How to make good business

Our scriptures teach from varied verses from the Old and New Testament how to behave in various conditions of life. We will look at some verses which guide us on how we can make good business as Christian business men and women. We shall learn that our scriptures instruct us:

• Not to neither oppress nor rob anyone in order to be rich
• Not to despise the complaints of those who are under or serving us but to pay their due wages in due time
• To be honest and show justice
• To be generous and be able to lend to others
• To be hard working and to avoid fraud
• To be good stewards of the riches God has given us

Our scriptures say you should not oppress your neighbour, nor rob him. Many people who call themselves business men have as duty to rob and they call that business. Wives, if your husband says he is a business man and you do not know what kind of business he is doing, please be wise. It holds true to men who do not know what kind of business their wives are doing. Our days, when you ask a man what are you doing now? He’ll say I’m doing business; what I see I do and if I do not see I hang on. That is a very empty answer that is suspicious; please let’s go into God’s word before making any decision in our life. If you are doing business and it happens that you hire a man for a duty; the Bible says pay off the person when the service is rendered and let it not remain with you all night until morning. Leviticus 19:13 “Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbour, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” There is a phenomenon here in Cameroon and elsewhere in the world that business men hire servants and are not willing to pay them. The Bible says you should not stay even a night when the service is rendered. This does not only apply to business men, it also applies to families who hire house-helps or baby-sitters. When their services are rendered, please pay their money whether it is for a monthly payment or yearly reward. The Lord of Host says, He will judge those who do not fear God; the sorcerers, the adulterers, those who swear falsely, those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, those who oppress the widow and the orphan and those who turn aside the stranger from his right. Malachi 3:5 “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner [from his right], and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.” So if we oppress then we do not fear the Lord and we shall have the consequences of our acts. Proverbs 22:16 says those who oppress the poor shall come to poverty. Likewise those who give to the rich for unworthy purposes say corruption shall also come to poverty. In other words the corrupt and the corrupted shall come to want “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his [gain], [And] he that giveth to the rich, [shall come] only to want.” Some people mistake this text to mean that if you give to the rich you will become poor. No! This text can only mean one thing and that if the rich oppress the poor to increase their riches or that if you give to the rich to increases your riches, then you will become poor. You cannot give to the rich when you are poor except for corruption and this is what the scripture is guarding us against.

Our scriptures also teach us not to despise the complaints of our servants, because God will call us to give an account Job 31:13’14 “If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, When they contended with me; What then shall I do when God riseth up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?” God created us all; the rich and the poor, we all came out from the same womb fashioned by God, why should we be happy when others are in pain? So if we have the opportunity to have the needy around us, lets help them with what we have. Scriptures tell us that we all have the same master whether slave or master on earth and so we are accountable to our unique master who is God. We therefore have to treat even our slaves with justice and fairness. Colossians 4:1 “Masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” Ephesians 6:9 “And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with him.” So the scripture is telling us in Ephesians that There is no partiality with God; this is what it means in the phrase “there is no respect of persons with him”. If you mount your riches on the sweats of your servants, then know that your riches are corrupted and the scriptures say misery is coming your way because the cries of the servants who served you without you paying their due has reached the ears of the Almighty, James 5:4 “Behold, the hire of the labourers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” The Bible says we should not muzzle the ox when he is treading out the grain. Why? Because the ox needs to eat too as he is treading the grain. So the labourer is worthy of his pay; he should not work without pay. He too needs to eat and feed his own home before working for you. 1 Timothy 5:18 “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his hire.”

