The Role of Profit in the Christian Life

“I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea." Isaiah 48:17 & 18

This is a difficult verse for me. I have always seen profit as undesirable - anything more than you need is excess. That’s not biblical. Now I’m stuck investigating profit’s role in the Christian life.

I hated money. That’s why I wanted to go into ministry, counseling, mission work, etc. If you think about it, non-profits survive on someone else’s earned money. If you don’t understand godly business, it’s easy to judge our donors as less-than’s because they’re not in ministry. Actually, it’s sometimes the opposite. People who are faithful to God in their business face greater character challenges and hotter fires of temptation.  I thought I flunked out of the kingdom when God kept me in business. Having to deal with money and profit forces you to wrestle even harder with keeping God first. In the end, you develop even greater Christlike character.

In my study a couple things are very clear to me - one is that this you can’t make profit a hard and fast rule; as a general rule will you be poorer or richer for following Christ? It’s impossible to say - Christ raises up from dust and poverty kings and princes, and humbles the wealthy and powerful. He leads business owners to become monks and the homeless to create empires. The same God that called Jeremiah to live in the bottom of the well called Daniel to run a kingdom! When looking from our own human eyes it seems unjust but I have to trust God’s plan more than my own poor eyesight. The only thing you can say for certain is that following God will change your world.

The Bible seems to focus much more on the internals, which makes sense. Money is a proxy for so many things in life. Some people crave wealth because it brings security, others because it brings fame or respect. But God can give all of those things without you owning a penny. But on the other hand He loves giving His children good gifts.

All I can say is Come Lord Jesus. Yes - whatever your plan is for me, I say Yes Lord. In either abasing or abounding, I will praise your name.

 

 

Multiplication

 “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” -Genesis 1:28

We were made to manage and govern. What starts with control of our own lives grows to governing a family, a small group, various projects, then employees, departments, and organizations… The more faithful you are, the more God puts you in charge of. I’ve seen this happen even with stay-at-home moms; when they govern their kids wisely, other parents flock to them to hear their advice. While their domain may appear small to our eyes, the reality is a much larger impact.

The results of good governance can be seen in these verses: fruitfulness and multiplication. Whenever something is being managed well, it will multiply. While I have usually only looked at these verses from a people perspective (that we are supposed to multiply people) I actually think it goes much deeper, talking about all aspects of our lives like the rest of the passage is saying. Multiplication:

• Deals with a geometric increase, and has a compound interest-like growth curve. Addition can be seductive because you get results faster and quicker. In multiplication if you do the right thing for 20 years, you may see little to no fruit for the first 10, then the growth starts and the impact is way more than addition.
• Multiplication implies the fruitfulness of the fruit. For example, in finances getting a salary is addition; every month the amount goes up. But that money isn’t producing more money, whereas in an investment it would be. Addition to the church is where we are adding people to the pews but not training them. Full discipleship is multiplication, and each disciple in turn creates other disciples. Even though the process is painful and slow, when the compounding effect kicks in there is great fruit.
• Multiplication can work in positive and negative directions. 10 x 5 is 50, but -10 times the same number is -50. We need to be careful when we have been elevated in governance because both our strengths and weaknesses are multiplied.

We spend so much time in management setting goals and talking about what are positive results, and it drastically changes depending on what you are managing. However, in one word, God sums up all of his expectations and the results of good management: multiplication. It’s absolutely true… In the library I want people who can multiply the attendance and impact of the books, in the sewing school I want people who can multiply their teaching and products, in the IT sector I want people who can multiply my investment in them.

I am also amazed at how different from accepted reality this one word is… Most people think good management is stability; things will look just like when you left them, but we need to know God expects more and to the people under us we need to give them the freedom and expectation of multiplication.

 

The Most Celebrated Giver

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the trust, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.” -Mark 12:41-44

Wow. Like everything Jesus, it’s just so counter-cultural. We celebrate the large donations, the huge amounts, and despise 50 cents here, $2 there… We look to the wealthy for advice on finances and life, and think the poor have nothing to give. Money is power, especially in Mozambique where there is absolutely no limit on what you can do with it. Want to sleep with a bunch of women? Want to kill and elephant or lion? Want to break the law? Everything has a price, even the things that should never be able to be bought.

So why did Jesus say this widow gave more than all the others? And, even more strangely for me, why didn’t he walk in and bless the socks off this lady? He could have given her an oil jar that never ran out, multiplied some bread, gave her money etc… But he didn’t. I have friends that give us $5 a month or $20 a month and they are so hard up financially I told them they really shouldn’t. But that wasn’t Jesus’s attitude.

And again, we’re back at money and back to a verse that quickly proves I don’t really understand money biblically. With leadership, the path is radically different than what the world does but I understand it; I understand why it works and how to go about doing it. Serve, consider others better than yourself… Though there are some basics, there are many nuances. But I get them and understand how these verses fit together.

Money? Not so much. The only thing I’m really good at is in not spending it, and having many ways of earning it. Even things as simple as “If you are annoyed at taking a job you are not getting paid enough for it” and “Other people can assume some of the risk” are things I am learning but at a slow pace.

And then 2 copper coins… I have my door wide open for large donors, people of influence and international visitors. Do I have it as open for widows, small donations, and the nobodies? Can I without driving myself insane? Do I see donations from the eyes of heaven or my natural eyes?

Just like the last lesson, Jesus isn't condemning the big donations but we should:

• Pay attention to the sacrifice the person made, not just the amount
• Not rush to helping people out in a transactional way when we know they are hurting

And in our own donations:

• Judge not on the number but on the sacrifice
• Give with joy and give willingly
• Avoid comparing ourselves to others or we may despise the little we can give when it may be the greatest gift at he moment.