so, while the Bible doesn't speak specifically to this situation, I think that there's enough in scripture to say, no, this is not something that we should be pursuing as Christians.

Those are a couple of reasons why. But there are others, and I encourage you to check out that book, Bioethics in the Christian Life by David Mandarin. Thanks for giving us a call, Amy. Amy, thanks so much for your call. We appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to Michael calling in from Indiana.

Michael, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, I'm a combat vet and I'm struggling with addiction. And it's really rough. I don't, I feel like I'm, I'm listening. I'm not saved. I'm listening. Okay. How long, Michael, how long have you been, have you been struggling fighting with addiction for?

I went in Iraq in 2000, 2003, and I've been struggling with it since then. Okay. Do you have, do you have a support system at all?

Family, friends, church? I do. I've been in and out of rehabs and for a long time now. Okay. Well, brothers and sisters, let's, Michael, I just want to invite our listeners to pray for you right now. And I want to, I want to pray for you.

And then, and then I have some, some things to say. Father, we pray for our brother Michael. And God, we ask that by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would work in his life. God, that you would deliver him from the chains of addiction, whatever, whatever the addiction is, Lord God, that you would deliver him.

And we know that often, Lord, you use means, people, programs, your people, Lord, the church. And so we pray that you would provide all of that for him. We pray also, Lord, for the supernatural work of your Holy Spirit in his life to break this bondage. We look to you, Father. We cry out to you. We ask for your mercy to be poured out upon him, even as he cries out to you, longing for deliverance. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. The first thing I want to encourage you with, Michael, is, is the ocean of forgiveness that is there for all those who confess their sins and turn to the Lord. You remember when Jesus is, is having a conversation with Peter, Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times.

And Peter probably thinks he's being, you know, generous there. I'll forgive my brother seven times if he sins against me. That many times, right? I mean, isn't that good, Jesus?

Isn't that generous? And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven. Which is to say, the forgiveness keeps flowing. It might be the same mistake, the same shortcoming, the same sin. But when your brother comes to you, forgive him.

And Michael, if, if God calls us as Christians to forgive like that, we who are sinful, we who are weak, how much more will the Lord forgive you when you turn to him? Even if it's, even if it's this, the same struggle that you've had since 2003 or whenever it was, even if it was that same struggle, I just want you to know that the mercy of Jesus Christ has not run dry for you. That it's real, that it's there.

And so not losing hope, right? Doing everything that you can, that you're able to do in terms of fighting this addiction. And it says, you know, you've, you mentioned you do have some support.

You've been in, in and out of different programs. I think, I think all of that, I mean, we just, we just need, we need all of that. Making sure that you're in a, in a solid church, Michael, where it's, you know, people around you know you, they know what you struggle with and can pray for you and hold you accountable. You need that as, as well.

That, that, that's such an important piece. And so knowing the, the reality of the grace of God for you, the forgiveness of sins when you turn to him, not giving weight to despair and then getting the practical help that you need. And just one other thing that I, that I want to bring up to you is, is the words of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans and Romans chapter six. This is one of the hardest things for us as followers of Jesus to understand and embrace, but it's the new identity that we have through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Paul says in Romans chapter six, beginning in verse one, what shall we say then? Are we to continue, continue in sin that grace may abound? In other words, because the ocean never runs dry, should we just keep sinning?

And Paul says by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one who has died has been set free from sin.

That's the reality for the person who is in Jesus Christ. You've cried out to the Lord, Michael. You've confessed your sins to the Lord.

You've turned to the Lord. When we have the Spirit of God living in us, when we've been justified, we have a new relationship with sin. Even though we continue to struggle with sin, we're no longer under sin, under the dominion of sin. We are under the dominion of Jesus Christ so that in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, that by the Holy Spirit we might put to death the sinful deeds of the body. That's what we need.

That's what we all need. Especially as you struggle with addiction, the work of the Holy Spirit in your life to put to death, to mortify those sinful deeds, those habits that we create, and especially if this is a long-standing addiction, years and years of habits, of patterns formed in your mind, in your life, may the Spirit of God flood you right now and deliver you from this. Michael, you doing everything in your power to make wise decisions and to put yourself in situations where you're not going to continue to experience the temptation that you're experiencing. Jesus says, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. In other words, we need to take sin and those things that cause us to stumble, lead us to stumble very, very seriously because they destroy us.

