God's Curse On The Marketplace
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. it will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground. Genesis 3: 17-19
It is hard to imagine the perfect world that could have been if sin had not entered. Imagine a world of commerce where all products and people were perfect. Our world is a world of some good without a doubt. but it is also full of greed, corruption, and selfishness. A world that is possessed with power, possessions and pride. It is a world of defective products and irritable customers. It is a world of thorns and thistles.
In God's original plan, man would work along side of God in a perfect loving relationship. But now these thorns hurt as they prick our lives. It is also sometimes hard to imagine how God could allow these thorns to enter our lives and cause so much hurt and trouble. What we need to remember is that the loving relationship that we had with God was broken by man. Therefore, we need a way back to God. If the thorns and thistles did not hurt, we would have no motivation to come back to a loving father. I believe if we had the original market place, our main purpose would be to bring glory and honor to God. But, on the other hand, I also believe that we may not be able to completely appreciate the grace of God until we understand the magnitude of our sin.
For many the market place has become a habitat for us to seek the ways of the world rather than the ways of God. But it's primary purpose is to be a place where we can seek God and do our best to glorify Him in all we do. Although God has called some people out of the marketplace to bring people to Him, He also has called those remaining in the marketplace to serve Him. The word of God is just as applicable to business as it is to any other area of our lives. Therefore, there is no such thing as church is church and business is business.
2 Corinthians 5: 18 tells us that God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. I believe God wants us to use our business to do just that. After all, it was God who created the marketplace, bought us, and therefore OWNS all we have. Everything is to fulfill the purpose of giving honor and glory to God and bringing people into that loving relationship with Him. Do we let our pride, our desire for power, or to hold on to our possessions cause us to fail to accept this? Even though God has told us there will be thorns and thistles in our marketplace garden, these same thorns and thistles can be in a garden full of beautiful and bright roses.
