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Book of the Month: Business for the Glory of God

In his book “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business,” Wayne Grudem sets out to take away some common misconceptions that the Christian community has about the world of business, namely changing the view of business from “evil” or “morally neutral” to seeing business as a means of glorifying God.

The way he does this is not by extolling the virtues that can be practiced in business, but by explaining how the attributes of business itself can glorify God. He has a list of these attributes:

  1. Ownership
  2. Productivity
  3. Employment
  4. Commercial transactions (buying and selling)
  5. Profit
  6. Money
  7. Inequality of possessions
  8. Competition
  9. Borrowing and lending

Grudem devotes an entire chapter to each of these practices and explains why each is a biblical concept that mimics God’s character and/or provides an opportunity to help others, thus bringing glory to God. At the end of each chapter, he also explains how the sin in this world has corrupted all of these, which is perhaps why people, especially Christians, can have such a negative view of business.

I appreciated Grudem’s abundant use of Scripture throughout the book. Some of the Scriptures that he cites often are Genesis 1:28 (specifically God’s call for us to subdue and have dominion over the earth), 1 John 3:17 and the Parable of the Minas from Matthew 25 and Luke 19. His use of the Word is quite extensive, quoting verses and passages from 36 books of the Bible.

One of his most interesting points to me was about God creating in us a need for the service of others in our lives. In his chapters on Productivity and Commercial Transactions, Grudem points out that our need for one another in business gives us the encouragement to love and care for people we may otherwise act hostile towards simply because of a difference of personality (pg. 27, 37-38).

Overall, this book would be good both for those who are in the trenches of the business world daily and even those who aren’t (like me). This book helped me understand business as a means to glorify God and also inspired me to encourage my husband in new ways as he heads into the business world every day.  “Business for the Glory of God” is also relatively short in length, making it great for a weekend read or an airplane ride.

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