Taken from Chapter 5, Advice and Wisdom, from A Christian Theology of Business Ownership. This is the first of an 8 part series on giving and receiving advice as a Christian Business Owner. You can view the video of this podcast at youtube.com/c/bibleandbusiness.
Here is the transcript:
And welcome back. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bio Bible in business. I’m starting a new series today. This comes from chapter five in my book, a Christian Theology of Business Ownership an Introduction for Christian Entrepreneurs and what the Bible Says about Owning a Business. Chapter five is all about advisors and wisdom.
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How do we gain and receive advice? How do we give advice and how do we turn that advice into wisdom? And so in this series, I’m going to be talking about how business owners receive advice. I’m going to go over some cautions about advice. We’re going to look at an example of when advice was ignored, good advice was ignored, and another example of when good advice was accepted.
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Both of those in the Bible, of course. And then we’re going to talk about mentoring and giving advice, building a panel of trusted advisors, how churches can engage in mentoring new entrepreneurs. And then I want to really dive into this area of selfcare taking care of your body, taking care of your soul, taking care of your mind kind of thing, so that we’re able to pass it on and become advice givers and be able to pass on the wisdom that we have learned as Christian business owners. I’ll also invite you to head over to Bibleandbusiness.com and check out the articles and the podcasts that are out there. You’ll also be able to download this slide deck and PDF format for your own study and your own consideration.
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So today we’re going to be talking about receiving advice. How do we receive advice as Christian business owners and is it important for us to do this? I think advice is something that we all need on a regular basis. Now, I kind of arbitrarily divide advice into two parts. One is what I call ad hoc advice.
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It’s gained by brief discussions that are more spontaneous, whereas planned advice is given after information is gathered and everybody’s kind of taking a look at it and it forms the basis upon which collaborative discussions can occur. But all of us as Christian business owners, we need advice really on a regular basis. And I just want you to understand that there’s a direct connection between gaining wisdom from the Scripture and wisdom from your trusted advisors and being willing to receive advice. Being willing to put yourself in a place where somebody can speak truth into your situation is so vitally important to you, so doing your business well before the Lord, that it’s really difficult to overstate the importance of being able to receive good advice from Godly. People, let’s take a look at some of the Bible verses that speak to this.
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First of all, Proverbs 1215 the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. Consider proverbs 14. The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil. But a fool is reckless and careless when there is strife.
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In Proverbs 13, Solomon wrote there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. And if we look at Proverbs 19, listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future, do you see the connection? Now we’re supposed to listen and accept advice and that way we will be able to gain wisdom back. To Proverbs 13 whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. So you want to receive advice from other people who are wise?
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Ecclesiastes Four better was a poor and a wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. Do you see how foolishness? And the rejection of advice is associated here in these verses? But wisdom and the receiving of advice is also associated. So as Christian business owners we need to take seriously this notion that we need to accept advice from trusted advisors.
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So again, in the wisdom literature, an explicit connection is made between taking advice and being wise. Yet many Christians who own businesses, I have found, are low to take advice from anyone. It’s really difficult for me to understand. I know a number of Christian business owners who don’t take advice from anybody. They say they do, they say they want to, but when it comes right down to it, no, they really don’t want that much advice and they’d rather not hear from too many people.
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Oftentimes I think the reason that they reject the advice is because of their ego. It keeps them from asking for help even though help is available. And sometimes they just don’t want to incur the expense of advice from a trusted advisors. Some business owners will see it as a sign of weakness that they can’t pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, that they have to have somebody else giving them advice and that somehow says that they are somehow incompetent or unable to run the business on their own. And still others don’t want people to know that their business might be failing.
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So they kind of fake it until they make it. That’s kind of the mentality they take on keeping up appearances kind of thing. Because if I let people in to know that I really need a lot of advice, then they’re going to find out that my business is failing and I just got to keep up appearances here. And some will even go so far as to shun advice, even when the danger signs a bankruptcy are really apparent for everyone to see. I’ve had more than a few bankers tell me that they would love to refer failing businesses to the firm that I’m a partner at the Platinum Group because we do a lot of turnarounds.
