As we serve the Lord in the business world, is there a scriptural criteria? Are we given guidelines? Luke 20:25 brings together in one single statement a balance for our business life with our spiritual life. The Lord Jesus was asked a trick question by the Pharisees as to giving tribute to Caesar. Keep in mind that the Caesar of the time was a tyrant, cruel and corrupt. The Caesars of the day imagined themselves to be gods and asked for worship. The Lord Jesus could have said, Listen to Me and forget about Caesar. He isn’t worth troubling yourself about. You just make sure that things are right with God in your life. But He did not say that. “He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s” (Lk. 20:25).
It isn’t an either-or situation between Caesar and God, because Caesar should have the things that he deserves, and that must be rendered to him, and God must have the things that He deserves–and only He deserves–and that must be rendered to Him. So it is not a choice between Caesar and God, but a careful rendering to each his due.
The Christian must be known in the workplace as a diligent, conscientious, dedicated, committed worker. A Christian must give his employer 100% (Caesar, if you like), he must give him what is his due, accomplishing his objectives in the time prescribed, and behave in business in a proper manner. There is no worse testimony than a Christian who is not a good worker. “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed” (1 Tim. 6:1).
The Caesars of this world have their place in God’s purpose. I have had employers who were a pleasure to work with, and I have worked with tyrants. God has put them in place and has put you in place under them. To answer to Caesar is to understand God’s sovereign ways in your life.
However, if we give to Caesar what rightfully belongs to God, this is idolatry. In the Caesars’ day, Christians were martyred in the colosseum, thrown to the lions, torn limb from limb. Why? Because they refused to give Caesar what belonged to God. They recognized a line drawn, over which they could not go. And when Caesar made demands that were infringing on God’s rights and requirements for their lives, they had to say, “No, we are not going to enter into idolatry.”
Caesar is dead, but his spirit is very much alive today. The business world is increasingly cold and indifferent. In many cases the demands made on the people of God are in the realm of idolatry. From the standpoint of the business world, the businesses of which we are a part have to be competitive, or we won’t have a job. In a highly competitive world, it’s cutthroat, and management is trying every way it can to outdo the competitor. This puts pressure on everybody. We see days of reduced staffing. I think I saw more people let go in my last five years of industry than I saw in the whole 42 years. The work that these people used to carry then falls on the people left. The “bad old days” when people worked eighty-hour weeks were coming back. There were people sitting in the office at nine o’clock at night who normally would have gone home at five, and carrying big bundles of work home with their computer.
The family life is suffering. Wives, husbands, and children have less time to communicate. We see increasing estrangement and breakup of the family unit. Twenty years ago, divorces were terrible things you heard about happening out in the world! Elders were never confronted with the complex problems that we face today. But I tell you, every assembly I go to is struggling with problems of divorces and separations among the people of God! And it is symptomatic of the pressure.
The Word of God generally does not have the place in the family circle that it once had. The family altar has been all but abandoned. The husband comes home from work mentally exhausted, preoccupied, irritable, noncommunicative. All the problems of the day are on his mind. We can’t be angry with our colleagues in the office–that is just not professional. But quite often it is the wife and the children that get the brunt of all the pressure. When I was in a senior position, the pressure I was under made it all but impossible to meditate on the Word of God. I went through the motions, I got up at six, or half past five, so that I could spend time with the Lord, reading His Word and praying. But when I got out to the car I could not have even told you what I read. My mind was already running a thousand miles an hour about the problems I was going to meet when I got to work, and I had to have answers. Meditation became all but impossible under these circumstances.
And what of worship? As I travel around assemblies in the course of a year, one of the things I notice is that the number of functioning priests is declining in many assemblies. The number of men who are getting on their feet in the worship meeting and presenting to God the glories of His Son and speaking worshipfully is becoming less and less.
Pharaoh was right. When the people of God said they wanted to go into the wilderness and worship God, Pharaoh said, “These people have too much time on their hands. We will fix that. Let’s give them some more problems; let’s force them to make their bricks without straw now. And what is more, they are not to fall behind on their production target. That will fix their problem about wanting to worship God in the wilderness.” He was right. These people were so tired working in the mud that they hadn’t time to think about going into the wilderness to worship.
