Business for the Common Good

A Christian Vision for the Marketplace

Kenman L. Wong, Scott B. Rae

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780830868414
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Etica aziendale
• Index: Business

Is business just a way to make money? Or can the marketplace a venue for service to others?Scott B. Rae and Kenman L. Wong seek to explore this and other critical business issues from a uniquely Christian perspective, offering up a vision for work and service that is theologically grounded and practically oriented. Among the specific questions they address along the way are these: - What implications does the Christian story have for the vision, mission or sense of purpose that shapes business engagement?- What parts of business can be affirmed and practiced "as is" and what parts need to be rejected or transformed?- What challenges exist as attempts are made to live out Christian ideals in a broken world characterized by tight margins, fierce competition and short-term investor pressures?- How do Christian values inform specific functional areas of business such as the management of people, marketing and environmental sustainability?Business can be even more than an environment through which individual Christians grow in Christlikeness. In this book you'll discover how it can also be a means toward serving the common good.The Christian Worldview Integration Series, edited by J. P. Moreland and Francis J. Beckwith, seeks to promote a robust personal and conceptual integration of Christian faith and learning, with textbooks focused on disciplines such as education, psychology, literature, politics, science, communications, biology, philosophy, and history.

YOUR WORK IS AN ALTAR

Tom and James, both in their late twenties, are longtime friends. They went to college together and settled in the same city after graduation. Both have been working in the same part of the city for the past few years. Their spouses are good friends, and they get together as couples periodically. Tom works for the consulting division of one of the major international accounting firms, helping companies set up and maintain internal financial control systems. He is on a partnership track, and his work has been well received by the office’s partners. Although he finds his work challenging and stimulating, the long hours do get to him sometimes. He often wonders how he will handle the demands now that he and his wife have young children. He sometimes thinks about starting his own business, hoping that might give him more flexibility with his hours. He gets excited about that prospect and likes the idea of being his own boss. He knows some former colleagues who have gone out on their own, and he senses that he has the right mix of people skills, drive and creativity to launch a successful business.

James has been working in business too, but he is in the midst of a major life change. He has been in the software industry since college, and for some time he has worked as a sales representative for a large company in the area. Recently, he began to attend seminary classes part time. He jokingly calls it being on the “eight-year plan” to finish his seminary degree since he can only take a few classes at a time. He and his wife have been volunteering in his church’s college ministry for the past few years. He has been leading a small group Bible study for some men, and his wife is leading a group of women. The college pastor gave him several opportunities to speak to the whole college group during their main weekly meeting. He can’t remember when he was so nervous or had worked so hard to prepare. This was much more demanding than any sales presentation, but he found the speaking times very satisfying. He also received positive feedback from many in the group. The college pastor has been encouraging him to consider leaving his business to devote himself to local church ministry full time. The church where he is involved would like him on their staff eventually. He is planning on continuing working in sales to pay the bills until he can transition to full-time status with this church or another one in the area.

As they talk about their careers, it becomes clear that they are wrestling with what God is calling them to do with their respective occupations. James believes that entering full-time ministry with his church is the best way to maximize his ability to help advance God’s work in the world, certainly better, in his view, than continuing in business, and he encourages Tom to consider similar changes for himself. As Tom hears him talk about this, he has difficulty relating to him because he is very content and senses that his gifts are being best used in business. James recalls for Tom a speaker he heard recently who asked a group of college students and young professionals in the audience this provocative question: “Those of you who are business majors, why don’t you get out of the ’ticky-tack’ world and do some meaningful work that contributes to other people’s lives?” The point he was making is that real impact for God is to be made in church-based work, on the mission field or in a nonprofit organization, not in business. This was very challenging for James and captures the point he is trying to make in his conversation with Tom. Think about how would you respond to the speaker’s perspective, and to James if you were in Tom’s position.

One way to respond would be by arguing that the church and nonprofit organizations need businesspeople because “ministry” and meeting the needs of others requires capital. Business, then, has value in God’s economy in terms of what it can accomplish for “ministry.” Or you could insist that if James leaves his business, he loses his strategic platform to live out his faith. You could remind the speaker that most of the people he works with will rarely, if ever, come to church. Those people think that most pastors are not all that relevant to them since they don’t live in their world. These responses would illustrate some of the reasons that God calls people to business. That is, business has value in that it is a means to support “ministry” or other good causes and to share one’s faith.

Undoubtedly, God may call people to business for these reasons. However, our goal in this chapter is to ask if there is more to the value of work than servicing other ends, such as wealth creation or a strategic platform for living out one’s faith. We would suggest that, though valid, these are incomplete reasons for the value of work because they do not uphold the value of work that the Bible assigns. We will argue that work is best seen as having nobility because it is an altar—a significant place at which we devote our time, energy, gifts and skills in service to God, and that work is ministry and has extraordinary value in serving God.

BACKGROUND ON WORK IN BIBLICAL TIMES

The view of work from a Christian worldview stands in sharp contrast both to the classical era (see the discussion of work and leisure in the classical Greek thinkers in chapter three) and to the culture at large today. The Bible has a lot to say about our work, and what we do for a living matters a great deal to God. Jesus spent the vast majority of his earthly life working for a living as a carpenter and spent most of his time around ordinary working people. Many of his parables were drawn from the everyday world of first-century work, such as agriculture and various trades. Even the apostles worked to support themselves so that they would not be a burden to the churches they served.

