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5 Essential Business Principles from the Bible

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5 Essential Business Principles From The BibleThe Bible is full of advice on how to handle money. Every business owner can (and should) build their business on these essential principles straight from the Word of God. As you read through these Bible verses and associated principles, ask yourself where you see room for improvement in your own business dealings.

1. Conduct your business with humility.

Be realistic about your human nature. Everyone makes mistakes, and I’d venture to guess you’ve made a few. Humility causes us to listen to our customers, to hear their concerns, and to address their problems. Having a large ego won’t get you anywhere and can cause your business to stumble.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 NIV

Does someone not like your product? Give them a refund. Show your customers that you want to make sure they’re getting value for their dollars. In several of my eBooks, I suggest that if the buyer dislikes the book that they send me an email requesting a refund. I want my work to be worth the cost. Don’t you?

2. Be diligent and avoid laziness.

If your job is draining you of your energy, and you can’t seem to work as you should, it might be time to change jobs. Find work that you can be passionate about. But in whatever you’re doing, be diligent. Laziness won’t bring in the money – customers pay for results.

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. – Proverbs 10:4 NIV

Some practical ways to boost your energy include getting adequate rest to avoid exhaustion, exercising regularly, and eating foods as close to their natural, God-intended state as possible.

3. Be fair and don’t cheat in your business dealings.

Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. – Deuteronomy 25:13 NIV

Standardized weights and measures were used in Biblical times to conduct business transactions. The Bible here is speaking out against cheating others in business dealings. Both parties – the buyer and the seller – should “be on the same page” regarding a transaction, each understanding exactly what they are to receive as a result of the deal. Selling a product or service? Thoroughly describe what it is that you’re selling. It’s also a good idea to “test” your description by having potential customers ask questions about the product or service before selling it to them. The less questions they have, the better job you’ve done at describing what it is you’re selling.

4. Gather little by little.

Television likes to tell the stories of people who encounter windfalls of cash: business ventures that are overnight successes, lottery tickets that bring in millions, and attic-retrieved antiques worth a decade’s worth of wages. These sudden windfalls probably won’t happen to you – the odds are very much against you. Instead, the Bible teaches to gather money little by little.

Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. – Proverbs 13:11 NIV

There are honest circumstances under which one might earn a windfall, but the Bible tells us that our focus should be on earning money little by little.

5. Don’t be timid.

Be humble and bold at the same time. The Holy Spirit can give you power to run your business and self-discipline to manage your time.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. – 2nd Timothy 1:7 NIV

What is it that you’d love to do? In what areas of your business do you need more boldness? If you’re looking to improve your business and your life, make sure you stay rooted in the Word of God. The Bible has much more to say to those looking for help. Take these verses to heart, and seek the Lord. And if you only remember one piece of advice from this article, remember this:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. – Matthew 7:12 NIV

What are some other Biblical business principles that you think should be practiced?

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Bob is the founder of Christian Personal Finance, a website helping people make more, save more, and give more away.

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How Covetousness Affects Our Finances

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Covetousness is not only a sin that God warns us against, it’s also one that can have a profound affect on our finances.

Covetousness is an obsessive desire that drives us to chase and acquire things that aren’t good for us, or that we really can’t afford.

The Tenth Commandment

God considered covetousness so significant that He built an entire commandment around it:

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” ~ Exodus 20:17

As human beings, most of us may not give a whole lot of weight to this commandment. We may think one of the following:

  1. Covetousness is waaayyyy down at number ten – it must be the least important commandment, otherwise why would God put it last?
  2. Covetousness seems less like a sin and more like a heavy temptation.
  3. We all covet, don’t we? How bad can it be?
  4. Covetousness seems like a minor league offense compared to murder and worshipping false gods; God won’t be too sore if I break this one.
  5. How can covetousness be a sin if I’m not even sure what it is?

What is Covetousness?

I think the last point (#5) may be something of a legitimate issue – do we even know what covetousness is?

Dictionary.com defines it as 1. inordinately or wrongly desirous of wealth or possessions; greedy. 2. eagerly desirous. Synonyms include words like grasping, rapacious and avaricious. The definition makes the point that covetousness is a wicked thing.

We all want things that we don’t have – a house of our own, a car to drive, a retirement plan to rely on in old age – is it wrong to want them? Probably not. A certain amount of financial stability can even make us better witnesses of the Gospel.

But covetousness goes beyond simply wanting better for ourselves and doing what’s necessary to get there. Covetousness can turn the pursuit of even noble goals into an obsession, and idol. People end up deep in debt, or chasing a lifestyle they can’t afford. At the extreme, it can play out through deception and theft. At any of those points we’ve crossed a line in which we’ve moved from the desire to have or to accomplish something healthy into an outright sin.

It’s a fine line. Charles Stanley preached an excellent sermon on the topic a few years back, using your neighbor’s wife as an example. Admiring the wife from afar isn’t covetousness, it’s a temptation. Purposing to put yourself in places and situations where you’ll cross paths is a sin.

Unholy desire + action = covetousness.

Covetousness – the Media’s Favorite Vice

One thing we have today that didn’t exist in Biblical times is the media. You know, ads, TV programs, ads, web content and more ads. We already want what we don’t have, and don’t need. Slick advertisements take us right where our flesh wants to go. That’s really good for the vendors behind the ads, and really bad for us.

It feeds our covetousness.

The mass media make covetousness look and feel good, or at least normal. This is bad because it makes sin seem like it isn’t really sin.

Humans Tend to Conform

Most people conform to their peers, which means we want what everyone else has. In fact, we come to believe that what everyone else has is what is normal to have. We deserve at least as much.