The absence of time meditating on Christ and His glories is leading to the phenomenon of sharing business experiences: “The Lord helped me at the office last week. I got a little verse that helped me with this problem I had at the office.” We are losing focus in worship. Nice to thank God for giving us help at the office, but when we come to worship, we don’t come to share how we have been blessed, but to bless the Blesser. Worship is vertical, offering up to God our spiritual sacrifices.
Likewise, spiritual gift is not being developed. Few teachers and preachers are arising from our ranks to sustain the ministry. Our New Testament assemblies depend on people who are tent makers–who will serve God and handle the Word, and minister to the assemblies as elders and teachers.
The ministry in our assemblies depends on young people who will spend hours to fit themselves for God’s service. Today the pressures to achieve a career has suppressed spiritual ambition. We see time and talent submerged. Unless something is done urgently, our assemblies are going to have a serious lack of capable ministers of the Word from among our ranks within the next five or ten years.
Then, too, the spiritual nature of the church is being lost sight of, and the techniques of the business world are being adopted. When people are so absorbed in business, the only way they can think of handling problems in the assembly is in the business way. So we have increasing organization, hierarchical structures, organizing mission diagrams. We see business solutions applied to spiritual problems.
What can we do to get back on track? First, establish clear, non-negotiable priorities. There ought to be certain things that are not on the table when it comes to negotiating in your business life. Put God first; that is a must. And when I speak about God first I am talking about the whole spiritual world of which God is the head. Nothing else must be allowed to encroach. Your family comes next and let business take what remains. We must never get into a situation where business is monopolizing our lives. And that happens so easily. Unless you have these absolutes you will never be able to stand amidst all the pressures.
Next, be prepared to limit your career and salary and expectations for worldly things, in order to hold yourself in reserve for God, and for His people. Moses was in a unique situation as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, with a wonderful career ahead of him. And if he kept at it, one day he was going to have a Moses pyramid. He was going to make it in this world. And what is more, he didn’t even have to try hard. It was going to fall into his lap.
Do you know what Moses said? He said, “No thanks.” Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. The man of this world would think he was an absolute fool. Imagine turning down an opportunity like that! But Moses said, “No, this is the time for suffering with the people of God, and that is what I am going to do.
So be prepared to consciously limit yourself. Of the great men who were my mentors, all of them were men of sharp intelligence. But they were all doing mundane jobs. I used to wonder, where do they get all this spiritual understanding? They were excellent expositors of the Word of God. Do you know why? They had consciously made a decision to hold themselves in reserve for God. They said, “All my time and talent is for God. I am not going to sacrifice that on the altar of ambition and career.”
Never consciously step into a situation where you will be completely submerged in business. Satan lies, “If you get into this situation, you may be in over your head to start with, but if you give yourself time it will all work out.” It doesn’t. It gets worse.
Before accepting a career advancement, ask the following questions: How many hours did the person I am replacing work? Was he working 60, 70, 80 hours a week? What happened to him? Did he have a marriage break up? Did he have a complete breakdown? How much time will be spent away from home and assembly on business trips? Will this new situation interfere with my availability to God? You must ask these questions, and no one can answer these questions for you other than yourself.
But what if you are already entangled? There is a difference between being entangled, and having a job to pay the bills. Paul told Timothy that a man that goes to war does not entangle himself in the affair of this life. You cannot respond if you are entangled. Can you imagine a commanding officer giving a command and one of his soldiers saying, “I can’t do it right now. I have too many other things on my mind.” That does not happen in the army.
If entangled so that you cannot respond to the claims of God on your life, then make careful, calculated plans to get out as soon as possible. There is no other option. You are in an idolatrous situation.
Don’t rush in and say, “Listen, I’m out.” Prepare to take a significant drop in salary. Prepare to lose your power base, control, and job perks. Prepare to sacrifice all that goes with the glamour and glitter. It will be hard, it will be tough, it will be painful, but there can be no spiritual gain without sacrifice. Prepare to be fired, if there are no other opportunities. I have a great deal of sympathy and empathy for people in this situation, because I was there myself.
You can trust the Lord to take care of you, as you make costly personal decisions. The person that takes steps to put things in their proper place in his life will never regret it. “Them that honor Me,” says our Lord, “I will honor.”