Book Review
For
Business for the Glory of God
By: Wayne Grudem
October 10, 2011
The Review:
Business for the Glory of God Wayne Grudem wrote the book ‘Business for the Glory of God,’ this book is based on biblical teachings. The book discusses issues such as ownership, productivity, employment, commercial transactions, profit, money, inequality of possessions, competition, borrowing and lending, attitudes of heart and effect on world poverty from a biblical standpoint, each are “fundamentally good and provides many opportunities for glorifying God but also many temptations to sin.” (Grudem, 2003, p. 19) Grudem claims that business can glorify God. He states “I am going to argue that many aspects of business activity are
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This confirms that employment to produce goods and services for others IS good and so is the earning of profit from the sales of these goods. Profit usually refers to money earned, caution is taught in 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all evil…” (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982) This does not have to be the case though, for money can be used to glorify God. Money in itself is not evil; it is what is done with it that may be evil. God must always be first and foremost in our lives, not money and the things it can buy us. Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982) Money brings the inequality of possessions, also called “the haves and the have not’s.” We may all be equal in the eyes of God, but here on earth some eyes grow green with envy. Children come home from daycare complaining that Little Jimmy’s truck was bigger than his, husbands and fathers are forever eying the Jones; new corvette, and entire wars have erupted over the “you have it and I’m gonna get it” mentality. Inequality of possessions is not bad though many passages in the Bible teach that even in heaven there are different degrees of rewards. Even God’s spiritual gifts are not given equally to each of us, but this does not mean He loves one person more than the other. It is what we do with
“An obsession with possessions enslaves us to the demon of worry. Jesus invites us to change our priorities, focus on the kingdom, and share with the needy” (Kraybill, 2011, p.101). A man’s wealth will be measured by the love, kindness and empathy he has for the poor and the hungry in Gods kingdom. For this matter Jesus wants the wealthy to humble themselves and receive their blessing by offering opportunities to the poor instead of being greedy and celebrating their own wealth.
In the seventh chapter of Why Business Matters to God, Van Duzer asks readers to answer some questions to see if they have an understanding so far on how they then should do business? Some of the questions included on what the proper purpose of business and what are some of the convenient limit to the practices of business. Some of the major points are the answers to the three questions that were introduced about the summary of business framework. The first main point within the novel is the purpose to serve. The author states that to understand why business matters to God, you have to understand the role that God plays in wanting to profit companies within our world.
The books that we were required to read for Bible 115 class were Engaging God’s World – A Christian Vision Of Faith, Learning And Living by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and The Call – Finding And Fulfilling The Central Purpose For Your Life by Os Guinness. Both books offered very useful advice for today’s Christians. Engaging God’s World is written for students and will help them make sense of their education in a Christian perspective. Both authors use scripture, humor and common sense to validate their points.
Greedy people are some of the most disoriented people on Earth. These snobby people may have a lot of “treasures” here, but when they die, most likely not. Keeping all of your items and possessions to yourself is weak. God should come first overall of the meaningless things you “own.” He put you here on Earth, to love Him, not put idols before Him. Greed is very selfish because you could give
Throughout the Business Guide, Hansford also promotes ideals pertaining to religion in order to succeed in business. Hansford explicitly states that to succeed in business one must “love your god and fellow men” as well as that “an honest man is the noblest work of god” all of which are brought forward in parts pertaining to proper behaviors of a man to be successful in business. This is reflective of a homogeneous Eurocentric audience, promoting god and religion as a crucial position in both business life and society as a whole; god is seen as one of the most important parts of everyday life. One of the quotes from the section of “Good Advice
The author perpetuates his Christian viewpoint that it is not Godly to strive towards riches, or to obtain an abundance of material possessions on earth, but more important to seek the rewards in Heaven (Lines 27-28). Additionally, the Bible teaches, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV). His perception is that every man should be being Christ-like by heading Jesus’ warning, “You, my
Christians are called to the higher purpose of fulfilling a spiritual life in accordance to God’s will (II Timothy 1:9 New Living Translation, NLT). At the same time Christians are a part of society and therefore participate in the wealth of the economy. Although some have challenged business is morally neutral, business can be a wonderful way to bring glory to God (Grudem, 2003). This is possible when Christians apply their Christian worldview and abide by a code of conduct constructed from this worldview (Ruddell, 2004). This paper will examine the process of constructing an ethics program based on a Christian worldview.
According to Duzer (2012), In pursuit of God’s purpose, people need to understand the ethical limitations embedded naturally in design of the God’s creation. It is not enough too simply align our businesses purposes with God earthly design, without limitation we still fall short of Gods expectations. God’s creation purpose for business includes businesses that serve the community in a positive way that strides to serve all citizens according to God’s plan. For example, a business might be able to produce more goods and services that would enable the community to flourish. It might create more vocationally rich jobs for its employees by disregarding its duty to provide return to its shareholders (Duzer,
Another aspect of business activity that Grudem inquires about is profit. When people think of profit the first thing that comes to mind is making money and a famous saying usually follows that train of thought; money is the root to all evil. This saying is derived from the Bible but the scripture is reworded and taken out of context. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “for the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”. Because some people feel that money is the root to all evil, they view making a profit as being evil. Grudem explains that making a profit not only helps others, but also corresponds with God’s teaching to subdue the earth in making use of the earth’s resources. Therefore, profit is an indication that I am making good and efficient use of the earth’s resources, thus obeying God’s original “creation mandate” to “subdue” the earth
Dr. Grudem’s argument revolves around two simple options for all Christian’s within the realm of business:
This paper will explore what a Biblical Worldview is and present a Biblical Worldview process of contracts, ownership and responsibility.
Paul writes, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10 KJV). Regrettably, some congregations are distracted with meeting funding quotas and forget to seek God wholeheartedly.
Why Business Matters To God by Van Duez, Duez points out the important points that if our world had business people that flourished these certain values. That if these business people find to have a different view with an optimistic mind set on how to include faith in the workforce. He believes there is a possibility for our future and there are answers to solving and understanding all aspects economic to nature problems the world faces. Though it might seem like he is going off a lot intuition. The key is his support comes from facts like that worlds population consist of over 20% percent lives living in extreme poverty. Over twenty –five thousand children under five die every day from preventable causes. Issues like these Duez says will
People are created in the image of God and by design all people belong to God. The people who have chosen to accept God’s promise belong to God forever. Psalm twenty-four is a praise to God, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”. Everything belongs to God, our life, materials, business, relationships, absolutely everything. God cares deeply about our wealth and health. However, the sin that corrupts our bodies and minds, and there is no guarantee that the Christian business person will prosper. The core of true life is in
Like any great researcher, Wayne Grudem began his work in Business for the Glory of God with a question: “Is business basically good or evil?” With the influence of colleagues, mentors and students, Grudem began on a journey to find the answer to the question that has haunted believers for ages through research and the Bible as his ultimate guide. The conclusion he came to and the claim he would make proved simple, yet profound: “…many aspects of business activity are morally good in themselves, and that in themselves they bring glory to God—though they also have great potential for misuse and wrongdoing” (Grudem 12). With this thesis as a metronome setting the pace for the rest of his book, Grudem unpacks eleven aspects of business activity,