On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. (Mark 11:15-18 NIV)
Jesus shows us God's attitude towards turning faith into religion and religion into marketing. The worship of God should not be at the expense of the people who come to worship, nor stripped of its original purpose.
The house of God is to be a place of prayer for all nations. Not a place of introspection and self-interest, but of compassion for and restoration of others. ©Word-Strong_2014