Biblical Business Radical: Who's on Your Team?

Too often we focus on the more blatant qualities--yea, even sins--of our teammates and our competition. Even so as the church family looks at itself and society. We tend to focus on the most egregious of temptations, traps and defeats: adultery and other sexual sins, embezzlement, fraud, violent crimes, etc. We tend to ignore the softer issues: greed, narcissism, envy/jealousy, quarrelsomeness, divisiveness, self-centeredness and so on. We ignore them until they become destructive like destroying team unity, effectiveness by being a distraction or impeding progress. (We even 'reward' those who have bounced back--repented--from the most blatant 'sins' and don't reward those who have bounced back from the quieter sins. The big sins get the big book/movie deals. The small sins barely get lunchroom chatter or a tweet.)

Who should be a 'citizen' of our kingdom? God has ordained that people like those noted above will not 'enter' the kingdom (Galatians 5.21; Ephesians 5.5). The citizens of heaven--and preferably a part of our team--are people that:

• Express fealty (as in the beginning of the Lord's prayer, acknowledging the 'chain of command' and disavowing anarchy--"No one can tell me what to do. I'm a free person.")
• Trustworthy and trusting (earned or believed until disproven)--dependable, competent, having integrity, approachable, accepting
• Forgiving as much as expecting to be forgiven
• Loving, joyful, peaceful, self-controlled, good, gentle, patient, kind--even at the top of the leadership hierarchy
• Meek and hungry for becoming a better person, a better neighbor, a better friend, a better teammate
• Peace-making--not just peace-keeping by separating those in conflict but resolving the conflicts
• Motivated by serving others and not themselves (pure in heart)
• Unperturbed by persecution, bad-mouthing, bad press unless it's justified and then they take it as an opportunity to discover how to become a better person... (see above)
• Showing mercy when desired--i.e. understanding that treating people equally can be treating them unfairly (e.g. two people who are late to work: one is a single parent with sick kids while the other was out too late partying with friends).

You might be able to add to this list. I hope that any of you with some Sunday School/Catechism experience will recognize those qualities above come from lists like the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) and the Beatitudes (and Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7).