Money makes the world go round—or does it? Surely, if I believed all I observed in this culture in these days, I would have to concede the point.
But maybe there is another way to look at this issue.
I believe we have a model in Jesus Christ. We don’t know a lot about the first 30 years of His earthly life, this is true, but we probably know enough about how He conducted business. I have not done any in depth studies, but I have come to some conclusions.
As the eldest son in His family, He would have inherited the family carpentry business. I’m sure He probably had to deal with invoices and receipts and orders and Roman taxes. So He would have been no stranger to running a business.
I’m sure He probably had employees and apprentices. I’ll bet He discipled those employees and apprentices in producing top notch products and in giving good customer service. People are so important in making a business work successfully and Jesus was good at putting people first. He probably had a lot of repeat business.
I think, in training those under Him, as a human, He learned much that would help Him in His future ministry. He later discipled His fishers of men on an intimate basis.
Did I mention that He probably had a great reputation as a businessman? He made a living for His family and put first things first—people. Come to think of it, He also had to train a successor to take over the business as He had another life’s work in mind.
It seems to me that to run a successful business these days, it might be a good thing to emulate Jesus. He is, after all, our Maker. He crafts His works of art with great care and precision. And He still puts people first.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” Ephesians 2:10.
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