Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Today we’re starting a new series called “In the world, not of it,” where we’ll look at how we are supposed to relate to the various aspects of our society as Christians.

The title, “in the world, not of it,” comes from Jesus’ high priestly prayer for his disciples.

This is the only place in the Bible where we, the future believers in Christ, are specifically addressed.

Jesus is praying for our protection from the hostility of the world, and he says,

This is one of the many passages throughout the Bible that has a very strong sense of “us” (followers of Jesus) and “them,” those whom John calls “the world.”

I find it very easy to see this dichotomy and to become proud.

That is why it is so important for me to remember that Jesus came to save me from my sins.

From my sins.

Not other people’s sins.

Not “the world” and it’s hostility.

In fact, Jesus deliberately leaves me in a hostile world, which is the opposite of saving me from it.

As Christians, our focus should be on our own relationship with Jesus: abiding in him, loving him, obeying him, knowing him.

We are not called to fix other people’s problems, only to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in fixing our own, as Paul tells the church in Philippi:

Of course, by fixing our own problems, God can then work through us to encourage others and to draw others to him.

He can then proceed to transform them also into the likeness of his Son, Jesus.

We need to keep this in mind when we come to a topic like how we deal with businesses and commerce in general.

It is so easy for us as Christians to take the high moral ground and start trying to force others to conform to our standards.

Then, when people discover that we can’t even meet our own standards, this does great damage to Jesus’ reputation.

Let’s pray: Lord, guide us through your Word, the Bible, as we seek to understand how we can best relate to the world of business and commerce while still representing our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his name, Amen.

So, how then should we relate to business and commerce?

My history

When I was little, four years old up to seven, we lived south of Toowoomba on my Great Uncle Bill’s farm.

Because my dad was on a scholarship to study teaching and my mum was a full-time mum, we didn’t have a lot of money.

We lived in a tiny cottage with an outdoor toilet, no hot water system, and a wood stove.

I had few toys and most of my interactions with the world were with either nature, like climbing trees or playing in a sand-pit, or the built environment of the farm, like climbing on sheds or over fences or even on ancient, rusting tractors.

I didn’t have much of a relationship with the outside world of commerce and business.

Like most in my generation, I had time to grow into my relationship with businesses and commerce.

But our kids don’t have that luxury.

They have iPads placed into their hands at a young age.

These miraculous devices are made by one of the largest and most disciplined corporations in the world, Apple.

Apple even has their own media empire, so your kids can be influenced in so many different ways.

And Apple is not alone.

Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Disney are all omnipresent in our children’s lives from an early age.

Is this OK?

Is even the concept of making profits OK?

Not all Christians would agree, but what does the Bible say?

Is Business OK?

Of course, ancient Jews and first century Christians did not have to deal with big businesses—their societies did not support such things.

So, instead of specific advice, we have to look for the principals that apply to this topic.

Things like the concept of private property.

If the Bible doesn’t encourage private property, then we should probably be advocating for a strongly socialist or perhaps communist society.

Interestingly, the Bible doesn’t merely advocate private property, it considers it so obvious that it simply assumes it, as in the eighth commandment:

Furthermore, it is clear that Jesus considers profit-making business a respectable activity.

In the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25, and it’s close relative, the parable of the minas in Luke 19, Jesus compares his disciples fruitful discipling activity to the process of running a business and making profits!

There is no hint that Jesus has any concerns about people making profits.

The rest of the Bible is consistent with this: the Biblical view is that there is nothing inherently wrong with profit-making business.

The problem of idolatry

The problem lies elsewhere.

Jesus doesn’t mince words when he warns us, in the sermon on the mount,

Any treasure here on earth, whether it be prestige, reputation, children, money, possessions, hobbies, legacies, or whatever, will steal our heart away from where it belongs: with God.

The problem is not with us possessing money, the problem is when money possesses us.

Idolatry and business

I had a very strange experience when I co-founded my first company.

Three of us started the company, with a fourth guy joining us just as we got going.

The other three guys were all non-Christians, and I wrestled mightily with Paul’s advice to the Corinthians:

I ended up saying, “Look, I can work for the company, but I can’t be an owner because of what the Bible is telling me (no offense).”

It seemed like a big sacrifice to make over a small issue, and I was rather torn.

As it happens, in California you don’t have to file ownership details for a startup until after twelve months.

When we came to talk about the situation again, twelve months later, a lot had changed.

The company had a set direction and management (which I was comfortable with), and I was simply investing in it, rather than joining a team of bosses.

Team vs investor or customer

The difference between being on a team and merely being an investor or even a customer is an important distinction in Scripture.

Being on a team requires a unity of purpose, and how can righteousness and wickedness share a unity of purpose?

That might sound harsh, but consider, for a moment, a company like Apple.

Apple makes great products.

Sure, I don’t like the way they lock you into their ecosystem, but for many people that lock-in is actually a benefit, because it adds reliability.

Because Apple makes great products, I probably wouldn’t even mind working for them as an employee.

But if you were to invest more of your soul into Apple, if you become a C level executive there, or, more likely, you defined your identity around Apple products, are Apple’s values compatible with Christ?

Apple talks a good talk, but it has taken substantial activist energy to force Apple to clean up their supply chain—for years they exploited Chinese labour.

Even now they take advantage of the vast disparity in living standards to reap a massive profit on every device, rather than sharing more with their suppliers.

This is directly in conflict the Biblical mandate to care for the poor:

Apple’s tax structure is also designed to enrich Apple’s owners at the expense of the people in the nations where Apple is taking advantage of their infrastructure to sell expensive products.

Apple is also a “pioneer” in planned obsolescence, a “feature” of modern electronics that ensures that customers have to buy a new device regularly as their old device becomes unusable.

Apple’s locked-down ecosystem allows them to exploit this gold-mine of repeat customers.

None of these things are compatible with Biblical ethics, and I’ve hardly scratched the surface of Apple’s greedy and exploitative practices.

Despite all this, I would not count Apple as particularly evil, as far as mega-corporations go.

Let’s not even talk about companies like Facebook, who conceal their own research revealing how their product harms children!

Storing up treasure

Now, we may not join the team of one of these companies, we’re just too small and irrelevant to them.

But we can give a company a dangerous place in our lives by spending so much time and energy on their products that they effectively become our treasures here on earth.

Social media, which is carefully designed to capture and keep our attention for as long as possible is a distressing example.

As are video apps, like Youtube or Tiktok.

Think about how much time you’ve spent scrolling through social media or watching clips over the last few days, and compare that to time spent meditating on the Bible.

Distressing, isn’t it?

For us as a church, it’s different again—when we use a company we are lending our name to it, much as a famous athlete does to a sponsor.

We need to think carefully about what companies we support with our business.

Now, we must recognise that we are in the world, as a church and as individuals.

This is a sinful world, but we are supposed to be in it, for its benefit (not ours).

That means that we can’t withdraw to subsistence farming.

Some Christians (such as the Amish) would argue otherwise, but the Bible clearly supports engagement with the world in all its sinfulness.

Therefore we must draw the line in two cases:

When we are in danger of storing our treasures in the world (that is, becoming enslaved by something)

When we are danger of associating Jesus’ name with something completely opposed to him.

Practical hints

How do we work this out in practice?

First, we need to understand Biblical ethics—it’s impossible to tell if a company is violating Biblical ethics if we don’t know our Bible.

In 2020 we did Practical Ethics in our Tuesday Night Bible Study for this sort of purpose.

If you want those materials, come have a chat with me.