In biblical times the workplace was a very different place than it is today. Most people worked with their hands in agriculture or some trade or craft. There was no such thing as an industrial system, no stock market and few knowledge-based jobs that would stimulate someone’s mind without wearing out his or her body. Unless a person was part of a wealthy class, which was rare, he or she worked very hard to provide a subsistence level of income, and people fortunate enough to practice a trade could rise to something resembling today’s lower middle class.

In biblical times people didn’t consciously think about their work in the same way we do today. Generally, people did not connect their work to their self-fulfillment, even though honest labor in the fields or in a trade could contribute positively to a person’s self-esteem. For the most part work was necessary for survival, and if a worker was aware of how it contributed to a sense of well-being, that was an added bonus. There wasn’t a variety of jobs to choose from—people typically went into the occupation that their parents (most likely their father) were in and were trained on the job. There was little opportunity to weigh options about which occupation would provide a meaningful life. Those questions were secondary, if addressed at all. Whereas today, we expect people to be able to articulate how their job fits in with who they are.

In the ancient world most people did not retire voluntarily. They worked until they were not physically able to work any longer and then were taken care of by their extended family. There was no widely available mechanism for people to save and invest for their retirement. The idea that someone could be financially independent and not have to work was limited to a small class of wealthy landowners and political rulers. It was simply not available for the average person. So when the Bible addresses work, the writers assume that people will work for the duration of their lives because it was necessary for them to do so in order to survive in a rough-and-tumble economic environment.

The Bible helps to fill out the view of work that existed in the ancient world. God has a lot to say about why we work. The Bible offers a variety of reasons for work—that is, we ought to work because of what work can do for our community and ourselves. But we also work for more significant reasons: work accomplishes God’s work and purposes in the world. First, we will focus on the initial reasons, because the Bible takes these very seriously.

WE WORK TO SUPPORT OURSELVES

First, we should work in order to support ourselves and not be a burden on the community. The apostle Paul lays it out pretty clearly to the Thessalonians that everyone has the obligation to work to provide for their own needs. He puts it like this:

We command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you…. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

We hear that some among you are idle…. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. (2 Thess 3:6-8, 10-12)

There were exceptions to this general rule in the church. Those who were unable to work, either through some mental or physical limitation, were entitled to share in the community’s goods. Those were the poor of which the Bible speaks, and both Testaments are clear that the community is to take care of the poor (Deut 15:1-11; Lk 3:11; Gal 2:10; Jas 2:15-17). The Old Testament set up a social safety net for the able-bodied poork nown as gleaning (Lev 19:9-10). Here the law prohibited a farmer from harvesting all of the crops that grew on his fields. Some had to be left for those who had no land of their own to cultivate. But they still had to take initiative. They had to come to the fields themselves and harvest what they were able. Only those incapable of working, due to physical or mental infirmity, were exempt from the obligation to work.

WE WORK IN ORDER TO TAKE CARE OF OUR FAMILIES AND RELATIVES

The Bible is equally clear on the obligation for adults to provide for the needs of their families. In fact, the New Testament states it bluntly. In writing to Timothy about how to take care of those in need, Paul says, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith” (1 Tim 5:8). It would be difficult to put it more strongly. If someone is able to work, he or she has the obligation to work to provide for the family’s needs.

It was assumed that people would continue working until they could no longer do so. At that point their children took on the obligation, according to 1 Timothy 5:4, 8, to provide for parents and other relatives as they had needs. The biblical writers assumed that people would work until they could no longer do so, because it was necessary to provide for their needs.

WE WORK TO CARE FOR THOSE IN NEED

God’s command to work isn’t only for our and our family’s needs. We work in order to have money to be generous to those in need. We don’t often think of work in this way, but the Bible is clear that one of the main reasons we work is to help people who are economically poor. Of course, this assumes that we are living within our means and have money available to assist those in need. Paul pointedly says: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need” (Eph 4:28). You’ll notice that the passage doesn’t say that people are to stop stealing and work so that they can support themselves. That’s assumed. The point of the passage is that they would have a surplus of goods left over in order to help those who don’t have enough.

The early Christian community was quite poor. It’s true that there were some wealthy people, but most were farmers or tradespeople who were not far from poverty, particularly if misfortune struck. The early church was full of people who needed financial assistance, and Paul strikingly calls on the church not only to work hard doing something productive but to share generously with the poor out of their income. The recipients included not only the poor in the immediate community but others with financial needs throughout the ancient world. For example, Paul encourages the Corinthians to give generously out of their abundance to help those in Jerusalem who were the victims of a terrible famine (2 Cor 8:13-15).

Jesus makes it clear why it’s so important to be generous to those in need. He puts it in terms of a parable:

When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Lk 14:12-14, emphasis added)

The italicized portions represent the point of Jesus’ teaching. We often do things out of our self-interest—in order to gain something for ourselves. But Jesus insists that we do right by the poor even though they can’t do anything for us in return. (Jesus is assuming that they can’t repay us anything financial.) In fact, the reason he insists on being generous to the poor is precisely because they cannot repay us. Think about why Jesus would insist on this. He is calling us to care for the poor unconditionally, without any ex...