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Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business
Book Review
Nathan Minor
Liberty University

The book that is under review is “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business” by Wayne Grudem. It is a useful resource for looking at business from different prospects. First off, it addresses a view on relationships between business and religion. Secondly, it shows how different philosophies connect. Lastly, Mr. Grudem does a great job nudging readers to look at a different perspective.
First I would like to start this review by mentioning the main ideas and points of this book. The author of “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business” proposes to the readers that business itself glorifies God when it is conducted in a way that imitates God’s character and creation. All elements of how a business operates like profit, money, competition, borrowing, should glorify God because they are reflective of God’s nature. In Business for the Glory of God, Wayne Grudem points out, “When people ask how their lives can ‘glorify God,’ they aren’t usually told, ‘Go into business.’” Yet business is where God calls many, if not most, Christians to serve him. Though they can repeat that familiar line from the Westminster Confession, “the chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever” (Peel 2015). What he is saying is few are encouraged to run their business for the sole purpose to glorify God. It is usually said that God glorifies you by giving you a successful business. What we should be doing is giving God all the glory for what he has blessed us with.
A main theme of Grudem’s book is that we need put God in the center of our work. This is an idea that I truly believe in and one of my favorite in the book. Every business produces goods whether that’s products, working places, or whatever else. Without a doubt, these activities are for the glory of God. So why is society accustomed to treat business and religion as antagonists? It is almost like the only way to make money in a business is to exploit someone. By the way the idea is expressed in author’s words: “Recent business scandals regarding dishonest and illegal activities by giant companies have made it more likely that people suspect that there must be something in business that inherently tends to wrongdoing. And so the idea of business comes under a dark cloud of suspicion” (Grudem, p.6). The book, “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business” reminds people that cheating is not a characteristic of business.
Wayne Grudem made quite detailed work in business elements, by addressing issues like competition, profit, money etc. He also wrote about commercial transactions. This idea is very important to not only the society but especially in Business. The main concept he was applying was exchange. According to economy, exchange is provision of goods or services and receiving goods or services in return. For a Christian activities of exchange cannot go against the standards of religious domain. Wayne Grudem explains this: “In most cases, voluntary commercial transactions benefit both parties. Buying and selling are activities unique to human beings out of all the creature that God made. We can imitate God’s attributes each time we buy and sell, if we practice honestly, faithfulness to our commitment, fairness, and freedom of choice” (Grudem, p.37-38). The main idea behind this quote is when exchanging it should bring good, and does not make any harm. We can go back and talk about cheating or fraud when talking about this issue. To many times we are cheated for no apparent reason except for the other party to gain. I love what Proverbs 19:1 has to say about cheating, “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool”.
As I went over before the main idea of Wayne Grudem’s “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business” is dedicated to putting God at the center of our work. It is important to understand that we need ethics, religion, morality, and laws in regards to running businesses. This same focus is traced in all of Grudem’s ideas. However, there is a point that can be argued. He talks about how some inequalities of possessions can be good and pleasing to God and that we should not think of all inequalities of possession as wrong, or evil. This point really bothered me because I just got back from a missions trip to Nicaragua. As I was there we talked a lot about this issue and how we are more fortunate than them. A majority of the group agreed that we or the United States have it a lot better than them and that’s just how it is. I was the only one who disagreed. I disagreed because I believe that some nations are more corrupt then others. Yes, it is just how it is and we do a great job of living with it, but that does not mean it is pleasing to God. The reason these 3rd world countries are so happy is because they aren’t blinded by the 1st world issues. With that being said I do believe that if we put God in the center of our work a lot of these issues would be gone. Wealth and possessions on earth mean nothing when we go to Heaven. I think that is a statement that plenty of people put back in their minds. It is actually said by “American theologian John B. Cobb that the "economism that rules the West and through it much of the East" is directly opposed to traditional Christian doctrine” (Phillips 2014).
An issue I observed that I want to quickly go over is Grudem’s failure to touch on how businesses can become a mission for God. He had so many great ideas about how businesses are failing without God, but what I want to know is how can we change this and make Businesses almost like an extension of the church. In my opinion it seems like the connection between businesses and churches should be miles apart. Business seek to gain revenue and grow while churches are meant to help others and bring them to God. After reading the article titled “Why can’t we run a business like a church” I realized there are some corresponding issues both deal with. One passage in the article states this: “Businesses deal with the same issues in people as the church does: motivation, communication, organization, vision, financial management, change, ethical decisions, how to control selfishness and self-interest (the flesh), and many other concerns. Businesses and the church have a great deal in common. So why not run a business like the church” (Lawrence 2011)? I think that is the question we should be asking. In society individuals spend so much of their lives at work even more then at church. With that being said it would be wise to bring the two together. The question is how and that is the big question many are trying to understand.
In conclusion, “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business” by Wayne Grudem is full of extremely valuable knowledge. In addition to tons of great ideas and perspectives, the author educated the readers on issues Businesses face. The book allows one to think about the true nature of business.
References
Grudem, W. (2003). Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business. Wheaton: IL: Crossway. ISBN: 978-1581345179.
Phillips, P. (2014, February 14). "Quality of Life", not "Standard of Living" Retrieved August 14, 2015. Peel, B. (2015, March 9). Honoring God through Business. Retrieved August 14, 2015.

Lawrence, B. (2011, May 23). 5. Why Cant We Run a Business like the Church? Retrieved August 14, 2015.

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