In your business, you have to be honest and show a sense of integrity. If you are selling a bucket of rice or maize for 5000 francs, do not cheat your customer. You should not hide bad quality goods at the bottom with good ones above for the customer. You should not beat up the bottom of your measuring tin for the purpose of cheating the customers. You have to treat everybody in the same way with no bias and your days may be prolonged in what the Lord has given you. You should not fake your measuring equipment whether it be the balance, tape, etc for the Bible says your life will be shorten on earth if you do these sinful acts Deuteronomy 25:13-15 “Thou shalt not have in thy bag diverse weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thy house diverse measures, a great and a small. A perfect and just weight shalt thou have; a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.” If your neighbour gives you a service for payment, you must pay for what you have received. That is rendering justice. For example, if you are renting a house for your business, you must pay for the rents. If a neighbour is supply you water or electricity, you must pay for your consumption because that is the neighbours wage for the service offered. The scriptures say woe to him, wretchedness or misery to him who builds his house or business without righteousness or without justice. That is the curse to he who wants to have services, who wants to build his empire at the expense of others. Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;” Proverbs 16:8 says it is better to have little with righteousness than to have much revenue without justice “Better is a little, with righteousness, Than great revenues with injustice.” The Bible also tells us that God has pleasure in justice, He is delighted when we render justice and that injustice is an abomination to the Lord Proverbs 11:1 “A false balance is an abomination to Jehovah; But a just weight is his delight.”

Our scriptures say it is well with the man who is generous and who lends and who conducts his affairs with justice. We need to give not only to people who can give us back but most importantly to those who cannot give back for our reward is in heaven. Then we should be able to lend to those who have temporal needs. These are people who may want to solve instant problems and who intend to pay back as they stand on their feet. Then we are called to exercise justice we should not show injustice in what ever business we are doing and if we do these things, the Bible says it is well with us Psalm 112:5 “Well is it with the man that dealeth graciously and lendeth; He shall maintain his cause in judgment.”

Scriptures teaches us to be hard working in our businesses. If we are hard working our wealth gained through our labour will increase where as wealth gained through fraud will not last. It is short lived and this is one of the reasons we find people today who just sprang up with wealth and suddenly they lose it. Proverbd 13:11 “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; But he that gathereth by labour shall have increase.” What the scripture mean here by wealth gathered by vanity is that wealth gathered by fraud; fast money as the youths of today say. The Bible says it will diminish but when you labour for what you want, it increases. In proverbs 10:4 the Bible says he who is hard working will be rich while a lazy man will be poor. So we are encouraged to be hard working in our business and in what ever we are doing while at the same time trusting God to do His part. Probverbs 10:4 “He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand; But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.” What most youths today want is to get on the internet and fraud, cheat people of their belonging and they say they are rich; NO that will diminish. Some want to be rich but they are not ready to make a step, they move from one church to the other, from one pastor to the other, and from one prophet to another searching for blessings. I tell you today that God can bless you but if you are not serious in your life you will never express the blessings of God in your life. You will always be a crying man or woman. You need to pray as if without praying nothing can happen in your life and work hard as if without working hard nothing can happen in your life. The scriptures tell us to be hard working not lazy man. The greatest men in the Bible who were blessed with riches were very hard working men of God. When we are lazy we have nothing but our soul is always wanting while the hard working man has a fulfilled soul Proverbs 13:4 “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.”

We are encouraged to be contented with what God has given us so that we do not get anxious about wealth. Some one will ask me how it is possible to be satisfied and doing business at the same time. Being satisfied dos not mean you are saturated, it just man that you are happy with what you have and you are not looking for more at all cost. It also mean that if there are not changes in your current level, you will not be worried. What causes many heart attacks these days is because many people are never ready to accept the worse states in life, so when it comes they just break down. If we are satisfied in what God has given us charge over, then we will be faithful with it and we will manage it in a God fearing way. When we manage our wealth as good stewards then God can give us greater things for which we are called to be righteous with. Luke 16:10 “He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much.” Some Christians thing God wants us to be righteous in some domains and not in all. In some issues they are very strong about righteousness but when it concerns business or money many Christians become lukewarm about their faith. If we think that those things are small then the scriptures is telling us today that we have to be righteous in them so that we can be righteous in bigger things.