And you felt that destruction, Michael. May God give you the grace and the strength by the power of his Holy Spirit to turn to him again and again and again and to receive his mercy and by the power of the Spirit to continue to take this seriously and to continue to fight by the grace of God. And Bill, by the grace of God, I know that you have insight in this area in particular, anything that you would add for our brother Michael.

Michael mentioned that he's been through some rehab programs. I would just encourage him, if he hasn't been to a Christ-based rehab program, there's a definite link between guilt and addiction. Guilt can lead to addiction, addiction can lead to guilt, and you get into this vicious cycle. And really the answer is to be freed from guilt. And the only way to be freed from guilt is what you've just been talking about.

And that is to confess your sins to Jesus and accept his forgiveness. So I would just encourage Michael, if you haven't been to a Christ-based program, and I know that might be difficult through the VA, but maybe talk to a chaplain and see if you can find one that would be helpful to you. We're going to continue to pray for you, Michael.

Thanks so much for your call and thank you for your service to our country. Yeah, Michael, we are in your corner as your brothers in Christ and just want to say to you again, the Lord is for you and he's for you in this fight against addiction. He taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so as you continue to cry out to the Lord, do so knowing that God is for you in this fight. And may God give you every grace and help in time of need and bless you, my friends. So thank you for giving us a call and we will keep you in our prayers. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, maybe something going on in your own life, we'd love to hear from you. You can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Spencer calling in from Oklahoma. Spencer, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, my question is out of Matthew chapter 25 verses 40 and 45. In verse 40, Jesus in the red letter says, And as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done unto me. And then in verse 45 he says, And as much as you did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. What is meant by the words my brethren? And is there a couple or so main translations on this passage? And does he refer to my brethren? Does it mean possibly his physical brethren he was born into, the Hebrew people? Or does it mean the brethren in the church? And then in the last verse, 45, the least of these, does that refer in general to the widow, the orphan, the fatherless, and the destitute? And I just was wondering about all that. I've heard different pastors say different things on it.

Yeah, all excellent questions. Well, who are the least of these my brethren? Who are the brothers of Jesus? In Matthew chapter 12, so earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, verses 46 through 50, you know, there are people that come up to Jesus while he's speaking, and they say to him, Behold, his mother and brother were outside and asking to speak with him. And he replied to the man who told him this, Who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. I think there in Matthew chapter 25, the least of these refer to the children of God, those who do the will of God, those who are in Christ belonging to him. And so there's a focus here on caring for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are naked and hungry and sick and in prison, a heart of compassion.

It's like James says in his epistle, right? You see somebody who has these needs, but then you say to them, Go in peace, be warmed and be filled. Well, that's not what we're called to.

We're called to a love that involves action as well. And so there is a priority I think that we ought to have as the children of God on caring for the people nearest to us who are suffering. Paul said in the book of Galatians, So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians chapter six, verse 10. That is the brothers, the sisters. Now that doesn't mean that we just, okay, we focus on the poor within the church or among the family of Christ and we don't care about anybody else.

No, that's not it at all. You think about the parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus tells, we're called to love all people, to do good to all people, to seek to relieve the needs of those who are around us, those who are nearest to us, right? We can't help everyone, but there are people that God brings into your life who are in need, believers and unbelievers. And insofar as God gives us opportunity to meet those needs, to come alongside of those who are sick and suffering or need some love, some care, we're called to do that, to obey the Lord, to follow the Lord in helping them. And so I think that's specifically, I think that answers your question. So the brothers there are the believers in Jesus, those who belong to the family of God, but that doesn't mean that we exclude or don't care about those who are outside of the church on the contrary. We're called to do good to them as well, but we have to make sure that we're taking care of our own. And so that's very, very important, I would say.

And that's what Jesus is getting at there. Spencer, thank you for your question. I just want to give you a quick opportunity to follow up if I was missing anything there, because I know there were a couple of things you had asked. Thanks.

I've heard it explained in the art. Thank you. All right. Thanks, brother. God bless you.

Thanks, Spencer. Appreciate you listening to CORE Christianity. By the way, just to let you know, if you're a new listener to the CORE, we rely on our listeners to keep us on the air. We don't play any commercials on this program. We don't receive money from a church or denomination or a radio station.

We're completely listener supported. And if you believe in our mission, if you like what you hear on this program and you'd like to get involved, we have a group of people that support us on a monthly basis. They're called our inner CORE.

