The Executive Calling

Christian Standards
by Roger Andersen

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:11 (emphasis added)

As Christians, we are held to a very high standard – that God will be praised and glorified in all things that we do! The Matthew Henry Complete Bible Commentary makes these remarks about 1 Peter 4:11:

Christians must not only do the duty of their place, but they must do it with vigour, and according to the best of their abilities. The nature of a Christian’s work, which is high work and hard work, the goodness and kindness of the Master, and the excellency of the reward, all require that our endeavours should be serious and vigorous, and that whatever we are called to do for the honour of God and the good of others we should do it with all our might.

When we are called to glorify God in all things that we do, this especially includes our jobs. The Christian standard should be very high. The Apostle Paul, in Colossians 3:23, says:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

As working for the Lord! In what we do for the Lord, our standard is both righteousness and excellence. These are the two standards by which we should hold ourselves accountable in all that we do. How are Christians perceived against these two measures? Do we emphasize competence as much as righteousness? After all, God is both righteous and excellent!

Righteousness
In my recent book, The Executive Calling: Corporate Success without Selling Your Soul, I did a survey with business executives, both Christian and non-Christian. From a list of seventeen leadership qualities, I asked them to decide which are perceived as being most prevalent among Christians, as well as those that are least prevalent.

The top qualities selected by the survey panel were generosity, a spirit of servanthood, character, integrity and a positive attitude. These are quite parallel to the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. According to the survey panel, Christians are generally perceived to exhibit a higher standard of righteousness. As Christians, we expect that from each other.

I think that’s right. Although we fall far short of God’s perfect goodness, in general, we strive for, and achieve, higher standards of integrity, honesty, kindness, charity and love than the secular world.

Excellence
But what about the attributes of excellence, competence and performance? In this same survey, some of the lowest ranking qualities perceived in Christians included initiative, decisiveness, problem-solving skills and competence. In The Executive Calling I attempt to provide some explanations for this perception but for now, suffice it to say that there is a perception among many non-believers that Christians have a lower level of excellence and competency.

Some of you may have heard the joke about a supervisor in a Christian ministry who became very frustrated with the performance of one if his employees. He sat down with him and said, “Don’t you know that this type of performance wouldn’t be tolerated in the business world?” The employee smiled and replied, “Yes sir, that’s why I work here!”

Dennis Peacocke, in Doing Business God’s Way, wrote:

When you hire [a Christian], you should tell him right up front: “I’m going to require more from you, not less, because you are a believer. If you don’t measure up, I’ll terminate you faster than I would if you were unsaved.

That’s a strong position, but I think it is correct. We should hold each other to a higher standard of accountability in our work, as well as our integrity and morality.

The whole point about having just as high competency standards as moral standards is that the world looks to us as models that reflect the image of God. Most non-believers will acknowledge that Christians are honest, ethical, compassionate and well intended but many new secularists try to stereotype Christians as less competent or less effective than the secular community. If Christians are perceived as being less able to run things, then how could a non-believer accept that our God is all-knowing and all-powerful? Indeed, a non-believer might wonder, “Based on the way Christians manage things on earth, why would I believe that heaven is going to be so good? There won’t be any of us to make sure things work well.”

I’ll bet that Christ was an outstanding carpenter! It’s impossible to believe that the person who created the heavens and the earth practiced poor craftsmanship. I’m sure that His tables and chairs were well made, completed on time, and exceeded all of His customer’s expectations.

I’d also bet that Paul made the best tents. He must have had a great reputation in order to show up in various cities and immediately start a business that was prosperous enough to support him. I seriously doubt that he went off to preach the gospel when he was running late on finishing his customer orders. In fact, he scolded his fellow Christians when he said in 1 Corinthians 9:6, “Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?” If his work was poor, would people have listened to him talk in the marketplace about the perfect God, or would they have shouted him down in derision? You know the answer. He would have had no credibility to preach about the God who works, who made heaven and earth and then said, “…it was good.”¹

Luke 10:27 says that we should:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.

We should glorify Him not only by showing a righteous heart, but just as much, with our strength and mind. Let it be our goal for people to think of Christians as a model for hard work, diligence, skill, and good service. Let us start holding each other accountable to such standards as much as we do to the standards of righteousness. Only then can we be the beacon that attracts others to Christ.

¹ Note – I also object to this on the grounds that all of us should be doing God’s work, whether in a religious organization or in a vocation in the marketplace. There is no logic to suggest that Christians should make less than others in the marketplace, nor is there logic for paying people less than “market” in the ministry world. Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31

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