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But they’re just unable to make that referral to business owners who they know are headed towards bankruptcy because the business owners simply will not accept advice from anybody. They’re just too arrogant. They don’t want the expense and they don’t want to be seen as being weak, inept, or incapable. It’s really a sad place for these business owners to be. Look here’s the core, or the main idea, at least at this point, that I want us all to get.
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Christian business owners should never see themselves as an island. Asking for help should be a sign of strength, which is why the Bible portrays those who don’t ask for advice or think they have all the answers as fools. Now let’s take a look at some Scripture verses about fools for just a moment. In Proverbs one it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Later on in that same chapter how long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
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How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing? And fools hate knowledge. You can really read that as fools hating wisdom, fools hating the receiving of sage advice. Over here in Proverbs eight, oh simple ones learn prudence, fools learn sense. It’s like if you’re a fool, you need to become sensible.
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Here, just buy into some common sense and be willing to hear some advice from other people. In Proverbs, Ada says this in the same chapter the wise of heart will receive commands, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. Whoever winks the eye causes trouble and a babbling fool will come to ruin. The same phrase now twice.
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The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found but the rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool brings ruin near. So these other verses talked about how the rejection, the despising of wisdom, the despising of knowledge, the despising of understanding is really what is characteristic of a fool.
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In here we see that fools will come to a ruin and they actually conceal violence, and they are not going to do well in life when they reject sage and sound advice. Finally, in Proverbs 13, every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. He flaunts the fact that he’s an island, he flaunts the fact that he can do it all himself, that he doesn’t need any help, that he doesn’t need someone to speak into his business or his life. That is what a fool is doing. He’s flaunting his folly.
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And finally, in Proverbs 15, a fool despises his father’s instruction. But whoever heeds re proof is prudent. So here you see that a fool despises instruction. And you would think that a father’s instruction filled with love, filled with good intention, filled with the kind of advice that really is best for his son. The fool rejects all that and says, no, I don’t need that.
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I just don’t need that. I can do everything on my own. I already know what I’m doing. I don’t need to listen to anybody. Proverbs 23 Nine do not speak in the hearing of a fool.
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This is an interesting verse, for he will despise the good sense of your words. Sometimes when you’re around a fool and they’re kind of running on, it’s just best to shut up. You can try to correct them, but all you’re going to get back is a lot of anger and they’re going to despise you and they’re going to overtalk you and outtalk you and all the rest of it. Sometimes it’s just better to shut up and let them babble and walk away and see if you can find something better to do with your day than to be around a fool. So again, the main idea here, if you want to be a wise and discerning steward of that which God has entrusted to you, which is your business, then you need to submit yourself to the advice of others.
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God doesn’t tolerate foolish stewards. He will not let you retain your business if you’re going to be a fool. I also want to say that the giving of advice applies to pastors and ministry leaders too. And I know this might be a little bit of a touchy point, because church and ministry leaders often have, or at least can have, maybe I shouldn’t say often, but they can have a difficult time receiving advice from those who are not trained or experienced in ministry. And yet this is the model that God gave us through the elder model of an elder led church.
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The church is run by elders who are usually not professional ministers, and most business owners wouldn’t take advice from those who are not in business. And yet God calls ministry professionals and church leaders to do just that. It makes for some interesting dynamics. I’m on an elder board right now and it requires humility on the part of the pastor and humility on the part of the elders. The elders need to recognize the limitations of their experience, the limitations of their training, and defer a fair number of decisions and wisdom to the pastor.
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And yet the pastor is called to submit himself to the elders just like everybody else in the church. So these are some interesting dynamics that require humility and dependence on God by all parties involved. So our next episode we’re going to look at the four cautions on giving and receiving advice. So I want to thank you for joining me today. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business.
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I hope that this episode on receiving advice was helpful to you and that it really convinced you that as a Christian business owner, you need to learn how to receive advice and how to hear sage advice from other godly people. Later on in this series, we’re going to talk about how to build a panel of trusted advisors. So if you’re the type of business owner that doesn’t do well at disclosing the good, the bad and the ugly in your business to other people who can give you good advice, then you need to learn how to do that. It’s a biblical thing to do. It’s a stewardship issue before the Lord.
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And I trust that you will pray about this and then start to obey the Lord by getting sage advice from other people. So until we see each other again, I want to thank you for joining me today here at the Bible and business. And I hope that you gladly make it a great day. Take Care.