What Does Love Have To Do With Business - Loves Behavior
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain deceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2: 3
Love is not rude. There is an old song recorded many years ago titled, "It is hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way." Sometimes we run into people who try to live out this song. The verse in Philippians tells us that without humility we cannot place others before ourselves. Rudeness shows up as a result of how we view ourselves and other people. If we are more concerned about ourselves, we may be constantly criticizing those around us who we fear as competition to the high place in which we have placed ourselves. Later in verse six of this passage, Paul states that even though Jesus was equal to God, He took on the nature of a servant. When we consider the interest of others before our own, we do not tare them down, but make a consistent effort to build them up.
I have a friend I will call Sam who undertook a new business venture. The new business required that Sam seek investors and a major partner before he could launch the operation. With much diligence, he was able to bring in several good investors and a Christian partner. The business began operations and was a successful venture from the start. Every thing seemed to be running smoothly until Sam began to get reports of his partner being rude to the employees and other investors. Sam addressed the issue with his partner only to received the same rudeness. He finally decided to ask his partner to resign. His rudeness towards others was not only destroying the business, but the testimony and reputation of Sam.
Love is not self seeking. Our culture is constantly teaching us to look out for ourselves first. The marketplace is heavily impacted with books and seminars on self improvement and being number one. All this is fine if kept in the right perspective. What we see in the passage in 1Corinthians is that without love, it is all about ourselves. Love separates us from the secular world and the world Jesus represents. As His disciples, our efforts in anything we do should be generated out of love for the other person. Anyone can do good things as a result of learning from a book or seminar. Anyone can even do good things from what he believes is a good sense of purpose. But only a committed follower of Christ can do good things out of a heart that is led by the Spirit and filled with love.
People who are rude and self seeking generally are people who live in fear. They live in the fear of not being number one. Acceptance of ones self resides on being better than those around us. We fear loosing that position. We also live in the fear of not being self sufficient. Our whole world revolves around what we can provide for ourselves. We rely on what we can produce from our own efforts in order to sustain, satisfy, and secure ourselves. When others come into play, we simply use them to get what we want.
Rude and self seeking people live also in the fear of never being able to have enough, they are discontented people. There is that ever present yearning for more, more, and more. Nothing, and no amount, seems to bring the contentment they need. Because of this unsettledness in their heart, they attack others and lift themselves up. This unsettledness drives them to the lie that it can only be resolved by gaining more in possessions, power, and pride in life. And the marketplace is where it feeds itself.
Jesus offers the answer if we would only seek Him and trust Him to give us our completeness. We must submit our hearts, minds, and our souls to Him. His love will fill every void in our life and our response will be to let that same love flow freely to all around. The more of God, the less rudeness. The less of God the more rudeness. When we are content with who we are, then we will want to uplift others with love, patience, and kindness.
