The Nature of Business

When approaching the subject of business, we need to consider that all Christian living comes from the fellowship (koinonia) of the cross. Our fellowship in the cross is the point where we are participating in Christ’s sufferings. For this to be reality for us, this way of living needs to be evident in every aspect of our Christian lives. Even the everyday, mundane aspects of life can be a faithful participation in this process of ‘laying life down’. This is putting another before ourselves and giving freely. At this point it can be said of our lives that ‘Christ is all and in all’. If this is so, then a Christian business is also part of that same fellowship of the cross. This is the only way of understanding the nature of Christian business.

If someone’s business is part of the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, their chosen culture in the home, church and business, is one which ‘lays life down’ in order to reveal another. Through participating in the cross they will have rejected the laws and principles by which many businessmen operate, where grace is misappropriated to self-centered goals. Instead, they will be committed to the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, where they find resurrection life. It is here they will bring forth fruitfulness in the grace and power of God.

A Christian person cannot run a business by a system of business principles, goals, and methods (laws) by which they seek to guarantee success. Financial prosperity is not the indicator by which the Lord measures success. Rather, the Lord’s focus is to exemplify Christian culture through the business. A Christian businessman with his business is first of all a participant in the koinonia of the cross. The fellowship of the cross is then expressed in every aspect of their life, including their business, as part of their calling in the will of God. This fellowship will be expressed in their business culture, goals and methods. It will be exemplified through the manner in which they train apprentices, and in the way they lay down their life as a disciple of Christ in employer/employee relationships.

The word of the cross comes daily and calls us into the fellowship of the Son. Here, as we are in His name, we are immersed into relationship with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this way we live in the Name. Therefore we live in the way of the cross. We live by the Lord’s word as sons of the Father and disciples of Christ, sanctified and led by the Holy Spirit. The authority of a person’s identity, grace and administration is known in the laying down of their life and in their calling to righteousness. This includes their calling to business. It is here, in the fellowship of the cross, they can know fruitfulness.

Victor Hall

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Feature Articles
May 2008

Marvellous Faith

The Living Song

Present Truth

The Faith of Abraham

Wisdom and Folly

The Valley of Baca

The Nature of Business

Willing Obedience

Light to the Nations