Unearned Guilt and Shame Will Keep You From Helping People in Your Business

Work, Wealth, and Worship

I’m a pastor and a writer.

But lately, I’ve found myself more and more passionate about something that surprises even me: the power of business to build for the Kingdom of God.

Why?

How does making all this filthy lucre translate into glorifying God or even spreading the Gospel?

Let’s unpack that. My hope is that by the end, you’ll feel better about the work God has given you to do, which will in turn lead to success. 

First, a disclaimer:

Work and money can become idols. They can steal our affection from the Giver of all good things. 

But used rightly, they can also become sacred tools of love and stewardship.

So let’s start at the beginning with some propositions, that is, some truth bombs. 

A Theology of Work and Trade

1. We are created by God.
   
   
2. We have a nature and needs that come with that nature.
   
   
3. Those needs include eating, loving, reproducing, making meaning, and transcending in worship.
   
   
4. Eating (and sheltering from things like storms, tigers, and cancer) is essential and it takes action.
   
   
5. Every action has a reason behind it (whether you realize it or not, or whether the reason is a good one).
   
   
6. Life is sacred, so staying alive is one of the best reasons for any action.
   
   
7. Which means we have to eat.
   
   
8. Which means we have to act to gain and keep food.
   
   
9. We can do this alone or we can do it together.
   
   
10. One way we do it together is through sharing. Beautiful.
    
    
11. Another way is through trade. Also beautiful.
    
    

Why? Because trade, the division of labor, allows me to find work I actually enjoy instead of trying to do everything myself.

As an image bearer of God, I’ve been given the mental and creative capacity to find that work, to grow in skill, and to produce something of value.

And when I do that, I can provide for my wife and our children. (That’s our particular arrangement; this isn’t a statement against women working.)

But it goes deeper.

As an image bearer, I am wired to build, to provide, to create, to bring order and beauty into the world. When I trade value for value with others doing the same, it’s not just business. It’s cooperation. It’s love in motion.

How Business Becomes Love

Let’s park there for a minute.

How is business, what we’re describing here, loving and generous?

Here’s how I see it.

If I love the world, I want to help Christian writers spread their messages across the earth. So I offer my services. I charge for them because it’s my livelihood, but my heart’s goal is that they make far more from their books than I ever do helping them.

If my client makes a million dollars from something I helped them publish for ten thousand, I’m thrilled. I praise God for their success. Because when they succeed, truth spreads. The Gospel goes further. People hear.

That’s love through business.

What About Everyone Else?

Now, what if your business isn’t “Christian”?

It still applies.

If you’re a plumber, how valuable are you to the family whose basement just flooded at midnight?

If you’re a doctor, how precious is your work when you help heal someone’s loved one?

If you’re a cashier who smiles as she hands a couple their coffee on their very first date, who knows what story you just helped begin?

The Kingdom runs on a million small acts of service that look ordinary but are deeply sacred.

When Business Goes Bad

Of course, not everyone does business in love.

Some exploit, deceive, or manipulate.

God has strong words for that.

Proverbs 21:6 – “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.”

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Habakkuk 2:6–9 – “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own…”

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Ezekiel 34:2–4 – “Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves… The weak you have not strengthened.”

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Jeremiah 23:1–2 – “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture.”

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Micah 3:11 – “Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money…”

Human rights mean men and women are equal, and their property rights are sacred.

When trade respects that, capitalism, true capitalism, is beautiful.

When it corrupts those principles, it ceases to be capitalism at all.

Work as Worship

Generosity and giving are holy. God commands them.

But generosity is possible only because of labor.

Work is the foundation of provision, shelter, creativity, and meaning.

One of my life’s goals as a pastor and Christian entrepreneur is to help people slough off unearned guilt and shame. We do sin sometimes, and when we do, we must repent.

But being successful in honest trade is not one of those sins.

So may you go out and build.

May you make a fortune making the world better.

And may you see your business as an instrument of God’s common grace to mankind.

Reflect

Take a moment this week to look at your work through new eyes.

Ask yourself:

• How does my daily labor serve others as an act of love?
  
  
• Where can I make my business a clearer reflection of God’s order, creativity, and generosity?
  
  
• And where might I need to repent of fear, greed, or shame so that I can work freely as a son or daughter of the King?
  
  

The Kingdom of God is not just advanced in pulpits and pews. It is also advanced in boardrooms, on job sites, and behind coffee counters.

You are a priest in that sacred space.

Pray for me to go and do business in His name, and I’ll pray for you too. 

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Jeff B. Miller

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