“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
After reading these verses, you may be thinking, “What does this have to do with international business?” It has everything to do with business . . . and with life. In Matthew 22, Jesus summed up all the Law and Prophets (most of what we know as the Old Testament) by saying love God and love your neighbor. According to Jesus, this was the most important thing of all for us to do. In John 13, Jesus said that we as Christians should be recognized by our love for others.
Now if love was so important to Jesus, shouldn’t it be just as important to us as Christian business people? If those of us in business would conduct our business with love, just as we should treat others in every other area of our life, there would be fewer scandals in the news. Do you think those running Enron were acting out of love for anything other than money? Did they care about their customers, employees, stockholders, etc. or did they just want to make money? If we are acting out of love, we are likely to not take actions that will harm others.
As Christians, how would we have responded to the temptation the Enron decision makers faced?
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