Christian Businesses Can Show the Way Out of America’s Financial Peril

At a time when our nation’s government is incurring massive debt injecting taxpayer dollars into America’s failed financial markets and industries, we must ask the question—what has happened to us? There is an answer. America’s politicians, courts, entrepreneurs and financial leaders have spent decades ignoring the importance of morality and ethics, character traits that can only be sustained through an emphasis on Biblical values.

  Today’s Financial Peril

  The truth is that America’s financial markets and businesses are   nothing more than the sum of multiple individual decisions and transactions   in the marketplace. When these decisions and transactions are not made   based on old-fashioned Biblical values, the result is what we see in America   today. Add to this the decisions of politicians and judges who are not   relying on the Word of God, and social chaos and financial collapse become inevitable.

  Every individual business dealing or financial transaction has moral   implications that affect our entire culture. All parties have a moral   responsibility to deal fairly and honestly with each other. Remember the day   when a man’s word was his bond and business deals were routinely concluded with a handshake? What has changed? The answer is simple.We have become a less Christian, less ethical nation.

  If the cornerstone of religion and morality is lost in America, we can   expect increasing financial peril followed by our nation’s economic undoing.   When business and financial leaders, politicians and courts seek to be set   loose from all religious values, it is inevitable that they will become selfish   and greedy. Old-fashioned dishonesty sets in to replace Biblical values and the result is America’s current economic disaster.

  Our Founders’ Warnings

  America’s Founders were well aware of the human tendency toward   sin, greed, and corruption when they wrote our nation’s Constitution.   James   Madison commented on the basic sin nature of man in the Federalist Papers   when he wrote, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."  He   understood that sinful men require the restraint of government. But America’s   Founders also understood that the people must be responsible to see that government itself does not become corrupt.

  No free society or political system can survive if the culture as a   whole ceases to care about Biblical virtues. Our Founders based America’s   political system of justice and freedom on the Judeo-Christian religion. Our   current financial and cultural crisis is the direct result of turning away   from   these foundational Bible-based values. Moral relativism has become the   basis of American culture, leading to the demise of justice and honesty. Loss of freedom and economic chaos are the inevitable result of a culture seeking to banish God from its midst.

 
1. A Christian employer must obey the laws set forth by the   government.
    
     Rom. 13:1-2, 5
     Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no   power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever   therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they   that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. * * * Wherefore ye   must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience   sake.
    
     Titus 3:1
     Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey   magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
    
     1 Peter 2:13-14
     Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake:   whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them   that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise   of them that do well.
    
 
2. A Christian employer must obey the Golden Rule which requires   him to treat his employees and his customers the way he would   want to be treated.
    
     Matt. 7:12
     Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,   do ye even so to them.
    
     Luke 6:31
     And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them   likewise.
    
 
3. A Christian employer must treat his employees and customers   without prejudice or partiality.
    
     Deut. 16:19
     Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither   take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the   words of the righteous.
    
     Prov. 28:21
     To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that   man will transgress.
    
     Rom. 2:11
     For there is no respect of persons with God.
    
     Eph. 6:9
     And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing   threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is   there respect of persons with him.
    
     James 2:9
     But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of   the law as transgressors.
    
 
4. A Christian employer must be gentle, not harsh, with his   employees.
    
     Lev. 25:43, 46, 53
     Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
    
     Deut. 24:14
     Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy,   whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land   within thy gates:
    
     Mark 10:42-44
     But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they   which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over   them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall   it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be   your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be   servant of all.
    
     Eph. 6:9
     And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing   threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is   there respect of persons with him.
    
 
5. A Christian employer must be honest and conduct himself with   integrity.
    
     Rom. 12:17
     Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
    
     2 Cor. 8:21
     Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also   in the sight of men.
    
     Prov. 11:3
     The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of   transgressors shall destroy them.
    
 
6.     A Christian employer must pay his employees and serve his   customers timely.
    
     Leviticus 19:13
     Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of   him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
    
     Deut. 24:14-15
     Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy,   whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land   within thy gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall   the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it:   lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.
    
     Deut. 23:23
     That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; . . .
    
     Psalm 15:4
     He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.
    
     Jer. 22:13
     Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his   chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages,   and giveth him not for his work;
    
     Prov. 3: 27-28
     Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the   power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and   come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
    
     James 5:1, 3
     Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall   come upon you. * * * Behold, the hire of the labourers who have   reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth:   and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of   the Lord of Sabaoth.
    
     Col. 4:1
     Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing   that ye also have a Master in heaven.
    
     1 Tim. 5:18
     The labourer is worthy of his reward.
    
     Romans 4:4
     Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of   debt.

  Protect Your Freedom

  Christian businesses and employers still have a great deal of   freedom—more than they generally realize—to emphasize Biblical   principles in running their companies. If you have any questions, please     feel   free to contact the Christian Law Association for information about what     the   law continues to allow Christian businesses do in order to promote   Christianity and Biblical values in their business enterprises.

  The best way to fix today’s political, cultural, and economic problems   is to return to the values and ideals of our Founding Fathers, which means   returning to Biblical principles of ethics and virtue. John Adams properly   pointed out that America’s system of government can only be sustained     by   a   moral and religious people. If Americans cannot govern themselves from   within, government will impose order from without.   We are seeing in our own time what happens when the people and
  government turn away from religion, ethics, and morality. Our entire   economy teeters on the brink of collapse. Because the people have not   continued to shore up their freedom with religion and morality, a   government that is not following the Word of God is now attempting to   enforce order on a financial and business community that is also not   following the Word of God. While order may come, oppressive power will   be its weapon and freedom will be its victim.

  For America to remain a free and prosperous nation, individual   Americans must return to basic principles of ethics, honesty and Biblical   values—particularly in their business and financial dealings. America   needs   a spiritual revival. In the meantime, those Americans who already know the   God of the Bible need to show self-control in business as well as in other   areas of life.