In this Bible and Business episode, Bill English continues his series on Becoming Free From the Bondage of Sin. This series coveres Chapter 2 in Bill’s book “A Christian Theology of Business Ownership”. Many Christian business owners and leaders struggle with persistent, private sin. This series will give those living in bondage to sin a Biblical, practical way out of their sin. You can download the slides for this series from the download section at www.bibleandbusiness.com. This episode focuses on curses in the Bible and how they can negatively effect us in our daily lives.
[00:00:05.710] – Bill English
And welcome back. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business, and I want to thank you for joining me today. We are in the fifth of an eight part series on becoming free from the bondage of sin. This is really chapter two in my book, a Christian Theology of Business Ownership. An introduction for Christian entrepreneurs on what the Bible says about owning a business.
[00:00:31.310] – Bill English
Now, I’m going to readily admit right off the bat that I’m only going to skim this topic in this video. If you want a more in depth treatment of this, I’m going to invite you to get a copy of my book and go to this section in chapter two and read it through. There’s a lot in there that I am not going to cover in this video. I’m just going to hit the highlights. So I want to invite you to get a copy of the book and read it through if you want a more fuller treatment of this topic.
[00:01:01.500] – Bill English
But before we get into this topic of curses in the Bible, I’d like to invite you to head over to my site, Bibleandbusiness.com, where you can download the slides for this video series in PDF format. You can read some articles and listen to some podcasts, participate in our surveys, and also register for our online CEO ownership group, which I run every six weeks live right here out of my studio in Minnesota. So let’s go ahead and get started here. And I’m going to start by just reading this slide. There are general and specific curses to which Scripture points that have an impact today on our daily lives.
[00:01:46.690] – Bill English
Now going to flesh that out in the next few minutes with you. The first question that I really need to address is this have curses ended for Christians? A lot of Christians think that curses have ended. I tend to disagree, but I also tend to agree. And you’ll see what I mean here in just a couple of minutes.
[00:02:07.460] – Bill English
Let’s read Galatians three, verses ten to 14. This is the passage that most Christians refer to to say that curses have ended for all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse as it is written. Curse. It is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law. Clearly, no one who relies on the Law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith.
[00:02:37.090] – Bill English
The Law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written curse. It is everyone who has hung on a pole.
[00:02:55.740] – Bill English
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
[00:03:10.160] – Bill English
Let’s note here in galatians, chapter three, verses ten through 14. That the root word that we translate as curse is the Greek word katara. It means being in a cursed state, being liable to the consequences and penalties of the implications contained in the curse. So when Paul says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us and catch this, catch this. Well, what he means is that Christ became liable to the consequences and the penalties that occurred to us because of our sin.
[00:03:47.070] – Bill English
This is the amazing truth that is at the core of our faith and that is at the foundation of salvation. Christ took on the penalties and the consequences for our sin and he paid the price for our sin so that we could live righteously before Him and so that we could have a relationship with God. Praise God that Jesus Christ did this for us. Hallelujah. Amen.
[00:04:16.010] – Bill English
Now look, there are really two ways to look at curses. Some of the curses that Christ took on for us on our behalf when he hung on the cross and he died, and then he was buried and resurrected. Those curses that applied to our justification ended when Christ died for us. Other curses, however, apply to our sanctification, and I find that those are still enforced today. Now, the difference is this justification is a legal declaration before God that we are no longer guilty of our sin.
[00:04:53.440] – Bill English
And this is because this is true. Because of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, those curses that applied to us that were paid for by Christ are ended. They are gone. We are no longer under those curses, but the curses that come on to us because of our own sin, in other words, sanctification. Those still apply to us today.
[00:05:17.500] – Bill English
So sanctification is our progression of holiness as we learn to walk with God and become fully dedicated to Him. Justification has to do with our legal standing before God. Sanctification has to do with our day to day holiness. Now, been talking about curses here for a minute or two. What really is a curse?
[00:05:39.120] – Bill English
A curse is a lessening or a diminishing from that which one should normally have or should normally achieve given the effort or your station in life. It refers to both quality and station. Now, curses are insidious as opposed to acute. So an acute onset is where it just happens right away. An insidious onset is where it happens over time.
[00:06:04.010] – Bill English
It’s very, very gradual. So curses are insidious as opposed to acute. They are also persistent and they place the trajectory of the one upon whom they rest in decline until the recipient is fully ruined. They can be incurred because of wrong beliefs and they can also be incurred because of wrong actions. We’ll look at the actions piece in a moment.
[00:06:27.040] – Bill English
But curses can be incurred because of wrong beliefs. And the way to get out of curses because of wrong beliefs is simply to study and believe the Word of God. To study well and believe well the Word of God. And I have to say that many Christians are pretty lazy about studying the Word of God. They don’t take time to really dive in and understand the word of God.
[00:06:50.730] – Bill English
And therefore they’re illiterate and they’re immature in their theologies. And as a result, they can find themselves under God’s curses because they simply believe the wrong things. And they believe the wrong things because they haven’t really studied and understood and believed the Word of God. Now, curses hinder and confuse. They cause one to work harder and harder to achieve less and less.
