News Flash! Your Christian Business Should Make a Profit!
I know that comes as a
surprise to many Christian business people, who have been conditioned by our contemporary religious culture to think of money-making as a second-class endeavor. Running a profitable business is, in some religious circles, a tasteless endeavor that is barely tolerated. It may be accepted if you give some of the money to them, but it is often viewed with disdain and suspicion.
Good thing
Abraham hadn’t been infected with that paradigm. He built a huge business, probably employing thousands of people, and became a very wealthy man. He has become, for countless generations, the archetypal example of faith. His faith, as an old man, was so powerful that he was ready to kill his son as an act of obedience.
While we often focus on his faith, we rarely acknowledge how
he built that faith. He became one of the first Bible characters to model the principle that building a successful business is one of the best ways to build an enduring faith. He became a man of legendary faith, while at the same time building an economic enterprise that made him very wealthy. He was so successful in building an organization and multiplying wealth that he could employ “318 trained men who were born in his household.” (Genesis
14:14)
Abraham understood that doing business well generated money and that the creation of wealth is one of the God-given purposes for a business.
