Biblical Business Radical: Introduction, part 2

In the previous post, we laid the foundation for how we’re going to interpret and apply some scriptural dictates that may challenge how we operate our businesses:

• Corporate systems in alignment with peace, holiness, justice, love
• Scriptural commands that are communal or national
• Changing our systems as the way to promote our faith

To this I add a few more introductory thoughts. 

• Paradigm of success
• Emphasis on how we conduct business

We need to change our paradigm of success and God’s favor. Too often we correlate God’s favor on what we’re doing with our success (especially wealth):  if we’re making lots of money, God must like what we’re doing; if we’re not, then God is displeased with what we’re doing. Also, we have the word in Jeremiah (though often pulled out of context) that God has plans for us to prosper, even in exile. We also know that only good fruit (profits?) comes from good trees while bad trees produce bad fruit (Matthew 7.17) To counter this argument may take more space than I’m allowing here. If you were a first-century career counselor, you might question if the apostle Paul was in the right vocation, because he was often jailed, stoned, shipwrecked, forcibly expelled from cities. You might also confuse God’s favor with the most powerful nations in biblical times—Assyria, Babylon, Rome—and think that Israel, one of the weakest, most overrun nations in the world couldn’t possibly be worshipping the right god or be really chosen as God’s people. Therefore, wealth, growth and other metrics of success are not the right criteria. God doesn’t look at the external factors of who He favors but looks at the character of His people (1 Samuel 16.7). In addition, there’s this ‘accurate’ portrayal of our circumstances of continuing success or failure: some people are just surrounded by difficulties for their whole life (Job 3.23; note Job 42.7 and God’s acclaim of Job accurately talking about God), and they’re not necessarily the wicked—while lots of other scriptures declaim the prosperity of the wicked. Christ’s praise was given to those who took care of the least, last and lost (Matthew 25) and those who used their talents, not necessarily that they added to the wealth (note that the servant who fell out of favor didn’t use the resources given to him by the master). Good fruit is not an easy life; good fruit is leading other people into a more righteous walk.

In the gospels, John the Baptist and Christ confronted tax collectors and soldiers. They were not asked to change their vocations but to change the way they behaved in their vocation (Luke 3.12; 19.2). Similarly, Christ’s problem with the money changers in the Temple was not the practice of selling sacrificial animals to the pilgrims in Jerusalem for the feasts, but that they were cheating those who needed to buy the animals. Nor did He challenge giving taxes when lawful or legal, we presume (Matthew 22.21) and later in the epistles we have the apostles encouraging submission to the rule of law (“Even completely stopping at stop signs, my Lord?”). On the other hand, Christ and many prophets (Malachi for example) challenged the religious leaders in how they lived in accordance with the scriptures. One couldn’t rely on his/her education, expertise, experience and be safe from the judgment of God; one couldn’t go through the rituals and be safe. One’s heart of seeking the kingdom and being pure (i.e. uncorrupted by the world) was what God would weigh—the pure religion mentioned in Micah and James and the previous post. 

As a Christian running a business, I can’t rely on the company’s success as evidence that I’m doing everything in accordance with the scriptures. To be righteous, I don’t need to get out of the corrupt world of business but I do need to change how I lead and manage my business. This then is the challenge of being a biblical business radical: am I willing, courageous to change how my company operates when our policies and practices match what the world does but doesn’t meet the higher expectations of God as revealed in His scriptures?

A quick note for those who don’t own their businesses but are still interested in these topics because they are the general manager, a director, vice-president, CEO of a company owned publicly or by another firm: some of the principles still apply and where you do have influence I would encourage you to do so. You may not be able to change corporate policy. You may, however, be able to change site policies or certain procedures. You certainly can espouse and promote changes. Indeed, I’ve generated change from lower tiers of early in my career by operating my departments with some biblical models and those departments’ successes created interest in the business practices and then were adopted company-wide. Where there was a conflict with biblical principles and company policy, I either refused, modified its execution or left the company after a period. I was not perfect in this. I was not a perfect, spiritual leader either throughout my career nor now. I am a learning, growing leader. Into this learning and growing journey I invite you.