Buying and selling are an integral part of the everyday life of the world. Scripture makes it clear that God expects moral dealings by his people in this area of life as in every other.
Some biblical transactions
The first recorded transaction
Genesis 23:3–4 Many other transactions had obviously taken place before this, from the earliest times.
Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites, “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
Transactions in land
See also Genesis 47:20–22; Ruth 4:3; Proverbs 31:16; Jeremiah 32:9–10; Matthew 27:7; Luke 14:18; Acts 4:34
Buying animals
Buying food and drink
Genesis 41:57; Deuteronomy 2:28; John 6:5, John 13:29; Revelation 6:6
Transactions in other goods
Buying of slaves
Genesis 17:12; Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:44–45; Hosea 3:1–2
The labour market
Leviticus 25:39–40; Matthew 20:1–2
God's standards in buying and selling
Fairness
Genesis 23:5–13; 2 Samuel 24:24
Honesty
Leviticus 19:35–36 See also Genesis 23:14–16; Deuteronomy 25:13–16; Proverbs 11:1, Proverbs 16:11, Proverbs 20:10, Proverbs 20:23
You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume. You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Sins to avoid in buying and selling
Dishonesty
Proverbs 20:14; Amos 8:5; Micah 6:10–11
Greed
Exploitation
Leviticus 25:14 See also Lamentations 5:4; Amos 8:6
If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
Extravagance
Desecration of the Sabbath
Nehemiah 10:31, Nehemiah 13:15–22; Amos 8:5
Desecration of the temple
Matthew 21:12–13 parallels Mark 11:15–17, Luke 19:45–46 The merchants were operating within the outer court of the temple, itself consecrated as a place of prayer and worship. See also John 2:14–16
Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Worldliness
Ezekiel 7:12; 1 Corinthians 7:29–31; James 4:13
Oppression through the control of buying and selling
And the second beast required all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark — the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Spiritual transactions
Sinners sold to sin
See also 1 Kings 21:20; Romans 7:14
Israel sold and redeemed
Judges 2:14; Psalm 44:12; Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 50:1, Isaiah 52:3
Jesus Christ has bought his people
Acts 20:28 See also 1 Corinthians 6:20, 1 Corinthians 7:23; 1 Peter 1:18–19; 2 Peter 2:1
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
Spiritual wealth to be bought
Proverbs 23:23 See also Isaiah 55:1; Matthew 13:44–46, Matthew 25:9; Revelation 3:18
Invest in truth and never sell it— in wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Gifts money cannot buy
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.