Principled business 1 - For our own restoration
- This page is part of an ERW course, Principles of economic restoration.
- By John Eagles, April 18, 2010
There exist many definitions for what is business, such as the buying and selling of goods, the amount of trade done, an enterprise or firm, work or responsibility. For many people doing business is equivalent to making money, getting wealthy. Let us try to gain a principled view on what business should be and how it should be conducted.
Because money represents the things of creation, can be exchanged for the things of creation, all business means that we relate to the things of creation. From a principled viewpoint, business is about human beings dealing with the things of creation.
What would be God's viewpoint concerning our dealing with the things of creation? It is not without good reason that we call the things 'the things of creation.' God created all things and we as human beings receive those things from God and we can use our creativity to make new and useful things. Parents give toys to their children. For what reason? From an external viewpoint these toys are for their play and pleasure. From an internal viewpoint, children develop themselves when they play with good toys, such as toy bricks. They learn to use their hands and eyes, their mind develops, they learn many principles of how things work.
God looking at us must enjoy it when we learn to be creative with the things of creation, when we make things that improve our environment and that give joy to people around us.
God as our Heavenly Parent gave to us the world of creation so we can learn to be creative like God. By being creative we develop ourselves in a good way. In a family the father might build a house and the mother might decorate the house. It's all given freely to the children and everyone is happy, most of all those who did the creative work.
In the world in that we are living, things usually don't work that way. There are many people around who are on the lookout to steal and take advantage of us. Furthermore, fallen people have often lost much of their creativity and even forgot the desire to be creative. While little children still have their original creativity, many of us who grow older don't find gratification anymore in being creative.
Would not God want that we gain back the original desire to be creative? Would not God want us to be giving all the time and share with others? Would not God wish us to learn to trust other people, even if we got deceived and hurt many times?
When we do business, we come to understand that we ourselves are the center of it. Like our body is an expression of our mind, and like the house we live in becomes an expression of how we live, so our business is an extension of ourselves. To set up a good and principled business, we must restore ourselves in the process of setting up and expanding our business.
When we consider business to be like that, many questions arise. What is the meaning of money? How can we do business in such a way that we restore ourselves? Is it wrong to make profit? How must we offer our business and its results to God? These questions and many more will be written about in upcoming articles of 'Principled business.'
