I was recently reading Acts 16 and several things about the owners of the slave girl jumped out at me from the page. Here’s the passage:
16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. 19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.
What are the characteristics I see in these owners? Briefly:
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They took advantage of a vulnerable person for their exclusive benefit
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Money was more important than the welfare of this girl
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They advantaged themselves by disadvantaging her
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They didn’t care about her; they only cared about themselves
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They took action against those who improved this girl’s station in life
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They lied
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They abused her and caused others to abuse Paul and Silas
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Ignoring their oppression of this girl, they honestly felt Paul and Silas had wronged them
These owners represent the opposite of what a Christian Business Owner is supposed to look like.
These owners put profits over people, oppressing this girl for their selfish ends. They didn’t help this girl grow personally or professionally. They didn’t have her interests in mind. They were entirely self-focused on their own purposes, their own ends, and their own profits. They kept her in the state she was in because they wanted to milk her ability to predict the future to make themselves rich.
I wonder how often we keep our employees in their current state and don’t encourage them to grow because we need them not to grow or not become more than who they are today. If they did, we know it would cost us in profits or loss of their talents (because they would move on), so in our selfishness, we keep our employees happy enough so that they don’t leave, but we don’t encourage them to grow or become all that God has for them. This violates one of God’s purposes for business.
If you’re a Christian Business Owner, ask yourself if you’re holding back some of your employees from becoming all they can be. Are you giving them opportunities to grow? Are you helping to fund their growth? Are you encouraging them to learn new skills that might be outside of their job description but in line with their career trajectory?
Are you more interested in creating as much profit as possible for yourself than helping others achieve their dreams and goals? In addition, is wealth more important to you than the welfare of your employees? Do you inwardly chafe when you count the cost of being kind to others? Do you conclude that nearly everyone else is an unworthy recipient of your generosity?
Answers to these questions reveal what’s in your heart and will help shape and inform your role as an owner. These answers also will be part of the legacy you leave behind, not to mention part of your persona as a Christian today in the marketplace.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
