I don’t know about you, but over the last few years I have had some bad experiences with Christians in the business world. This may get me in hot water, but I have come to the point where I would rather do business with unbelievers than with believers. I have been burned one too many times.
Building on this, I have found that the world often does things better than the church. At least they take many things more seriously and don’t think that there is an assumed liberty of tolerance.
However, this all has a lot to do with my theology. I work under the presupposition that culture (including the business world) in-and-of itself is amoral (neither good nor bad). Along with this is the further assumption that culture can and has evidenced the characteristics of God. This comes from the truth that all people, fallen and redeemed, retain God’s image. Whether they realize it or not, all people can and sometimes do give God glory, even if it is against their will. Often times, the glory that the secular culture presents before the Lord is better than that of the church.
Remember when Christ was entering Jerusalem just before the crucifixion and his followers were saying “Blessed is He who comes in the name of God”? The account is worth posting:
Luke 19:37-40 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”
Christ said, if His people do not glorify Him, the rocks will. Christ did not literally mean that the rocks will miraculously receive cognition and the gift of verbal articulation. He was speaking in hyperbole. He meant that if His people don’t glorify Him, then the rocks will. In other words, God will receive His glory. If it does not come from the most likely source (His people), then it will come from the most unlikely source (the rocks). If this does not humble us, I don’t know what will.
How about you? Have you ever been burned by Christian’s in the business world?
56 replies to "Doing Business with Christians"
dont confuse christians with Christians. what i mean is that there are those who claim to be christian and have no clue what it means to be Christian. James 2:18 these are “modern day christians”. don’t read their Bibles and their entire commitment to Christ is summed up in an hour or two on sunday, they go have lunch, (apparently without tipping), and return to their lives. these christians, and many modern day christian churches, do more harm than good to Christianity. even to the point of driving people away from Christ!, with their Hypocritical Bible thumping, (over your head). they only talk the talk, they dont walk the walk, Mark 7:6. they are christians by osmosis.
being Christian means that you are a follower of Christ. that you have a relationship with Christ, know what He teaches and practice same. Luke 6:46
dont be dissuaded by so-called modern day christians and rob yourself of enternity -Salvation does not come by people or churches, but thru the Blood of Jesus…
Matthew 7:16 (New King James Version)
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Does the excuse “I’m not perfect but I’m forgiven” give Christians the right to treat people badly?
I was brought up a Christian and attended church with my family. I started working with some Christians and trusted them.
They started to scheming and being deceptive in order to get what they wanted, justifying it the guise of ‘just doing business’. At first I prayed for help and strength to endure working with them, after a long time I finally decided to stand up to them, but by then it was too late. Again more lies and more praying – I started thinking that my prayers weren’t answered but she was asking for forgiveness and getting away with everything and I was being punished, maybe I wasn’t praying hard enough? The consequences of their actions were hurting me, my family and others and there was no remorse on their part.
I started to read about forgiveness and then I got mad because in the bible it’s not your works or actions that count, it’s your faith that will ‘save you,’ so no matter how much damage they did to others they can still go to heaven, even if they don’t repent or make up for their actions.
I decided then that I didn’t want to be anywhere where they went for eternity.
I started looking deeper into my beliefs, and now because of their being ‘witness to Christ’s’ ways, we are now atheists and know we need to believe in ourselves and doing right to people here on earth and not worry about after we are dead and buried.
They can go on believing their bad behavior ‘that never happened – it’s been forgiven’ while they continue to their conniving, deceitful, immoral ways – still hurting other people.
Now we are happily atheist, and they go to church every week to sing in the choir and gossip and look good to their ‘church family.’
Well, Basically christains lie. they tell you what they think you want to hear to be ‘nice’. I am currently bankrupt and homeless. because my ‘ best friend’ (we were the best men at each others weddings) embezzled a 3rd of our business capital, most of which was investment from my friends and family.
Wow, if I had not experienced this personally and at work, I would have a hard time believing these horror stories of doing business with Christians. I work for PCCCA, one of the oldest Christian life coaching schools and our owners, who by the way, truly walk their talk, have had “Christians” steal and plagiarize their courses as well as have been stuck with over 100k of bad debt by students who took the training and then stopped paying. In one case, a past student who started her own Christian coaching school charged back over $2000 of tuition and finally paid when she feared being arrested and exposed for wire fraud. This is a Christian leader! (not) Yess, professing Christians. No wonder the world has such a poor opinion. The worst part is that it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. How sad this must be for God, to see his children living is such disarray.
I like what Don Bryant wrote above and it makes perfect sense to me.
Man, I REALLY relate to this. I’ve stopped doing business with Christians entirely after MULTIPLE incidents where contracts and verbal agreements were not honored. My wife has worked in several churches over the years and I’ve seen the reality of the people behind the scenes. I’ve seen so much hypocrisy, judgment, dishonesty, and lack of accountability that it’s taken a real toll on my faith. My wife is able to stay focused on Christ, but I find it hard to not allow the resentment and disgust to manifest itself in a lack of desire to attend worship services. And that’s just on the business front. Christians in personal relationships and pastors who were secretly living lives of sins are another thing I’ve encountered time and again. It’s ironic that the three people I know with the highest level of integrity are atheists. I love Christ, but a massive number of His followers are real pieces of crap.