Financial Discipleship @ Work - Part 2Egzanp

People before profit

Following the Lord in business can sometimes be costly if we are to be effective witnesses for Him.

The great commandment is to love God with everything we have and our neighbour like ourselves. Loving our neighbour can mean using money or our business assets to help people solve their problems – even our competitors!
Jesus told the parable of the Samaritan who helped someone he was supposed to dislike – a Jew. The Samaritan traveller used his time and money to help the injured man. He paid for the wounded man's care and even gave the innkeeper a blank check to take care of the victim. A financial disciple uses his resources to help those in need.

Following God and His principles of doing business could cost you. However, the joy of seeing God work in the lives of others is wonderful! We must put the Lord’s command to be faithful witnesses to His grace and love before our financial or business requirements. Jesus promised that if we acknowledge Him before others, He will also represent our needs before the Father. Put God first, and you’ll never be last!

Will owned a large manufacturing company. Early one morning, Will was greeted at his office door by his plant manager, whose name was John. Without comment, John submitted his resignation, effective immediately. Will was devastated; for the past five years, he had been grooming John to become president of his company.

When he questioned John about his reasons for leaving, John refused to discuss them. Will couldn’t understand it. He paid John more than anyone else in the company, including himself. But nothing would change John’s mind.

Will asked John to stay at least long enough to hire and train a new plant manager, but John angrily refused. Since John had been such a good friend, Will held a company going-away party and gave John a substantial severance bonus.

Three months later, John’s reasons for leaving became apparent: He had opened his own company and copied Will’s best-selling product. In time, John’s company grew, becoming Will’s leading competitor.

Nine years later, Will learned that there was a design problem with one of John’s new products and that several lawsuits were being filed against John’s company. Now, Will had forgiven John years before and prayed for him regularly.

He felt strongly that the Lord wanted him to reach out to John, so he bought one of John’s products, tested it, and discovered the problem. Then, amazingly, he told his engineers to find a way to fix it. After making and testing the necessary modifications, Will called John and told him how to solve his problem.

Radical Christianity! That’s what some would say. Stupidity! That’s what others would say. Only time will tell how John will respond to this act of unconditional Christ-like love.

The results are not Will’s responsibility. His responsibility, like ours, is to do what the Lord wants him to do.

By now, you may be thinking, where did Will learn to operate his business like this? Has he lost his mind? What about the bottom line? But Will’s radically different decisions are based on the principles found in the bestselling book of all time—the Bible.

How can you ‘love your neighbour’ in business and bring glory to God?