Yeah. For all of you who've been following us for a while now, if you're encouraged by the work that we're doing and blessed by the Q&A that you get to hear every day, live callers reaching out to us, would you consider joining the inner CORE? It's one of the ways you can partner with us, and it helps us to continue to spread the word about CORE Christianity and do what we love to do, which is share the word of God with people, people who are struggling, people who need encouragement, support, and guidance from the scriptures. Help us to make that a reality by joining the inner CORE.

It's a monthly donation of $25 or more. And as a thank you for joining the inner CORE, we'll send you a copy of the book CORE Christianity by Dr. Michael Horton. Again, thank you for all of you who have joined the inner CORE over the years.

I mean, again, what an encouragement, what a blessing you have been to us. Thank you for your partnership and for those of you who are blessed and have not partnered with us yet, we would love to have you in the saddle with us. God bless. You can learn more about that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash inner CORE. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash inner CORE.

A great group of folks. Thank you so much for your support and we'd love to have you join that inner CORE group. Well, we do receive emails here at CORE Christianity. You can email us any time at questions at corechristianity.com. And here's one that came in from a listener named Erica and she says, what do you think about pyramid schemes? In my experience, there are a lot of Christian women who get sucked into multi-level marketing businesses and they're always trying to sell their products to friends and family. Is this something we need to call out?

Well, those sound like fighting words, you know, and it's a great question. There's a lot to think about here in terms of pyramid schemes. I know most of the time people don't like to say this is a pyramid scheme, the multi-level marketing thing. And I don't understand that.

I know that some of these are quite complex in terms of how they work. I don't know that it's something you asked, is it something we need to call out? Well, there are things that I think need to be called out. One thing that I think should be called out, and this is maybe not only these kinds of businesses where this happens. It could happen in a number of different ways, but I think that greed sometimes, oftentimes that drives these ventures in particular, the desire to be rich. I've had many conversations with people over the years who have come up to me and they've sort of tried to sell me on one of these and said, well, don't you want financial freedom?

I mean, isn't that what you want? Well, you could spend so much more time with your family and I just do this kind of on the side, but it just brings in all this extra money. And I don't know how real that is. So sometimes there can be some deception there.

I feel like usually there's someone at the top where that really is working, but then there's a lot of other people who are struggling to get by and sell these products and it actually isn't giving them any more financial freedom, not seriously at least. And so there are warnings in scripture about that desire, that longing to be rich and how, I mean, Paul tells Timothy, many people have pierced themselves through with sorrows, through that longing, through that desire. And of course, Jesus in the gospels gives us many warnings about that danger too. You can't serve God and money. And so whether that's with pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing stuff or something else, just the normal pursuit of another kind of model of business or whatever, we just have to be careful as Christians. It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong, sinful, inherently wrong with money in and of itself. It's that love of money, the enslaving pursuit of, I need to have more.

I need to have that bigger house or car or financial freedom, whatever that looks like. And oftentimes we're defining that in our own mind. And yet, the scriptures are pretty clear about this. God has promised us daily bread. Don't worry about tomorrow, Jesus says.

Sufficient for the day is the trouble thereof. And so if your hope is, if your expectation is God has promised to bless me so much that he's just going to give me everything and I'm going to have financial freedom and be able to have all this money stored up or whatnot. No, that's not what God promises us. In fact, you think about the story that Jesus tells of the guy who, he built his storehouses nice and big because he had just been so blessed. And yet, Jesus calls him a rich fool because the most important thing, which is a love for God and following the Lord, he had neglected.

Yeah, he looked like a wise guy to everyone else, like someone who boy really handled his business well and look at all the money he has. And he's able to say, soul, you know, rest, take it easy because you've done such a good job working and planning. And God says, you know, you're a fool. You've stored up treasure here on earth, but you're not rich toward me.

You haven't stored up treasure in heaven. And so that's just a concern that I have. One other brief concern is if you see everyone around you, your friends and your family members and the people who go to your church as potentials for you to make money, that changes the relationship quite a bit, doesn't it? And you begin to interact with them a certain way that I think can be unhelpful and unhealthy instead of just viewing them as a brother or sister in Christ.

Everybody, it's easy to fall into that trap of, I'm viewing everyone through the lens of, hey, this is a potential client or this is, you know, somebody that I could get under me in the business or something like that. I think that's concerning. That's not right. That's not healthy. And so may God give us wisdom and help us in all things to honor him and to be faithful to him and to store up treasure, not just here on earth, but most of all in heaven. God bless. Together.