I’d been thinking about ordering a gizmo for a while, and finally did just a few weeks ago.  As with many things in  our consumer-driven world, the number of options at Amazon were almost overwhelming.  There were gizmos themselves and then all sorts of variations on the gizmo.  In the end, I bought a pretty simple gizmo based on a desirable  price and a decent rating – actually, a really good rating, 4.9 out of five. One of the rave reviews called it a game-changer in the gizmo market. Wow!

So far, I am very happy with my $10 gizmo. It deserves its 4.9 stars.  Or does it?

About a week after the gizmo arrived, I received a postcard from the gizmo maker.  They thanked me for purchasing their gizmo and wondered if I would be so kind as to provide a five-star rating.  In fact, they said, if I would provide a five-star rating and rave review for their $10 gizmo – along with my email address – they would send me a $20 PayPal credit.  But I had to promise not to say anything about their little bribe.

The gizmo is still working just fine, a five-star gizmo if there ever was one.  In fact, if you are in the market for a gizmo, let me know and I’d be glad to message you with a recommendation for which one to buy. I am wondering, though, how many of the five-star ratings for my $10 gizmo were bought for $20.  I’m even wondering if my $10 deal was really 23% off the normal price.

So, the gizmo company is buying 5-star ratings.  How many of those rave reviews I read were bought with filthy lucre, however? How many of my fellow gizmo users sold their integrity if not their souls for a $20 PayPal credit?

In Deuteronomy 23:18, Moses tells the people of the Exodus that they must not bring money earned as a harlot – prostitute (male or female), some of the versions say, whore, the old King James reads – into the temple of the Lord. No selling yourself. (By the way, Microsoft just warned me that some of my readers might find the old King James wording offensive – apologies, but no retraction.)

God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7), but apparently not a morally compromised one.

It wasn’t all that hard to decline the offer of the gizmo company. Sorry, folks, my 5-star ratings are not for sale.

To be sure the image of selling ourselves is a biblical image that goes beyond PayPal credits. God’s people are judged and punished for playing the prostitute, the harlot, the whore, when they turn from the living God and sell themselves to idols made of wood and silver.  We are warned against making idols of money or of our Super Bowl favorite, of our success and even of our families.  Literal and figurative harlotry are serious sins.

So, no wooden or silver idols and no five-star rating harlotry. But am I playing the harlot when I earn my wage from a pharmaceutical company that sells abortifacient drugs, a high-tech firm that makes components for weapons of mass destruction, an entertainment conglomerate whose casinos prey on the gambling addict?

Moses told the people not to bring the wages of their harlotry into the temple of the Lord.  That may include the $20 PayPal credit earned from my 5-star gizmo rating.  What else could it mean? Following Christ can be costly.  But always worth it.