The Glory of Business

God has created us to pursue business, but not only to provide for our needs and make a profit. His primary purpose is to experience the glory He designed for us when He gave us the life and gifts He provided for us.

 

The problem is many of us don’t understand what God has done. We tend to think that living for God is one thing, but conducting business is another. What we miss is the fact that God is not only interested in our going to church and participating in Bible study but also in how we run our business and even more in why we run our business. In fact why we run our business is as important to God than how we worship and what we learn in Bible study.

 

God has a glory for business, a greater glory than many of us may realize, a glory that means more to Him than and of our other achievements. This glory rises out of the New Covenant, what we can call the New Covenant Lifestyle. What we must understand is that the New Covenant is the greatest source of life God has ever given us because it is how He has arranged for us to live in Christ. The cross is the core of the New Covenant, the reality that makes it possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to dwell within us and that gives us the life that He created us to know.

 

Because we live the New Covenant life style we can express the glory of business.

 

This is true because we conduct our business according to the New Covenant value of triumph in Christ (II Cor. 2:14) and not according to the value of financial success.

 

Because of this

 

we are authentic because of our integrity and not because of peddling our purposes for our profit ( 2:17)

we are authorized by God because of our intentions and not because of pretending our honesty for our profit (2:17)

we are affirmed by God because of our intensity and not because of protecting our motives for our profit (2:17)

 

We ask the Lord two basic questions in every conversation for every deal:

 

1. What do you want me to do God?

2. What do you want me to say Christ?

 

If you do this you will never lose heart (II Cor. 4:1) no matter what happens because if you do this you will renounce the things that have discouraged you in the past. Actions such as

 

disgraceful and underhanded ways boasted about to your peers but displeasing to God (4:2),

distorted and deceptive practices of integrity designed to appear honest but intended to make a greater profit (4:2),

deceptive claims and promises (“I’m a Christian”) that misrepresent God’s word and advance your interests (4:2).

 

Instead when you talk you should speak out of Christ’s interests and in His resources but not in His name (4:3).

 

His interests and resources should not come up until they are well established through long-term relationship unless there is a natural way to discuss the topic and there is genuine interest in it.

 

You commend yourself to the concern of others first and then seek your own concerns once you’ve your established in them so no one can deny your integrity, doubt your intention, or distrust your word.

 

Even if there are those who are totally closed to you, who resist and reject you, that is not your fault (II Cor. 4:3-6).

 

They have not yet responded to the truth and they may never choose to do so, but that’s their choice and not your fault.

 

If they reject you, it’s not because of you, but because of Christ in you and because of their willful blindness in them.

 

They have bought into the world’s system, a system that promises success, recognition, fame, possessions, security, and more, but ultimately brings them death.

 

You are less than a friend if you play to that end with them.

 

If they are ever to have life they will only find it in you because you found it in Christ.

 

Your ultimate aim in business is to be the light of Christ in the darkness of success because His light shines through your heart from the face of Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.

 

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