The Bible Speaks Today

Godly Business

This is what the Lord says: ‘For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed’ (Amos 2:6-7a).

‘Godly business’ does not simply refer to ‘business ethics’, the moral principles which businesses conduct their various activities. Although such deliberations are important, especially in light of the wheeling and dealing that goes on in the world of business, ‘godly business’ presses us to reflect on something more fundamental. It urges us to question the purposes of any and all business. Does God have a purpose for business? If there is a divine purpose for business, is it intrinsic to the business activity or enterprise? Do businesses serve God’s purposes only instrumentally, for instance, providing the financial resources for Christian mission?

We need to begin at the beginning, with the creation narrative in Genesis, which tells how God brought into being the world – His household (oikos). God the Creator-householder, the Economist, declared the cosmos as ‘very good’. Theologians noticed that the creation was ‘very good’ but not perfect. God not only continues to work on the created order, He fashioned certain creatures in His own image and mandated them to serve as His co-workers, stewards and vice-regents (Genesis 1:27-28). The implication is staggering. One theologian puts it: ‘Corresponding to the creator Economist is the “image of God”, who is called an economist’. The human being is homo economicus because it is first and foremost imago dei.

The human being, a creature bearing the image of its Creator, is the recipient of the economic Commission to promote God’s righteousness and peace in the created order. The human being exists to live and work for the Creator’s will. For the Christians, business serves God’s purpose. Jeff van Duzer, professor of business law and ethics at Seattle Pacific University asserts that business ‘serves the community by providing goods and services that will enable the community to flourish. It also serves its employees by providing them opportunities to express a portion of their God-given identity through meaningful and creative work’. A business that seeks to fulfil these fundamental objectives will not slide into idolatry but will, by God’s grace, be faithful to the divine mandate.

Businesses fulfil their divine purpose and serve the community in God’s economy in two distinctive ways. The first is by being creative, it allows the community to flourish and thrive, through new products, innovative services and even new markets. The second way is restorative or redemptive. Businesses become the source, inspiration and catalyst that oppose exploitation and discrimination,

address injustices and mend social fractures. They include NGOs and political institutions, and are change-agents that bring social benefits. The great Catholic moral theologian, Bernard Häring, reminds us that the economy ‘is more than business’. The economy, viewed either philosophically or theologically, should be understood as a way of ordering our lives and sharing our resources to contribute to the health and well-being of the human community or household (Greek: oikos). Häring elaborates, that the ‘economy is for the family, and not the family for the economy’. Businesses that are organised to meet human needs will enable the human community to flourish.

An important document of the Western Church in the twentieth century is Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope), promulgated at the Second Vatican Council. It articulates with eloquence and wisdom the essential meaning of godly business and purpose of all human economic activity: ‘The fundamental finality of this production is not the mere increase of products nor profit or control but rather the service of man, and indeed of the whole man with regard for the full range of his material needs and the demands of his intellectual, moral, spiritual, and religious life; this applies to every man whatsoever and to every group of men, of every race and of every part of the world. Consequently, economic activity is to be carried according to its own methods and laws within the limits of the moral order, so that God’s plan for mankind may be realised’.

Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College.