Business for the Glory of God Book Review
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Schertrenna Le Veaux
Business 301
Professor Cowan
Business for the Glory of God Book Review
Business for the Glory of God has a lot to offer for a book that has a total of 96 pages including the notes and indexes. In this work, Dr. Grudem enlightens the reader on what the Bible teaches concerning the moral goodness of business. Business for the Glory of God has a wealth of information for Christians that are interested in starting their own business or for those that doubt that it is possible to be a devoted Christian and a business person at the same time. The business World is also a part of Gods World. This book will provoke thought.
The author Wayne Grudem looks at 11 aspects of business activity. In each he takes the reader to Scripture and shows how the practice has Biblical foundations. Then, he shows how each can be used for or against Gods glory:
Ownership
Productivity
Employment
Commercial Transactions
Profit
Money
Inequality of processions
Competition and
Borrowing and lending.
Attitude of heart
Effect on world poverty
The author covers the topic of ownership. He mentions that what we own is a reflection of how God takes care of the universe. What we own is not untimely ours. We should give away things that we own and not be selfish but share. We do not have to give everything we have and it is acceptable to save for later use. The down fall of ownership of possessions is that it sometimes leads to malice behavior. He mentioned an unfamiliar term “materialism” which is means to use possessions foolishly.
Productivity gives us the chance to praise God. In the process of production we would have many chances to glorify God. Productive work should not be considered as something bad but something good. One point the author brought up was the bible does not view positively the idea of someone retiring early. The downfall of productivity is there are temptations to produce goods that are not beneficial for Monterey gain.
Employment is something that is necessary. Employee and employer relationship provides many opportunities for glorifying God. If someone is working for someone the benefit for the employer is to make a profit and probably increase production and for the employee is to make money. However, employers can mistreat their employees. Also some employees have temptation to do what is considered unethical in the work place. Grudem maintains, “The Bible does not view it as evil for one person to hire another person and gain profit from that persons work” (31). The Bible teaches that employer-employee relationships are a good and are mutually beneficial (Luke 3:14; 10:7; 1 Tim. 6:2).
Commercial Transaction Buying and selling is what distinguishes us from the animal kingdom. I think this is not a valid point we as human beings are aware that we are different from the animal kingdom. We can intimate God attributes each time we buy and sell if we practice honesty. The negative aspect of it is we can engage in dishonestly by selling items with defeats which would not be beneficial to the consumer.
Profit is an indication that we made something useful. Profit covers the earning and the labor to produce the material. Sometimes the profit will only cover what was needed for production. I agree with the author about, there are some that try to take advantage of consumers by providing an item that is not beneficial to them just to make a profit. There are some business professionals who make their profit from selling items that could harm the buyer or maybe sale items that have some kind of defect