Years ago I discovered people on Pinterest using Bible Love Notes' images for “bait-and-switch.” They’d download my image and link it to their sales site. When people clicked the image, thinking they were going to a Bible Love Notes devotion, they'd be taken to a sales promotion. It made Bible Love Notes look like a spam account.
But perhaps the most discouraging aspect was the professing Christians who were doing it. It took Christian bloggers about six months to get a company removed from Pinterest that repeatedly used our images to redirect people to their site featuring a prayer app for phones.
In another situation, I contacted a man and explained that it took years of time and effort to build my blog following and to create the images he was using to dishonestly direct people to his devotions. He responded by saying I must not be a genuine believer because God was interested in getting His Word out by whatever means possible. He didn’t feel it mattered that he was stealing my work, misleading people, and violating both Pinterest rules and copyright laws.
This turns Matthew 10:16 upside-down:
Perhaps you could call this "bait-and-switch" being shrewd as a snake. But it certainly isn't being innocent as a dove, and the combination is vital.
If we think God wants us doing unethical things to share His Word, that changes us to wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), not sheep among wolves.
God wants us to be clever, but only with integrity—shrewd but innocent.
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Bible Love Notes
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