How to balance being a Christian and a successful business person: Bird Lovegod

Money can take over our hearts, and then our minds, and then our lives, very easily, unless we consciously prevent it from doing so. Jesus said, ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ Dangerous then, to have treasure on earth that enters into and absorbs our heart.

A great many ‘successful’ and rich and powerful people have suffered this condition, and they bring a great deal of darkness upon not only themselves, but on all of us.

So how then to be a successful business person, and a Christian?

Fortunately, there are Biblical principles that can be consciously applied to business, and in doing so, this not only protects against the false god of money, but also works to create a good, honest company. Let’s take an example, a well known one.

Jesus said, ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.’ This well known saying has become part of our cultural heritage, we teach it to children at a young age as a way of developing good character, but it's easily overlooked in adult practice. In business, how can this golden rule be applied? It’s actually quite simple in most instances.

We’ve all been on the end of bad customer service for example. Yet as a Christian business owner, if a customer feels let down by us, what should we do?

Of course, we should do whatever we would like to be done if the roles were reversed. We should listen, apologise, explain our side of the situation in order to help the customer see there was no bad intention, then accept responsibility, and make good however we can.

We should treat the customer or client or supplier of whoever they are as we ourselves would want to be treated in their position. How many companies do this? How would society change if they actually did so? How many disputes and irritations and financial distresses would be avoided? What if companies treated their suppliers in this way?

Especially the ones based overseas, the ones employing people on pitiful wages. How about the way the big supermarkets treat their suppliers, sometimes taking months to pay them. And how about the relationship between the company and the employees? Or non employee workers. Do the gig economy companies treat their workers as the directors would like to be treated?

Business is often used as an excuse for exploitation, for lack of humanity towards each other. In practice, business is a leading cause of such behaviour, from small petty instances to dramatically world changing ones.

If we really want to transform the world, creating businesses in the image of Christ, in the image of his teachings which are his way, is the most impactful thing we can do.