[00:07:17.920] – Bill English
They’re quiet and ambient and they work unobtrusively behind the scenes to destroy us. You’ll find that they will SAP your strength, your energy, your effectiveness, your hope, your enjoyment of life. And you’ll never really know that those curses are what are doing those things to you. They do so off the radar screen and they are really not noticed by most people until it’s too late. Left unchecked, curses, again will destroy us.
[00:07:49.760] – Bill English
Now, how does this relate to business ownership? How do curses relate to business ownership? Well, here are some actions that can place us under a curse. And before I go through these, I just want you to know that in my book I go through these and many others. And I also cite chapter and verse where it says that if we do these things, we’re going to be under a curse, okay?
[00:08:13.540] – Bill English
So I’m not pulling these things out of thin air, right? I’m just not pulling them out of thin air and giving you a list. These actually come from a study of God’s word, and I have chapter and verse for each one of these plus many more in my book. So first of all, we can place ourselves under a curse by not being generous towards God. Fully half upwards, some estimate upwards to twothirds of Christians never tithe.
[00:08:38.500] – Bill English
They never give anything to their local church ever, not even $1. And God says in Malachi that when you don’t bring the full tithe into the house, in other words, to his body, that you are robbing him and that he places you under a curse. So not giving money to God will place you under a curse. Now, mind you, I am not a prosperity gospel guy. I don’t think we give to God so that we get more money back so that we can spend it on ourselves.
[00:09:08.670] – Bill English
That is wholly unbiblical. Prosperity gospel is a corrupted, unbiblical theology, okay? But not giving to God the opposite end of that is also wrong, and it’ll bring you under a curse, trusting in yourself. This is very clear in Jeremiah. Jeremiah says, if we trust in ourselves, guess what?
[00:09:32.130] – Bill English
We’re going to be under a curse. Participating in a bribe oppressing. Look at all these ones about the vulnerable oppressing, the vulnerable, not protecting the vulnerable, not giving justice to the vulnerable. All three of those will bring us under a curse because presumably we have power and station and position in life to help the vulnerable. And when we don’t do that, we place ourselves under a curse.
[00:09:57.160] – Bill English
Stealing is another one sexual sin. Believing in yourself, dishonoring your mother and your father, that’s a tough one for some people because they had pretty bad moms and pretty bad dads. Being angry enough that you could kill another person. That comes from Matthew five. Treating what you have as Yours instead of God’s in the next video series on the foundations of stewardship, we’re going to take a hard look at the five foundations of stewardship.
[00:10:25.230] – Bill English
The first one is that God owns everything and that all that we have in this life is really an entrustment from God and that we are to steward those things for Him based on his agenda, his commands, his ideas. What does he want to do with these things? That’s how we steward our money and our wealth for Him. We can bring ourselves under a curse by treating what we have as ours rather than as belonging to God, using God’s name in vain, and also, obviously, not accepting Christ as your savior. All of those things plus others can bring us under a curse if we live with these things in a persistent patterned way in our lives.
[00:11:11.140] – Bill English
Now, here’s how it applies to us as Christian business owners. If the management of our company catch this, if the management of our company is characterized by one or more of these things plus other things that I talk about in chapter two, then it is likely that we are going to live under one or more curses. As a result, we’re going to find ourselves working harder and harder to achieve less and less. And even our best vetted plans will be an uphill push to succeed. And what will happen is that we’ll know what needs to happen.
[00:11:48.480] – Bill English
We’ll know what needs to happen in order for us to be successful, but we won’t be able to seem to make it happen. It will just drive us crazy. And it’ll be as if everything we touch doesn’t turn to gold, it turns to stone, it turns to bronze, it turns to clay. It just doesn’t work out the way we want it to and we can’t figure out why. And if you’re in that boat, then I’ll suggest that you are living under one or more curses.
[00:12:16.080] – Bill English
And that the way out of that is to humble yourself, to pray. This is really Two Chronicles 714 here to humble yourself, to pray, to seek God’s face and to turn from your sin. When you do that, you will start to leave the curses behind and you’ll begin to live under God’s blessing.
[00:12:40.540] – Bill English
So here’s the three lessons that we’ve learned today that curses are real and they are real. Secondly, curses hinder our ability to steward well that which God has entrusted to us. And thirdly, we can move from living under curses to living under God’s blessings simply by living righteously before him. Now, in the next episode, we’re going to look at God’s blessings, and we’re going to look at the actions that incur or bring upon us God’s blessings. I hope you’ll join me for that episode.
[00:13:14.510] – Bill English
So if I can be of any help to you, please don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me. My contact information is over@bibleandbusiness.com, but you can also just email me if you’d like to at bill@bibleandandbusiness.com. I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to chat with you. I’d love to see what kind of help I can give you as a Christian business owner.
[00:13:39.340] – Bill English
Thank you for joining me today. I hope you go out and make it a great day. Take care.