Little thought goes into whether we need these things or not. We might, for example, buy a house just because it’s what others do. We might buy a new car every five years, not because we need to, but because that’s what every one else seems to be doing.

We may even come to believe it’s our “right” to have certain possessions, at which point the possessions become idols.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, millions of people bought houses using “liar loans” – so called because you declared a certain income level that was never actually verified by the lender. Millions lost those houses because they could not afford them.

Dare to be Different

One of the best ways to overcome covetousness in a society saturated by media messages and mass conformity is to be different. As Christians, we’re called to come out from among them and be different (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).

That’s a major part of our witness to the world.

It takes confidence, courage, and strength in our convictions to be different. It also takes a willingness to step out of the herd, recognize unbiblical messages, and reject them.

That’s why so few ever do it. But that’s also why it’s such a powerful witness.

Did I mention it’s a less expensive way to live?

Freeing up Money for Giving and Investing

One of the biggest problems with covetousness are its opportunity costs. While we’re out chasing after wants (posing as needs) we spend time, attention and money to get them. That means resources are squandered on immediate desires meant to make us look good in the eyes of others.

If we stop chasing after vanity, we have more time, energy and money for worthy pursuits – the kind that honor our Father in Heaven rather than men.

The more we’re able to avoid the sin of covetousness, the more money we’ll have available for giving, saving, and investing. We’ll also free ourselves from want and pave a path of financial independence that can help us live a life of higher purpose.

Have you ever thought about the true depth of the sin of covetousness and its effect on our lives?

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photo credit: Brett Jordan

Proverb About Saving For a Rainy Day

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Proverb About Saving For A Rainy DayWhen it comes to money, as Christians we might be tempted to write it all off to that saying, “money is the root of all evil”. After all, that saying itself comes from the Bible (1 Timothy) and warns us against the obsession with money. But even within the Bible, money has it’s proper uses, and one of them is saving it.

This is not the wanton saving of money in order to build an ever larger pile for its own sake, nor is it an attempt to build treasures here on Earth. But the Bible teaches us to be ready for what ever happens, and a big part of that preparation is with savings.

What does the Bible teach about saving for a rainy day?

”Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” – Proverbs 6:-6-8

This verse is both powerful and effective in convincing us of the need to save money, but like all Bible verses there are several things happening at once.

Saving involves sacrifice

Notice the passage uses the term “sluggard?” Maybe that’s a bit of a harsh word, but then again maybe it isn’t.

Sluggard means “lazy” or “inactive”, and the verse implies that such an attitude might exist when it comes to saving money. The implication is that we may need to do something more, something beyond ordinary if we are to save—the business-as-usual attitude won’t cut it. Translation: saving money requires active participation. It’s not something carried out by sluggards!

To put that into practical perspective it means:

  • We may have to work a little bit harder in order to have money to save
  • We may have to reduce current consumption to free up money to save
  • We need to have a plan of action to save and a willingness to carry it through
  • We need to accept that life today may not be as pleasant while we prepare for an uncertain future

Saving is a natural process

The same verse that uses sluggard also recommends looking to the ant for direction. Ants, as we know, are constantly moving, constantly working, constantly storing up. It’s that storing up process—or saving in our world—that enables the ant to survive. Ants are not alone in storing either. Most animals that have the capacity to save do. Rodents do it (think “squirreling away”), as do many birds. We can even say that many mammals “save” by overeating in summer in order to build up fat storage for the winter months when food is scarce.

Saving then is a part of the natural process. In reality, certainly in the human realm, it’s very much a survival skill. Ever notice how people who have relatively little income or unstable occupations are able to survive all the uncertainty? It’s possible if you’re a devoted saver.

There’s a need to save “in season”

The passage specifically references ”stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest”, and I think this may be the most relevant part of the passage.

As human beings, we’re not nearly as dependent on the seasons as animals are, yet we have “seasons” of life, that are longer and often deeper in scope than seasonal weather shifts. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 outlines this clearly, as do so many other passages and verses throughout the Bible.

Good times turn to bad, and bad times turn to good, but the takeaway is acknowledging the changes and preparing for them. In the human world, we do this by saving money. The time to do this is “in-season”, when our incomes are strong and our obligations are low, that way when “winter” comes—when life isn’t so good—we’ll have the benefit of all that we stored up from a better season.

We can think of this as playing out over various season cycles. In the near term, the cycle might include saving money in season against the possibility of a job loss—like building up an emergency fund. Over the long-term, this would involve saving money in season (during our working years) for the “winter of life”—old age and retirement.

The Bible teaches us about such seasons and tells us to prepare for them. We can think of that as scripture telling us to save for a rainy day.

How your savings can be a blessing

Moving beyond Proverbs 6, your savings can be a blessing in so many ways.

  1. By enabling you to take care of yourself in a time of trouble you’re not being a burden to others
  2. Having savings enables you to help others who are in a difficult time
  3. When you have savings you aren’t living paycheck-to-paycheck and will find it easier to be more generous
  4. Savings are a tangible way to reduce worry—and worry is one of our biggest false idols
  5. Having extra money saved can enable and embolden you to do more mission work, knowing that you’ll be in good shape even if the mission work costs you some time, money and income
  6. It’s always easier to be a good steward of your money when you have at least a little more of it than you need

Money itself isn’t the root of all evil—it’s the love of money that is. We can have it and use as long as we see it as a tool and not as something to be worshipped. Properly used, such as when we save for a rainy day, is just such a tool as well as a blessing. At a minimum, we can save for a rainy day and know that we’re doing the right thing.

After all—that’s what the Bible teaches us.

Have you ever had any sense of a conflict between your faith and saving money?

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