Who is My Neighbor?

“We have to maximize our profits so we can do more good things with the additional money we make.  The big problem with that assertion, however, is that we almost never have enough money or profits under such a premise because the goal of making more money usually supplants the purpose of serving the need.  It is like asking God to step aside while you make the money you feel you need in order to serve Him better.”   Where in Scripture can we find any biblical principle that supports this premise? 

The above is taken from Part X in the book, Biblical Principles & Business: The Practice edited by Richard C. Chewning. 

It reminds me of a guest speaker at one of our Leaders Serving Beaver County meetings.  He critiqued the LSBC tagline “Learning to do well…to do good” by stating that we can’t wait until we “do well” to “do good.”  We must “do good” right now.  He is right.  As Christian business owners, we can’t put off being a blessing to our neighbors until that moment when all the bills are paid and we’re flush with cash.  Our neighbor may need (most likely does need) our help right now. 

So who is our neighbor? 

Jesus asked that same question in Luke chapter 10: 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” 

Perhaps what we are dealing with here is an adaptation of the age-old definition of marketing: “Find a need and fill it.”   

Maybe Christ wants us to “Be aware of needs and meet them.”

This and other places in Scripture challenge you and me to “get out of the house,” so to speak, and see what’s going on in the world outside our little “niche.”  When James wrote 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress… (James 1:31) 

could he have me and my business in mind? 

Or how about 

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 

In this regard, what good is my business?  Am I so focused on “learning to do well” (growing the business [both top and bottom lines]), that I have lost the purpose of my business (service to God)? 

How does my business help the poor to help themselves and advance Christ’s restoration on earth? 

Could my treatment of those “on the margin” be God’s highly valued measure of my faithfulness as the steward of the business Christ has entrusted to me? 

As Christian business owners in the United States, we face hundreds of thousands of laws that impact the way in which we operate our business.  Yet Jesus condenses our obligations to only two: 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and, Love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

Let’s contemplate this reality in light of our current business practices and the vision we have for our companies lest we join many who at a point in their business life opine, “I worked and sacrificed all my life to climb the ladder of success only to find out when I reached the top that the ladder was leaning on the wrong wall.” 

On which wall is your ladder leaning today? 

Keith 

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